Workplace Integration Through Disability Management

Fig. 4.1

Profile of professional functions in disability management

The comprehensive approach of disability management can be classified as a concept, which is oriented towards the principle of labour market participation. A concept is a coherent model for action, which brings aims, contents, methods and procedures in a meaningful relationship that is reasonable and justified. For disability management, important elements include techniques, procedures, methods and instruments, which are applied to reach successful labour market integration. The ICF can be seen as a basic instrument in disability management, which contributes to a better understanding of the employee’s functioning on the basis of a bio-psycho-social model.

4.4 Challenges in Disability Management

Disability management is a concept in labour market integration based on the assumption that workplace integration can only be secured or restored by focusing equally on social, work and health integration. Therefore, challenges in disability management can be identified on different levels: (1) target groups, (2) organisations/institutions and (3) disability management practitioners.

A look at the challenges on the level of target groups shows that workers with mental health problems dominate in the debate, followed by migrant workers and the group of older workers. All three pose new challenges for disability management, because these new target groups challenge the assumption that health is only a medical issue. Here it becomes obvious that health problems within the three groups significantly involve aspects of the social conditions and relations individuals live in and work under. Approaches to find solutions for health problems and to solve problems in the workplace focus to a great extent on the individual and his/her social relations, geared towards better understanding the specific situation an individual is dealing with, and the person’s positioning and interactions within the community and broader society.

Organisations and institutions are challenged by these recent developments as well. Management in particular has a responsibility to protect and support workers. For management and workers as well, further education programmes help to deal with the new challenges that organisations and institutions face, for example, with an ageing workforce. However, there is also a need to focus on the new challenges not only within human resource management (HR) but also by identifying the need for organisational change and development, e.g. by a change and redefinition of work processes.

Disability management can give support here and contribute to organisational development by the transfer of knowledge gained in casework to an organisational level. However, disability management can only contribute successfully to organisational learning and development if disability management and disability management practitioners have sufficient professional knowledge and competence, experience and concrete knowledge regarding methods, especially in the case of documentation and evaluation, and in organisational development itself as well.

Given these challenges, the orientation of disability management is directed towards the promotion of individual learning processes on the level of casework, of organisational learning processes on the organisational/institutional level and of professional learning processes on the level of the disability management practitioners.

4.5 Conclusion

Disability management is a complex and comprehensive approach to help enhance workplace integration. The worker and the workplace are the focus of disability management. On the one hand, disability management as a professional practice seeks to prevent workers from incurring disabilities, to support workers in workplace integration after severe illness or accident and to improve health integration in the company through organisational change. On the other, disability management endeavours to support people with disability and the unemployed in their attempts to return to the labour market. Labour market integration and gainful employment are important factors in modern societies for full social participation and for healthful well-being. Therefore, processes to keep workers with disabilities at work or to bring those unemployed back to work are important not only for individual well-being but for the society as well. The success of disability management is highly dependent on the knowledge and abilities of a disability management practitioner, not only in connection with case management but for contributing to organisational development as well.

Disability management is a complex and comprehensive approach to help enhance workplace integration. The worker and the workplace are the focus of disability management.

Study Questions

Labour market participation is seen as highly important in modern societies; what arguments can be found for that position?