Search results

Examines the role of “sheltered employment” within the macro‐economic labour market. Assesses the extent to which sheltered employment is an end in itself forming a “road block” for people with disabilities. Goes on to suggest ways in which the system of sheltered employment might be modified to form a set of agencies with the key objective of facilitating the successful “transition” of people with disabilities from “sheltered” into “open” employment.

The sector of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) has grown considerably all across Europe during the last few decades. Unfortunately, many governments do not have a clear sight on the profile of WISEs they are supporting. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed profile of WISEs in Flanders and identify shifts and differences within and between WISE work forms.

Data are utilized from a newly designed monitoring instrument to capture the profile of WISEs in Flanders (Belgium). This paper discusses some methodological issues in using administrative data to monitor this sector, and present a profile at the enterprise level and at the worker level. Parametric and nonparametric tests are applied to assess the significance of profile shifts and differences within this sector.

One of the dominant features of the analysis has been the identification of profound differences that can be observed between the work forms and the slighter differences that are observed within the work forms while comparing start‐ups to their mature counterparts. Therefore, it might be concluded that the policy framework on the social insertion economy as it currently exists in Flanders has a strong regulative impact on the WISEs in Flanders. This impact translates itself through differences in the profile of enterprises, as well as differences in the profile of the target group workers they employ.

A dataset combining administrative data are created to estimate enterprise and target group worker profiles in this sector. The discussion on methodological aspects involved contributes to the literature on monitoring this sector.

This paper aims to contribute to prior gender-based conceptual models within organisational and management studies by incorporating an additional lens of disability. The authors present a context specific and embodied based model that we call the “two-way mirror effect” which accounts for the environmental and discursive effects of gender and disability within the workplace.

The paper reviews existing literature on gender, disability and employment and uses that literature to construct and support the concept of a two-way mirror effect.

By drawing on organisation and management-based studies, the authors have shown how previous models do not currently account for the experiences of disabled women within the workplace. Disabled workers, and especially disabled women face a myriad of unique barriers, including masculine and able-bodied employment practices (e.g. performative expectations) and exclusionary physical spaces (e.g. access, location to required facilities), that exclude them from full employment participation.

The review of existing literature and conceptual models reveal the gaps in research that academics and practitioners can build upon and the paper identifies the dominant norms that are embedded within organisational practices, which can be challenged to promote inclusion and equality.

The authors present a new intersectional-based conceptual model to fill a gap in organisational and management-based studies that accounts for the unique employment experiences of disabled employees, specifically disabled women.

The city of Prague has become a popular tourist attraction in recent years, and many people will also recall the disastrous floods that submerged part of the city in the summer of 2002. There is another story that is worth telling: the history of Fokus and its mental health work that has burgeoned since the Velvet Revolution of 1989. People at Fokus seem to have an insatiable appetite for development and are constantly learning, adapting and innovating. Here, Pavel Novák and Kateřina Lintymerová describe some of the progress that has been made over the past two years, and take time to reflect on what they have learned.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of social enterprise as a strategy for poverty reduction for women.

A literature synthesis on the topic was conducted and patterns, linkages and gaps were examined among key themes to identify how social enterprise can potentially serve as a poverty reduction strategy for women.

The paper presents the findings in terms of specific factors contributing to women’s poverty and hypothesizes mechanisms through which social enterprises can mitigate or address these factors in practice. The paper organizes these findings in an integrative framework that highlights the need to ensure a solid policy foundation is in place before a number of key support mechanisms are enabled, which then facilitate specific types of work that can then grow in a sustainable manner.

While the mechanisms and proposed framework are based on the extant literature, additional empirical investigation is required.

Women are disproportionately burdened by poverty and the framework presented provides a very practical tool to guide the design of new or diagnosing existing social enterprises targeting poverty reduction for women.

Without a strategic approach, the risk is either perpetuating the status quo, or worse, placing those women engaged in social enterprises in a worse financial and social position.

There is limited research on the poverty reducing role of social enterprise for women and the proposed mechanisms and integrative framework presented provide a means of synthesizing our current knowledge while providing the basis for future investigations.

Anxiety disorder is a common mental health problem in people with intellectual disabilities. Although this affects their quality of life, in Spain, there are no validated tools to evaluate the symptomatology of anxiety in people with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this study is to validate the Glasgow Anxiety Scale for people with an intellectual disability (GAS-ID) in the Spanish population.

