Partnering with the 21st century workplace: Leveraging workplace ecology

Issue title: New Directions in Vocational Rehabilitation: Challenges and Opportunities for Researchers, Practitioners, and Consumers

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bricout, John C.

Affiliations: Washington University in St. Louis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Campus Box 1196, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA. Tel.: +1 314 935 7570; Fax: +1 314 935 8511; E-mail: jbricout@gwbmail.wustl.edu

Abstract: The 'accessible' job market of the 1990's has given way to a challenging job market in a climate of economic uncertainty in the early Twenty-First Century. For vocational rehabilitation professionals this change requires the strategic use of workplace supports to increase the value and sustainability of work performed by people with disabilities in competitive jobs. An analytical framework for leveraging the natural supports of the workplace is provided by the workplace ecology as a bounded environment in which relationships between workers and supervisors promote learning and enhanced performance. The dynamics of the workplace ecology are explored with particular reference to workers with disabilities receiving supported employment services. Recommendations are made for leveraging the workplace ecology to the benefit of the supported worker. Implications for supported employment services in the new millennium are discussed.

Keywords: workplace ecology, supported employment, social technology, learning networks

Journal: Work, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 45-56, 2003