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The Social Construction of Personnel Policy

Implications for People With Disabilities

JAMES BELLINI is an assistant professor in the Rehabilitation Counseling Program at Syracuse University.

The goal of this investigation was to develop an understandrng of the social context of state merit systems of personnel. Ten key informants were interviewed following an "interpretivist" paradigm to illuminate the political and social construction of public policy. The key informants reveal a basic self-belief in the rationality of merit systems of personnel under which only the "best-qualified" candidates are given employment. Under this doctrine, merit may mean equality without equity for people with disabilities. Merit systems of personnel are dominated by people who have historically had more access to experience and training than people with disabilities, who are underrepresented in state jobs. However, the informants argue that underrepresentation is the result of unintended consequences. Personnel administrators' willingness to ascribe underrepresentation to an unintended consequence may undercut policies requiring reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities.

Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, 125-150 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/104420739800900107


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