The Spanish version of the GAS-ID was produced by back translation and was administered to 120 adults with intellectual disabilities. The psychometric analyses included internal consistency using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, inter-rater and test-retest reliability were determined using intra class correlation and Pearson correlation coefficients and, finally, factor analysis with Varimax rotation to confirm the construct validity of the questionnaire.

Cronbach’s alpha was 0.86 for the overall questionnaire. The intraclass correlation coefficient showed a good level of agreement in both test-retest (0.90) and inter-rater (0.91) analysis and the Pearson correlation showed a good significance in all dimensions and in the total scale. Varimax rotation factor analysis revealed four well-defined factors.

The GAS-ID is a feasible and reliable instrument for assessing anxiety symptoms in adults with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities, offering better diagnoses and therefore a more accurate treatment for the Spanish population with intellectual disabilities.

In common with many other agencies, Richmond Fellowship Employment and Training has been grappling with the problem of how to modernise its sheltered workshops to meet the changing employment and training needs of clients. A further complication is how to make these changes while continuing to provide services for people who are unlikely ever to cope with open employment. Anton Neumann describes how RFET is managing this difficult balancing act, and the obstacles they encountered on the way.

The issues discussed in this article will be familiar to everyone struggling to deinstitutionalise sheltered workshops. The solutions being developed — social firms, supported employment — are also well known. But can they flourish in the very special situation of the new Hong Kong? Now part of the People's Republic of China, the former colony is still sitting between East and West, capitalism and communism, and is also in the throes of a very sharp recession. Lindsay Barker, Stephen Cheung and Petrus Ng tell the story so far and then look at what the future might hold for this fledgling revolution. Bob Grove

This article presents a framework for planned change processes that are transformational in nature. The framework provides a clear alternative to traditional approaches in organisation development (OD) which are generally suited to situations where smaller scale or incremental adjustments are required. It is structured around three core issues in organisational change management: the nature of organisations and what constitutes an improvement to them, appropriate strategies for levering change, and change agent roles. In the framework, special emphasis is placed on attitudes, beliefs and values as the key change levers in an organisational transformation. The usefulness and power of the framework are illustrated by a case analysis of a successful intervention involving over 50 consultants and a large number of organisations. The article concludes with a discussion of processes supportive of successful transformational change.

The purpose of this paper is to get information on the background, demographic data and the lifestyle of adults with intellectual disability in Hong Kong shelter workshop; to get information on physical activity behaviour and psychosocial behaviour of adults with intellectual disability in Hong Kong sheltered workshop; to assess the concurrent validity and reliability of the baseline interview questionnaire (BIQ-C); and a trial run to test the feasibility on running a larger scale of study in future.

Psychosocial behaviour was assessed by BIQ-C (Heller et al., 2006) with sub-scale self-efficacy, outcome expectation, barrier to exercise; and physical activity assessment by pedometers. The participants completed the BIQ-C with an interviewer on fifth day morning before started work. Both step counts were collected and activity data were recorded in a log book separately during working hours and non-working hours on each four consecutive weekdays.

The percentage of obesity was serious among adults with intellectual disability in HK, especially on women; and adults with intellectual disability had more walking step counts in non-working time compared with that at working time, which was considered “low active” (5,000-7,499 step per day) in physical activity level. Besides, both male and female participants had high outcome expectation, barrier to exercise and low self-efficacy. Results showed that BIQ-C was valid and reliable as an outcome measure to be used for intellectual disability.

The sample represented adults with mild to moderate intellectual disability which were based on a centre supervisor ' s confirmation, and then subjects were randomly selected to participate. The results were based on mild to moderate grade participants wearing pedometer for four consecutive days, for those who were unable to wear the pedometer by themselves were excluded from this study (severe intellectual disability). Moreover, the results only reflect the number of steps during weekdays, there was no data on weekends.

Assessment tools are valid and reliable among adults with intellectual disability in Hong Kong. Study showed that running a larger scale of intervention is possible and feasible in sheltered workshop.

There is relatively little information on the physical activity patterns and psychosocial behaviour of workers with intellectual disability in Hong Kong, intervention may help understanding and promote health in this population.