Insights into Creating and Managing an Inclusive Neurodiverse Workplace for Positive Outcomes: A Multistaged Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Neurodiversity has historically been dismissed and undervalued in management and organizational studies literature. In recent times, there has been a recognition in practitioner forums about the benefits associated with neurodiversity, triggering recruitment drives to hire neurodivergent individuals. However, lack of theoretical frameworks and empirical research on workplace neurodiversity is undermining practice. We address this gap by presenting a multistage theoretical framework of managing neurodiversity premised on (a) creating a neurodiverse workplace through reconfiguring recruitment and selection; (b) fostering an inclusive workplace through careful implementation of development and engagement practices and management of perceptions of reverse discrimination; and (c) capitalizing on the benefits of an inclusive workplace, enhanced by equitable supervision, to achieve improved employee and organizational outcomes. This paper enriches the literature on managing workplace neurodiversity by offering deeper insights into barriers to employment, inclusion in the workplace, and positive outcomes of employment. Our proposed framework, derived by an integration of theories, will help managers effectively manage neurodiversity in the workplace, addressing the associated challenges. Finally, this paper lays a foundation for future research to advance knowledge on managing neurodiversity in organizations.

Commentary on “Diversity and inclusion policies in publicly traded New Zealand companies: inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities”

“…These include asking questions; accelerating the provision of unbiased training for all employees; “putting together in-house performance management guidelines for managers”, which help to ameliorate the potential negative impact of the ambiguity of notions like “reasonable adjustments” in legislation like The Equality Act; setting up disability networks to signpost whom employees can talk to; as well as pointing to the presence of organisations which support private and public sector organisations to introduce disabled employee groups; and efforts to surpass “tick-box disability policy” (Dobinson, 2013). Meanwhile, scholarly literature addresses how inclusive workplaces can be fostered (Khan et al , 2022).…”

Riddle Me This: What Do the Working Class, Workplace Mavericks, and Neurodiverse Employees Have in Common? They are GOM’s 2022 Best Papers!

“…I think I can speak for our entire editorial team when saying that we were extremely impressed by the conceptual rigor, timely nature, and practical importance of Hameed Khan and colleagues’ (2022) work on managing neurodivergent individuals. Our community of GOMmers appeared to agree with our positive assessment, as this was another highly read article (and I noticed that several currently submitted manuscripts are already citing this framework).…”

“…(2) conceptual (Khan et al, 2022) and empirical (Kessler &Gutworth, 2022;Jordan et al, 2022) articles; and (3) quantitative (Kessler & Gutworth, 2022) and qualitative (Jordan et al, 2022) methods. We believe that these 2022 articles offered the type of theoretical, conceptual, and/or empirical contributions to the literature that most warranted a "Best Paper" award.…”

“…This year’s three articles selected by GOM ’s editorial leadership for special recognition as the 2022 Best Quantitative Paper (Kessler & Gutworth, 2022), 2022 Best Qualitative Paper (Jordan et al, 2022), and the 2022 Best Conceptual Paper (Khan et al, 2022) once more demonstrate GOM ’s ability and success in achieving our mission statement. Indeed, our 2022 Best Papers reflect GOM ’s openness to (1) micro- (Jordan et al, 2022) and macro-research with a touch of micro-level research to it as well (Kessler & Gutworth, 2022); (2) conceptual (Khan et al, 2022) and empirical (Kessler & Gutworth, 2022; Jordan et al, 2022) articles; and (3) quantitative (Kessler & Gutworth, 2022) and qualitative (Jordan et al, 2022) methods. We believe that these 2022 articles offered the type of theoretical, conceptual, and/or empirical contributions to the literature that most warranted a “Best Paper” award.…”

An exploratory study of benefits and challenges of neurodivergent employees: roles of knowing neurodivergents and neurodiversity practices

“…The same argument can be applied to neurodiversity: as neurodiversity encompasses a wide array of differences in cognitive functioning (Doyle and McDowall, 2021), organizations may benefit from hiring employees that represent these different patterns. Thus, the unique characteristics of neurodivergent employees can make important contributions, especially if competitor organizations fail to recognize their potential (Khan et al, 2022;Szulc et al, 2021).…”