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

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

workplace that possess a learning disability and human resource management’s (HRM)

responsibility and knowledge to train, educate, and make reasonable accommodations in

accordance with HRM’s diversity requirements.

Keywords: HRM practices, neurodiversity, neurodiverse employees (NDE’s), Bahamas society

human resource management (B-SHRM)

Introduction

Academic research serves educators well by providing new knowledge built upon

previous research. However, when academic research is extended to the greater community, it

seems only reasonable that more people benefit from the knowledge acquired. Bringing

academic research front and center to industry professionals is not always a common practice.

However, when it does occur, as is the case of this paper, the real benefit of research is gleaned

by a wider audience. The essence of this paper reflects a true praxis, as “it is knowledge that is

infused with human organizations and human interest as represented in the situation under

study.” (Evered & Louis, 2001, p. 390).

Embracing workplace diversity capitalizes on the creative and innovative benefits

brought to the work environment; it also represents socially responsible practices that are further

enforced by equal opportunity and non-discriminatory legal obligations. Robbins and Judge

(2018) defined diversity as surface-level and deep-level differences. Surface-level differences

are those that are visibly noticeable, such as age or gender. Deep-level differences embrace areas

such as values and personality. The aspects of neurodiversity fall under the deep-level

differences as described in Robbins’ and Judge’s (2018) dichotomy, since they are not easily

perceivable in the workplace.

Collaborative social research is a qualitative research strategy described by Miles and

Huberman (1994) that is “undertaken in a social setting,” (p. 8). The social setting for this

research is an industry conference presentation of academic research findings. Following the

presentation, conference participants were asked to identify four demographics: position, years in

position, gender, and public or private organization. These attendees were then asked to offer

written responses as to how they could help their workers who may possess neurodiversity.

The intent of this research is to provide additional knowledge for both industry and

academic professionals. Gleaning new knowledge from the conference on a deep-level diversity

topic with little previous dissemination to the industry exemplifies the approach of presenting the

right message to the right individuals. Senior management and HR professionals in attendance

now have new material and knowledge to share with their respective organizations and make a

difference in how they view and develop their workforce moving forward.

Rationale

Capitalizing on worker talent and managing such in today’s workplace environments are

essential for organizations to maintain a competitive advantage. Lawler (2008) defends that

“business strategy is determined by talent considerations, and it in turn drives human capital

management practices,” (p. 9). Styles and Knowles (2019) demonstrated that human resource

managers did, in fact, view learning-disabled workers as being potential leaders, one may now

conclude that developing talent must include neurodiverse workers. Furthermore, “strategic

talent management is the ability to identity key talent and plan for future talent needs,”

(Anderson, 2019, p. 168).

To increase the benefits of academic research, Boyer (1997) furthers the “scholarship”

concept to include a four-level framework. His framework consists of discovery, integration,

application, and teaching (Boyer, 1997). Emphasis on the application level serves this research

well. Boyer (1997) defends the application framework as an “aid to society and professions in

addressing problems,” (University of Phoenix 2016 and Nibert, 2020).

Background

Previous research by Styles and Knowles (2019) identified human resource managers’

perspectives of workers with learning disabilities in The Bahamas. Study results indicate that

human resource professionals are not aware of effectively addressing workers with learning

disabilities (Styles & Knowles, 2019). The overall impact of underutilizing a talented worker, if

not for a neurodiverse factor, inevitably could hinder the full potential of a productive workforce.

Neurodiversity may be subtle and well hidden by an individual. Leadership potential may be

underutilized also, as these workers may carry great leadership potential, but err on the side of

caution in the workplace, due to hiding a learning disability.

Literature Review

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity emerging phenomena was initially introduced by Harvey Blume (1998) in

an article name the Neurodiversity: On the neurological underpinnings of geekdom. According

to Blume (1998), neurodiversity may be crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in

general. Not to mention, the concept continued to grow through the establishment of support

groups, representing a new addition to the familiar political categories of class/gender/race,

augmenting the insights of the social model of disability (Armstrong, 2010; Baron‐Cohen, 2017).

Another pioneer, Judy Singer, a sociologist in 1999, defined neurodiversity as the

impression of autism and Asperger’s. However, it took on broader labeling as a movement

among individuals who present a natural range of differences in human brain function, and

among employers, becoming the term to describe alternative thinking styles including dyslexia,

autism, ADHD, and dyspraxia as they relate to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

(Armstrong, 2010; Baker, 2011; Banerjee, et al., 2020; Dalton, 2013). Loiacono and Ren (2018)

postulate that organizations must embrace neurodiversity because its’ powerful impetus enables

real diversity of thought and perspective in an organization.

