Aktuella disputationer

The aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of challenges and opportunities for the inclusion of employees with invisible disabilities when working from home, drawing insights from employees, managers and human resource officers. 

The study provides empirical findings from the Swedish public sector, employing multiple qualitative methods to explore the challenges and opportunities of inclusion efforts, particularly in the new ways of working. These methods include a critical case study with photo-elicitation interviews, semi-structured interviews, a diary and a document analysis (paper I). The second paper comprises semi-structured interviews with human resource officers. 

The findings from the two research papers highlight the impact of stigma and negative assumptions about disabilities, the importance of disability awareness and creating an inclusive and permissive work culture throughout the organisation. When managers and human resource officers are unaware of ongoing challenges, employees who need support and accommodation do not receive them. Additionally, the findings reveal that ideal worker norms compel women with invisible disabilities to overcompensate and cope individually rather than seek organisational support. Therefore, ableism and gendered norms need to be addressed and questioned on an organisational level to make inclusive efforts. 

When working from home, employees can manage their well-being, work productively without sensory disruptions and easier live up to ideal worker norms. Further, when working from home, emotional labour is less pronounced for employees with invisible disabilities compared to when they are in an office environment. Finally, the sense of inclusion in this study is closely tied to productivity, influenced by New Public Management principles. Employees reported that they are judged based on their output, and when delivering productivity, they feel valued and included. 

This study contributes to the understanding of complexities of inclusion and disclosure from an individual and organisational level and offers insights into creating a more inclusive and supportive work environment for employees with invisible disabilities.

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This thesis explores how services shape human capabilities and well-being by integrating the Choice Framework (Kleine, 2013) into Transformative Service Research (TSR). While TSR promotes the capability approach as a means to assess how services influence well-being, it often lacks practical analytical tools. To address this gap, this thesis adopts and adapts the Choice Framework as a structured method for analyzing how services influence individual agency and structural conditions, ultimately enabling or constraining people’s capabilities. Drawing on two empirical studies - one focusing on hedonic well-being in the digital transformation of the Swedish music market (hedonic well-being) and the other on eudaimonic well-being through free educational services for marginalized children in Pakistan (eudaimonic well-being) - this research demonstrates how service characteristics interact with contextual conditions to influence varying degrees of empowerment. The thesis employs a qualitative research design, using semi-structured interviews in both studies, complemented by ethnographic observations in the second. The findings contribute to both theory and practice by offering a capability-oriented analytical framework for TSR and providing nuanced insights into how service characteristics such as accessibility, affordability, flexibility, and mentorship influence well-being. In doing so, the thesis proposes a rigorous yet adaptable model for evaluating how services operate as mechanisms for transformative value, offering guidance for both scholars and practitioners in designing inclusive and empowering services.

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