Employment Of People With Disabilities In Kuching, Sarawak: The Organizations’ Motivation, Challenges And Strategies

• Main Author: Tan, Siu Wen
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2020
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32309/1/Employment%20Of%20People%20With%20Disabilities%20In%20Kuching%2C%20Sarawak%20-%2024%20pgs.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32309/4/Tan%20Siu%20Wen.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32309/

Employers are one of the key players in determining the participation of persons with disabilities in the workforce. This study ventures into the employers’ perception regarding the employment of people with disabilities, exploring factors which motivate them to employ the disabled, benefits gained, challenges faced, as well as the strategies used to overcome issues in the employment and integration process. This research aims to fill in the gaps in previous studies and contribute to the existing literature on this topic. The case study research design was chosen as the qualitative approach for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 6 employers from both public and private sectors under the Public Service Industry, Information Industry, Port Industry and Food and Beverage (F&B) Industry in Kuching, Malaysia. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis, consolidating keywords, phrases and sentences into meaningful categories and themes. It is discovered that the informants are motivated to employ persons with disabilities because of their stellar work performance and to carry out their obligations as an employer. By employing the disabled, they received both monetary and nonmonetary benefits like better corporate image and customer satisfaction. However, the employment and integration process for employees with disabilities can be laborious due to several time and cost factors. Nevertheless, integration measures and policies were utilized to overcome the challenges faced. The outcomes of this study is expected to provide insights to human resource practitioners, policy makers and future researchers in Malaysia to device considerable measures that can promote the employability of disabled persons in the future.