Furthermore, integrating and taking account of neurodiversity enables companies to

succeed in the continuous global market (Brinzea, 2019; Powers, 2019). Significantly, Kapp et

al. (2013) substantiated how neurodiversity promotes subjective well-being and adaptive rather

than typical functioning, such as reliability, but not necessarily spoken communication, and

subjective well-being (p.6). Notwithstanding, organizations need to recognize the individual

differences in their employees as they capitalize on workers’ unique strengths, which is

beneficial for organizations (Styles & Knowles, 2019).

Neuro Diverse Employees (NDE’s)

According to Armstrong (2010), Baker (2011), and Dalton (2013), everyone is, to some

extent, differently-abled, or no two neurodiverse persons are precisely similar. Neurodiverse

employees exist in all organizations and come from all walks of life-impacting organizations

worldwide on the individual, group, and organizational levels (Loiacono & Ren 2018; Visagie,

Linde, & Havenga, 2011). Neurodiverse employees (NDE) are not readily identifiable because,

sometimes, they might be diagnosed later in life or outside the workplace context (Krzeminska et

al.,2019; Powers, 2019).

Moreover, as Styles and Knowles (2019) explicated organizations must not focus on the

negative tone against neurodiverse individuals, as talent may be overlooked. Most compelling

evidence about NDE, Powers (2019) in an article How to Attract and Support Neurodiverse

Talent highlights how cognitive diversity produces better results because these individuals

analyze a problem through a different lens. Additionally, Powers (2019) adds that having people

with different problem-solving abilities, such as NDE, think differently, contribute more and are

critical for organizational success. Providing NDE both economic security and the context in

which they can contribute their talents and skills to society, anchor themselves in a social role

(Krzeminska et al., 2019). This talent type is untapped, and organizations must create stratagems

to foster and integrate NDE’s into the organizational culture without destroying the person

(Loiacono & Ren, 2018; Styles & Knowles, 2019; Trivedi and Trivedi, 2018).

Human Resources Management Accommodations for Neuro Diverse Employees (NDEs)

To increase awareness and utilize NDEs to foster organizational effectiveness, human

resource management (HRM) is the impetus for managing diversity challenges and

opportunities. Austin and Pisano (2017) eruditely recommended that HRM must apply

changeability to the mix when hiring, recruiting, and including people and ideas from “the

edges,” in other words, neurodiverse talent. Because, as Sam and Berry (2010) and Jin et al.

(2017) both excoriate that human resources are globally advancing, driving HRM practices to

acknowledge diversity management and actively promote an inclusive organizational climate for

NDEs. For HRM to succeed in creating an inclusive organizational culture for NDE, companies’

implementation practices need to be agile, innovative, astute, and, in turn, this requires a diverse

workforce with a variety of views and talents.

Expressively, HRM orchestrating a diverse workforce leads to increased adaptability and

flexibility to meet customer demands (Brinzea, 2019; Loiacono & Ren, 2018). Necessary to

realize, for HRM to accommodate NDEs, Rouvalis (2020) mentions much of this depends on if

the NDEs disclose their disability to the employer. Furthermore, the employer only should

accommodate a disability, once aware, based on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

(Rouvalis, 2020). As mentioned earlier, NDEs do not relay having challenges because of the

negative tone against them, so they instead remain private and keep their health conditions

private to refrain from any repercussion (Styles & Knowles, 2019). At the same time, worldwide

companies, including SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, Willis Towers Watson, Ford,

EY, Caterpillar, Dell Technologies, Deloitte, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and UBS are increasing

awareness and accommodating by reforming HRM practices for NDE (Austin & Pisano, 2017).

HRM Accommodations for Neurodiverse Employees (NDEs) in The Bahamas

In regards for HRM accommodating NDEs in the Bahamas, it is not enforced but for

Equal Protection of the Law: The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, 2014,

Bahamas presence. However, according to Bain (2016), there is a lacuna or gap in the law, which

hinders purposeful rights. In detail, The Bahamas, a developing nation, suffers many

shortcomings that prevent them from attaining higher levels of performance and productivity

(Styles & Knowles, 2020; Marquardt et al., 2004).

