Employers' attitudes towards people with disabilities (PWD) and employment intention in Kota Kinabalu

• Main Author: Goy, Peng Liak
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: HD7255-7256 Vocational rehabilitation. Employment of people with disabilities
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37642/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37642/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/37642/

Despite various labor laws and related people disabilities acts have been established worldwide, people with disabilities (PWD) are continued to be marginalized, underutilized and unfairly treated in workplace and society because of societal negative attitudes and discrimination. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of employes' attitudes on PWD on PWD towards employment intention in Kota Kinabalu. The study has also been examining the moderating effect of company characteristics based on organizational size, type of industry and PWD employment experience between the relationship of employer attitudes and PWD employment intention. The study has conceptualized employer attitudes as multidimensional construct based on Theory of Planned behavior (TPB). The study involved 120 respondents or employers throughout Kata Kinabalu and non-probability convenience sampling with quantitative method was deployed to gather data and analyze by using SPSS (version 20) software system. This study contributes knowledge pertaining to local organization by size, type and PWD employment experience towards PWD employment behavior. The findings of study found that the hypotheses of study was partially supported with two out of six sub-hypotheses were significant to influence employer attitudes on PWD and PWD employment intention. This study also indicated that most of employers expressed their willingness and positive attitudes on employment intention than actual practice in workplace. Further, the findings also showed that there was no moderating effect for all company characteristics namely, PWD employment experience, type of industry and organizational size between employers' attitudes on PWD and employment intention. In term of TPB view, the findings disclosed that positive normative and behavior beliefs were more predictable than negative normative and behavior beliefs were and control beliefs to influence employers' attitudes on PWD towards employment intention. By understanding of employer attitudes based onl employment contexts for matching PWD ability on job offered, it could enhance PWD equal employment opportunity and reduce PWD underutilization through the removal of societal barriers in Kata Kinabalu.