Some Changes and an Interesting Article! (inc. Magazine Article)

Surprise! As you can see, I have changed the way this website looks. I didn’t really love the way the old page looked and the print was way too small for me. I like this much better, but the mountain picture has nothing to do with autism or employment, so please bear with me while I find a better picture. If you have any ideas, let me know!!

Anyway, moving on…I read a lot of news articles about autism and employment. After reading a lot of them, they all kind of sound the same because they use pretty much the same data, many feel kind of like puff pieces. In my random internet searches on the topic, however, I recently found an article from Inc. magazine that really surprised me due to the depth with which the reporter analyzed employers/ees with autism. The article, headlined “50,000 People With Autism Need Jobs This Year. Here’s Why You Should Hire Them”, was published June 2015 (so some of you may have already read it).

A Few Things I Found Particularly Interesting:Continue reading “Some Changes and an Interesting Article! (inc. Magazine Article)”

Supervising Employees with Autism (Hagner and Cooney)

“I Do That for Everybody”: Supervising Employees with Autism

Introduction:

This is another often cited paper where supervisors of 14 successfully employed individuals with autism (at various organizations)  were interviewed regarding their employees with ASD. It should be noted that the 14 employees all had some connection with an employment support service. This is an early paper on this subject and the sample size was necessarily small, so the recommended strategies are admittedly suggestions. The researchers believe, however, that based on their research, it is very likely that “supervisory and management style has a great deal to do with the success or failure of an employment experience for an individual with autism” (p. 97). This idea is supported by Parr, Hunter, and Ligon’s study as well.

Top Points:

Some of the Results:Continue reading “Supervising Employees with Autism (Hagner and Cooney)”

Transformational Leadership Style and ASD (Parr, Hunter, and Ligon)

Questioning Universal Applicability of Transformational leadership: Examining employees with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Introduction:

I think that this paper is super cool; it’s a really interesting take on leaders and employees with ASD. The research is done by several I/O psychologists and they conducted an experiment to test the universal applicability of transformational leadership (description below if you need it). They interviewed 52 employees with ASD. The sample size is on the lower side, which is definitely not unusual for studies with individuals with ASD. I believe this is mostly due to the fact that most employers who hire people with ASD hire small numbers at a time (which is perfectly understandable, btw…the Autism Speaks think tank on the topic noted that programs that hire large cohorts at a time tend to fail).Continue reading “Transformational Leadership Style and ASD (Parr, Hunter, and Ligon)”

Employees with ASD: Some Challenges and Strategies (Hendricks)

Summary:

This paper reviews evidence-based research on the topic of employment for individuals with ASD. If you were to pick just a few papers to read on the topic, I believe this is a great pick. It is relatively recent (look, we work slowly in academia), is a great overview (covers other good papers), is often referenced by other, newer papers, and is a fairly easy read. The top points below are merely some of the ideas discussed in the paper.

Top Points:Continue reading “Employees with ASD: Some Challenges and Strategies (Hendricks)”

Hello world!

With so many great papers on the topic of individuals with ASD in the workplace, it was hard to choose the first one to post about. I decided on Hendrick’s “Employment and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Challenges and Strategies for Success” (2010) because it’s a great survey of the topic. I will post others soon!