Disability Employment in the Hospitality Industry: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The hospitality industry employs people with disabilities; however, as an emerging research area, little is known about the antecedents, experience, and consequences of disability employment in the sector. To address this gap, this article provides a systematic literature review of the peer-reviewed literature to improve the understanding of the employment of people with disability in the hospitality sector. This review analyzes papers published between 1990 and 2021 reporting on organizational programs established to increase the recruitment and retention of employees with disabilities. This resulted in 36 papers for systematic review analysis and answers three essential questions regarding employer initiatives to promote the employment of people with disabilities, barriers and facilitators to the employment of people with disabilities, and benefits and challenges of employing people with disabilities in the hospitality sector. Our review provides a conceptual framework that integrates the present body of literature. This review also identifies a future research agenda for the future study of disability employment in hospitality organizations by outlining five gaps in the literature, which include theoretical rigor, expansion of disability employment research scope, country context, methodological improvement, and disability diversity management.