Furthermore, identified as a collectivist society, the Bahamian society emphasizes family

interest, and business leaders with family companies are currently the dominant type of local

businesses (Hofstede et al., 2011). The Bahamas power distance, as defined by Hofstede et al.

(2011), is high due to a post-colonial mindset deriving from the British vestiges. According to

Styles and Knowles (2020), this continues to impede the development of an elaborate system of

licenses, regulations, and accompanying red tape to establish a business, which in turn, affects

intrinsic rewards, employee satisfaction, career success, overall HRM practices. To emphasize,

private and public organizations must create reasonable accommodations for qualified employees

to perform their jobs. However, according to the Equal Protection of the Law: The Persons with

Disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, 2014, in The Bahamas, Bain (2016) states:

how to accommodate NDE's the Minister responsible for Labour, Social Services, Youth, Sports

and Culture, and Education shall design, collaborate and implement programs that provide

NDE's too engaged as apprentices or learners; (b) persons with disabilities with skills to enable

them to engage in gainful employment; and (c) appropriate vocational measures which serve to

develop the skills and potential of persons with disabilities and enable them to compete favorably

for available, productive and remunerative employment opportunities in the labor market. (pp.9-

10)

Concerning the HRM accommodation, Styles and Knowles (2019) reveal how public and

private organizations fail to embrace neurodiversity, via recruitment practices, and enabling

NDE's to perform at their best once they are in the assigned role.

Methodology

An initial qualitative research inquiry of Bahamian human resource managers’

perspectives towards workers with learning disabilities gained visibility at the closing general

session of the Bahamas Society for Human Resource Managers (B-SHRM) 2019 annual

conference. In an effort to glean from this prestigious audience, researchers invited the attendees

to hold an interactive question and answer period, and participants were also invited to help

further our research. Miles and Huberman (1994) identify collaborative social research as

research that is a “collective action undertaken in a social setting.” With senior vice-presidents,

human resource managers, executive officers, and talent managers in attendance, the opportunity

to glean from this group of specialized and highly seasoned professionals’ perspectives within

the collaborative social research setting as described by Miles and Huberman (1994) provided a

unique qualitative research experience.

Participants were asked, at the end of the session, to provide their position, years in their

position, gender, and whether they were employed by a private, public, or quasi organization.

This is the only demographic information gleaned. One open-ended, qualitative research

question was presented: What can you do to help workers with learning disabilities? Responses

totaled 70 (N=70). Although the conference hosted over 150 participants, there were

approximately 80 attendees remaining by the closing session.

Furthermore, Corbin and Strauss (2015) emphasize the researcher as an active

participant. For this present research, after findings were presented, the audience gleaned from

the presentation, and were then asked, introspectively, how they can now basically become part

of a solution, given their various leadership and human resource management positions.

After collecting the conference participants’ responses, a spreadsheet was initially

compiled. Responses were then coded resulting with two distinct outcomes as either actions or

behaviors or emotional impact. In addition, researchers utilized NVIVO computer program to

create a word frequency cloud using all the open-ended responses.

Data Analysis

The researcher estimated there were about 80 total attendees for the closing general

session. A total of 70 (N=70) responses were received at the end of the conference time. This

was a response rate of 87.5%.

Demographics identified 91% female with 9% male attendees as depicted in Table 1.

The listings of position include senior executives, human resource managers, and a few identify

as clerical. Table 2 depicts the breakdown of the participants’ position in their organization. In

summary, 23% are senior executives, 69% are human resource managers, 5% are clerical, and

3% did not identify their formal workplace position.

Length of time in present position is also identified. Table 3 illustrates general statistical

measures for years in present position: 40% reflect 2-8 years, 29% are under 2 years, and 29%

are over 30 years in their present position. The mean is 7 years, mode is 4 and the median is both

2 and 4 years, respectively. Overall, length of time in present position ranged from 3 days to 30

years.

Results and Findings

Two strong themes emerge after coding responses to the open-ended question: What can

you do to help workers with learning disabilities? Coded responses emerged into two different

categories. The first category identified actions/behaviors to take or implement. The second

category identified emotional responses.

Action/behavior responses include: “train/educate”, “respect”, “seek strengths”,

“accommodate,” and “mentor”. A full listing of these are presented in Table 4. Responses coded

as emotional include: “sympathy”, “empathy”, “understanding”, “supportiveness”, and

“sensitivity”. Table 5 contains the full listing of the codified emotion-items.

