Coming home: Why veterans with disabilities withhold workplace accommodation requests

• Published in: Human relations (New York) 2020-10, Vol.73 (10), p.1439-1466
• Main Authors: Gonzalez, Katerina, Tillman, C Justice, Holmes, Jeanne Johnson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjustment; Armed forces; Disability; Help seeking behavior; Military personnel; Personal safety; Psychological safety; Social identity; Veterans; Workforce; Workplaces
• ISSN: 0018-7267; 1741-282X
• DOI: 10.1177/0018726719875810

Veterans with disabilities are often hesitant to request an accommodation in the workplace, despite the fact that many intranational legal frameworks require employers to provide reasonable accommodation. This study draws from social identity and disability help-seeking theoretical perspectives to examine various factors – veteran identity, disability attributes, and workplace inclusive climate perceptions – which shape feelings of psychological safety and the decision to request a disability accommodation among military veterans with disabilities. Findings suggest veteran identity strain (an incongruence between one’s civilian work and military identity) is related to withholding of an accommodation request through decreased psychological safety. We also find veteran identity strain is less likely to be associated with decreased psychological safety when an organization is perceived to have a strong climate of inclusion, especially for military veterans with higher degrees of disability invisibility. The current study sheds light on why veterans with disabilities might not engage in help-seeking behaviors, and contributes to research streams on workplace disability and veteran workplace integration. Practically, we encourage employers to be especially aware of the needs of vulnerable employees and to develop inclusive climates in order to better support all military personnel transitioning to a civilian workforce.