Journal of Scholastic Inquiry: Business
Volume 11 Page 34
From Academia to Industry: C-Suite Perspectives on Neurodiversity in the Workplace Lisa J. Knowles St. Thomas University Jason K. Styles University of The Bahamas Abstract After completing qualitative academic research seeking human resource managers’ perceptions of workers with learning disabilities in the workplace, the results were presented at a recent industry conference. Attendees included managers holding various human resource positions, as well as vice presidents and top decision-makers from many of the top banking, industry, government, and tourist organizations in the Bahamas. After presenting this group with the findings from our initial research on workers with neurodiversity, the researchers asked attendees to respond to the same demographic questions as the original research. Then, attendees were asked to write down what they, as industry professionals, could do to assist those with learning disabilities in the workplace. The research utilized Boyer’s Model of scholarship’s third element, that is, the application of research findings shared directly with those in a professional association. Thus, we had academic research presented to those in industry, who then added to the existing research by providing their perspectives after attending the academic presentation. This qualitative inquiry utilized a collaborative social research methodology. The generated responses were coded and analyzed. NVIVO software further analyzed the results by producing a word frequency cloud. This research adds to the knowledge of addressing workers in the