In addition, an NVIVO word frequency creates the content for Figure 1. This was a

summary of all the wording compiled from the responses recreated in the spreadsheet and then

translated into the NVIVO software program. A review of the most cited wording is as follows:

“manager”, “training”, “disabilities”, “awareness”, “assistance”, and “persons” and is based upon

the size and placement in the frequency cloud. These words appear to stand out as the most

frequently used words as represented in the NVIVO software analysis. The additional wording

throughout the frequency cloud shows all the other most frequently used words from the

responses, such as “accommodate”, “educate”, “respect”, “assist”, “mentor”, “encourage”, and

“understand” to name a few.

Discussion

Human resource managers and senior administrators in public, private, and quasi

organizations have the task of maximizing employees’ talent to benefit the goals and aspirations

of their organizations. This point emphasizes that it is employees who perform in a collective

fashion that enable organizational attainment. Harvesting human talent may often be overlooked

when employees with learning disabilities refrain from reaching their maximum potential, due to

their uniqueness.

Reaching out to leadership and management with ways to help them better understand

their workforce is beneficial for both the employees and the organization. Organizations that

strive towards continuous improvement are learning ways to develop their people, inclusive of

diversity (Lawler, 2008; Styles & Knowles, 2019). Overall, managers benefit with greater

awareness while employees benefit with more training. Neurodiverse workers can further

develop their talent and skills by employer actions and emotional considerations. Organizations

benefit with greater productivity. Greater productivity leans towards continuous improvement

and goal attainment. This research aides HRM and c-suite executives with a broader perspective

on how to deal with a hidden diversity: neurodiversity (Styles & Knowles, 2019).

This research represents an interactive experience between the researchers presenting at

an annual conference and responses on how they can help after learning from this research will

bring the praxis to life, full circle. Whenever decision-makers are a captive audience and they

can be challenged on how they can be part of solving people issues and problems, they are

fulfilling their social responsibility in ways that benefit the major stakeholders, that of

ownership, management, and employees.

Our research started small with only 10 managers in a qualitative study. The results were

then shared with cumulating responses from 70 managers, in a qualitative inquiry. Quantitative

research provides data with numbers to support findings. Future research is necessary to acquire

solutions for helping the workforce develop their talent, despite their differences, even when they

are deep-level and nearly invisible with neurodiversity, is just one more way to foster continuous

improvement for both people and organizations. Furthermore, to identify hands-on practices for

management to implement, one may begin by looking at the action/behaviors that emerged from

this research as a place to begin. Organizational leaders and HRMs who strategize to further

develop their workforce (Anderson, 2019) have a new perspective of neurodiversity from which

to train and improve their employees’ talent.

Conclusion

This qualitative research, gleaned from an interactive session at the Bahamas Society of

Human Research Management annual conference, provides insight on what upper management

and human resource managers perceive when it comes to actions to take with regards to

neurodiverse employees. In addition, the management participants identified the emotional need

for sensitivity in the overall workforce to comfortably embrace neurodiverse employees.

Although this is rather unique research, reproducing the model presented, that is, sharing

academic research directly to decision-makers in organizations, thereby maximizes benefits of

what academic research finds and how it becomes most useful to those in industry.

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style, 7th ed. American Psychological Association. Anderson, D.L. (2019). Organization design: Creating strategic and agile organizations. SAGE Publications.

Armstrong, T. (2010). Neurodiversity: Discovering the extraordinary gifts of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other brain differences. ReadHowYouWant.com. Austin, R. D., & Pisano, G. P. (2017). Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage. Harvard Business Review, 95(3), 96-103. Bain, B. (2016). Equal protection of the law: The persons with disabilities (Equal Opportunities) Act, 2014, Bahamas. International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 22, 7-15. Baker, D. L. (2011). The Politics of Neurodiversity: Why public policy matters. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Banerjee, R., Aggarwal, L., Aggarwal, R., & Aggarwal, V. K (2020). On an attempt to study the inter-relationships amongst enablers of inclusion of neuro diverse individuals at educational and professional workplaces. International Journal of Computer Applications, 975, 8887. Baron‐Cohen, S. (2017). Editorial perspective: Neurodiversity–a revolutionary concept for

autism and psychiatry. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(6), 744-747. Blume, H. (1998). Neurodiversity: On the neurological underpinnings of geekdom. The Atlantic, 30.

