Rutgers Prof. Researches Impact of Disabilities on Supervisor-Subordinate Relationship

Assistant professor of management David Dwertmann at the Rutgers School of Business- Camden recently conducted research on the ways that disabilities can negatively impact the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Dwertmann’s research explains that there is already proof that the supervisor-subordinate relationship can be affected when the subordinate has a disability, but that the relationship can also be affected when it is the supervisor who has a disability. His research shows that supervisors with disabilities are unfairly stigmatized.

“If we think about a manager or a leader, we usually think of someone with a high skill level who has positive characteristics and we therefore have high expectations of the person, but disabilities are often stigmatized and associated with low expectations or no expectations at all,” Dwertmann said in a Rutgers news release. “This large gap in expectations is more salient and may therefore cause more detrimental effects if the supervisor has a disability compared to the subordinate.”

Dwertmann’s research can be directly applied to the recent trends in population aging. People are working longer and older employees tend to have more experience and hold higher positions. However, it is more likely that the older someone it, the more like that they will develop a health issue or a disability. Although Dwertmann’s research focused on 1,253 employees from 54 work-units working for a large federal agency in Germany, he believes that the results would be very similar in the private sector of US business. He explains, “There may be slight differences, but I assume that the findings would be similar and perhaps even stronger in the private sector with a more competitive culture.”

Dwertmann’s research is outlined in a paper titled, “Status Matters: The Asymmetric Effects of Supervisor-Subordinate Disability Incongruence and Climate for Inclusion.” He co-wrote the paper with Assistant Professor Stephan Boehm from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The paper will be published in future publication of the Academy of Management Journal.

regions: Philadelphia

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