Challenges for Inclusive Organizational Behavior (IOB) in Terms of Supporting the Employment of People with Disabilities by Enhancing Remote Working

Abstract

People with disabilities are at a higher risk of loss of work, salary, independence, and thus economic self-sufficiency. The research focuses on the possibilities of implementing the inclusive organizational behavior (IOB) concept in terms of increasing employment of people with disabilities by increasing the scope of remote working for people from this group. The research concerns two aspects related to the challenges for IOB in this area: examining the factors on the side of the employee with special emphasis on features that are important from the perspective of performing remote work, and showing the significance and importance of IOB as an element for narrowing the disability employment gap (DEG) and increasing the inclusion of people with disabilities through their employment (including remote employment). The study uses a macroeconomic approach and was carried out on a macro scale using aggregated data for European Union countries. The regression analysis method (multiple linear regression) was used in the research. The results of the research confirmed the different predictors (in the group of examined factors) of the employment rate in groups of persons with and without a disability. In the first stage of the research, significant predictor was found for the employment rate among the group of factors on the side of the employee that influence the remote work of people with a disability—this was the basic or above basic overall digital skills. However, in the group of people without a disability the predictor was found to be the level of education. Expanding the set of previous factors to the disability employment gap in the second stage of the research changed the significant predictor of the employment rate in the group of people with a disability, but did not change the predictor in the group of people without a disability. In the second stage, the significant predictor of the employment rate proved to be the disability employment gap (among others influenced by inclusive organizational behavior) in the case of people with a disability, and—similarly to the first stage – level of education in the case of people without a disability.