Capability Enhancement of People with Disability Through Leadership-driven CARE

Abstract

This article aims to explore the conditions of people with disability (PwD) integration through the analysis of best practices of a successful Indian company that has adopted a singular PwD involvement policy since it was started. Our research question can be stated as follows: ‘What enablers or factors helped Vindhya in the successful inclusion of PwDs and simultaneously achieve commercial success?’ An exploratory study consisting of data triangulation of secondary data and in-depth interviews was done to get a detailed and deep understanding of the company’s successful inclusion of disabled employees. We found that a transformational leadership style prevents prejudice and expands the horizon of PwD’s capability. This is concretely implemented through a set of organizational practices involving communication, ambience, relationships, empathy, ethics and other aspects that are highlighted in this article. We briefly call the overall approach of the company ‘CARE’ (Communication, Ambience, Respect/Relatedness with employees/Recruitment, Ethics/Empathy/Enthusiasm/Engagement). The adoption of CARE-organizational practices at the studied company increased the capability set of PwDs, enhanced organizational citizenship behaviour and, as a whole, improved the organizational performance.