The Philosophical Foundations of Organizational Inclusion and the Challenge of Disability

Inclusion of people with disabilities in workplaces is still very limited, even when workplaces comply with accessibility standards. In this paper we argue that those limits are related to the very conceptualization of inclusion in organization theory and to the philosophical foundations of the concept. We show that the concept of inclusion is grounded on the ideas of mutual advantage, rationality (even if bounded) and efficiency, which are rooted in the traditions of neoclassic economy, social contractualism and utilitarianism, from which many organizational theories are derived. After a short history of organizational inclusion, we individuate some issues in organization theory and philosophy which we consider important – although often latent – for the actual understanding of inclusion, proposing three examples for each section: for organization theory we review inclusion as related to market and hierarchies, human resources and moral norms; for philosophy we analyze the social contract perspective, the human rights perspective and the individualist perspective. After this review, we propose an alternative paradigm of organizational inclusion, highlighting three hints coming from disability studies and social constructionism.