The Inclusion of Workers with Sensory Disabilities in Organizations through the Dimensions of Organizational Communication and the Relational/Dialogical Paradigm

Abstract

The hiring of people with disabilities represents only the initial stage of the organizational inclusion process. Once these individuals enter the labor market, significant challenges persist, such as their placement in operational roles regardless of their educational background. Organizations often remain unprepared for inclusion – both among managers and other employees – by reproducing stigma, prejudice, and ableist practices, and by failing to provide the necessary accommodations and accessibility that would allow all workers to perform their duties and participate fully in the organizational ecosystem.

Exclusion and marginalization within organizations are even more pronounced for workers with sensory disabilities (visual, auditory, or deafblindness), mainly due to limited access to information – namely, the lack of policies and practices that ensure accessibility in Organizational Communication.

As a scientific field, Organizational Communication can address this phenomenon by promoting real-world transformation through the critique and exposure of power relations – one of the core aims of the critical paradigm in communication studies. When referring to communication paradigms, we refer to the specific analytical lenses that allow researchers to observe and interpret communicative phenomena within organizations.

Accordingly, organizational communication processes can be examined through multiple paradigmatic lenses. Among these, the four dimensions of Organizational Communication (instrumental, human, cultural, and strategic) (Kunsch, 2014) and the relational/dialogical paradigm (Marques & Oliveira, 2015; Lima & Bastos, 2012; Lima, 2008) stand out.

This paper aims to analyze the phenomenon of the inclusion of workers with sensory disabilities in organizations through the lenses of the dimensions of Organizational Communication and the relational/dialogical paradigm. It is a theoretical essay, interpretive and critical in nature, that draws upon diverse bibliographic sources to shed light on analytical and epistemological possibilities for the field.

We understand that two main types of relationships are established between workers with sensory disabilities and organizations: (1) Relationships grounded in the relational aspects of the organizational context, which involve the meanings circulating within organizational cultures and the representations of disability – meanings that can either confer legitimacy upon these workers or contribute to their exclusion; and (2) Relationships mediated by technical and political dimensions, particularly concerning the consideration of accessibility in communication processes. These two perspectives intertwine and reflect the complex phenomenon of the relationships between organizations and their employees with sensory disabilities. The possibilities for analyzing and interpreting the inclusion of workers with sensory disabilities within organizations are broad. However, when addressing cultural, political, and meaning-making aspects, several analytical lenses from Organizational Communication can be applied – namely, the technical, cultural, human, and strategic dimensions, as well as the relational/dialogical perspective.

We argue that such reflections are essential within Organizational Communication, especially considering the evolution of theoretical approaches – from the “interpretive turn” and the development of the critical paradigm in the international context to the “epistemological turn” of the 2000s in Brazil.

Workers with disabilities, as both public and organizational agents, must be recognized as such. From the perspective of the dimensions of Organizational Communication, there are multiple points of intersection and opportunity to promote inclusion – particularly within the human dimension, the humanistic and social aspects of the strategic dimension, and the incorporation of accessibility into the instrumental dimension. The cultural dimension, in turn, is closely linked to the relational/dialogical paradigm, as both emphasize the meanings that circulate within organizational cultures and the potential recognition of diversity and alternative interests (beyond purely organizational ones) that shape organizational life and drive tensions between exclusion and inclusion as cultural and communicational practices.

In conclusion, these reflections represent an initial contribution to understanding this phenomenon within Organizational Communication, aiming to foster further debate from contemporary paradigmatic and theoretical perspectives. As the field continues to expand in Brazil, Organizational Communication can embrace new critical and inclusive approaches to promote social transformation and more equitable relations between people with disabilities and organizations.