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Employers' attitudes to the employment of people with mental handicaps: an empirical study
Author(s) -
Harrison Barbara,
Tomes Anne
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
mental handicap research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 0952-9608
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3148.1990.tb00036.x
Subject(s) - perception , loyalty , psychology , empirical research , marketing , business , public relations , political science , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience
Supported employment services for people with mental handicaps are being developed in many parts of the country. These aim to provide them with the levels of job‐finding assistance, training, and support required to enter and remain in employment. Finding jobs is crucial to the success of these ventures. This study examines the problem of marketing the labour of people with mental handicaps to employers. The research is based on interviews with 57 employers in Sheffield. It investigates the attitudes, perceptions, and practices of employers in relation to the employment of people with mental handicaps. The findings show that the label “mental handicap” is not always understood accurately by employers. It often communicates negative images. Several concepts were found to underlie employers' perceptions of their employees. People with mental handicaps were expected to perform better than their non‐handicapped counterparts on four of these: job satisfaction, genuineness, grafting, and loyalty; but less well on productive capacity, supervision and risk, and learning capacity. The results indicate that small organisations with a low rate of recruitment are the most sympathetic employer groups. The survey also showed that problems envisaged by employers with no experience of employing people with mental handicaps were not reported by those experienced in doing so, especially with respect to safety and co‐worker acceptance. The findings will be used to develop a more effective marketing strategy for the supported employment services organisation, Intowork, which is based in Sheffield.