Boyer, E. L. (1997). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Jossey-Bass. Brinzea, V. M. (2019). Encouraging neurodiversity in the evolving workforce: The next frontier to a diverse workplace. Scientific Bulletin-Economic Sciences, 18(3), 13-25. Corbin, J. & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. (4th ed.). SAGE Publications. Dalton, N. S. (2013). Neurodiversity & HCI. In CHI'13 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2295-2304).

Garg, P., & Rastogi, R. (2006). New model of job design: Motivating employees' performance. Journal of Management Development, 25(6), 572-587. doi:10.1108/02621710610670137

Havenga, W., Linde, H. M., & Visagie, J. C. (2011). Leadership competencies for managing diversity. Managing Global Transitions, 9(3), 225. Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 2307-0919. Jin, M., Lee, J., & Lee, M. (2017). Does leadership matter in diversity management? Assessing the relative impact of diversity policy and inclusive leadership in the public sector. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(2), 303-319. Kapp, S. K., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sherman, L. E., & Hutman, T. (2013). Deficit, difference, or both? Autism and neurodiversity. Developmental Psychology, 49(1), 59. Krzeminska, A., Austin, R. D., Bruyère, S. M., & Hedley, D. (2019). The advantages and challenges of neurodiversity employment in organizations. Journal of Management an Organization, 25(4), 453-463. Lawler, E. E., III. (2008). Talent: Making people your competitive advantage. Jossey-Bass. Loiacono, E. T., & Ren, H. (2018). Building a neurodiverse high-tech workforce. MIS Quarterly Executive, 17(4). Marquart, M., Berger, N., & Loan, P. (2004). HRD in the age of globalization: A practical guide to workplace learning in the third millennium. Basic Books. Miles, M. B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. 2nd ed. SAGE Publications. Nibert, M. (2020) 2.5.1 Boyer’s model of scholarship. http://www.facultyguidebook.com/test/2_5_1.htm. Powers, M. P. (2019). How to attract and support neurodiverse talent. https://www.shrm.org/hrtoday/news/hr-magazine/0618/pages/how-to-attract-and-support-neurodiversetalent.aspx. Price, C. (2016). Boyer’s series: Introduction to Boyer’s model. University of Phoenix. Robbins, S. & Judge, T. A. (2018). Organizational behavior. Pearson Higher Education AU. Rouvalis, C. (2020). Neurodiverse employees may need accommodations for remote work. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-

relations/pages/neurodiverse-employees-may-need-accommodations-for-remotework.aspx Sam, D. L., & Berry, J. W. (2010). Acculturation: When individuals and groups of different cultural backgrounds meet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 472-481. Styles, J. K. & Knowles, L. J. (2019). The human resource managers’ perceptions of workers with learning disabilities. Journal of Scholastic Inquiry: Business, 10(1), 47-75. Styles, J. K., & Knowles, L. J. (2020). Why become a learning organization: Measuring the dimensions of learning at the University of the Bahamas. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.33423/jhetp.v20i4.2987. Trivedi, V., & Trivedi, V. (2018). Neurodiversity management: A step towards inclusivity. IUP Law Review, 8(3).

Appendix A

Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the respondents

Gender Number Percentage

Male 28 9.% Female 93 91 % N=70 respondents

Table 2

Positions of the respondents

Position Percentage

Senior/executive 23.% HR Managers 69.% Clerical 5% Unidentified 3%

Note. General statistical measures for year in present position: 40% reflect 2-8 years, 29% under 2 years, and 29% were over 30 years

Table 3

Years in present position of the respondents

Years Percentage Range Mean Mode Median

Less than 2 29% 3 days to 30 7 years 4 years 2 and 4 years years years 2-8 years 40% 93 76.9% 8-30 years 29%

Table 4

Findings: Action/Behavior Items

Train/educate Embrace diversity Impact Respect Help adjust Culture embracing differences Seek strengths Trust Relevant job fit Accommodate Confidential Specialized work methods Mentor Manage talent Create anti-discriminatory policies/ Provide inclusion Promoter Awareness Procedures

Table 5

Findings: Emotions

Sympathetic Patient Empathetic Open-mindedness Understanding Supportive Sensitive Build confidence Fairness Anti-discriminatory

Figure 1