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. 2022 May;50(3):371-380.
doi: 10.1177/1403494821990241. Epub 2021 Feb 12.

Development of the workplace inclusion questionnaire (WIQ)

Vigdis Sveinsdottir  1 , Tone Langjordet Johnsen  1   2 , Tonje Fyhn  1 , Jon Opsahl  1 , Torill Helene Tveito  3 , Aage Indahl  2 , Hege Randi Eriksen  4 , Silje Endresen Reme  5
Affiliations

Development of the workplace inclusion questionnaire (WIQ)

Vigdis Sveinsdottir et al. Scand J Public Health. 2022 May.

Abstract

Aims: To develop a questionnaire to examine attitudes among employees and managers to include people with various health problems into their work group, and to test the questionnaire in one relevant population within the labour market.

Methods: A questionnaire was developed through a process involving discussions in a scientific forum and pilot testing with group discussions. The final questionnaire, which was tested in a survey study of managers and employees in 33 Norwegian kindergartens (N=485), contained 10 short case stories followed by questions concerning workplace inclusion. The case stories described individuals with musculoskeletal and mental disorders, as well as individuals with potentially stigmatising behavioural history and lifestyle, and control cases. Risk ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare the case stories. Cases with high risk ratios had an increased risk of not being included compared to a control case.

Results: Attitudes for workplace inclusion varied between the different case stories. Cases portraying mental illness had the highest risk ratios, indicating that employees and managers are less likely to include people with mental illness than people with musculoskeletal illness. Furthermore, unspecific or chronic illness had higher risk ratios than specific and acute illness. The most important barriers also varied between case stories.

Conclusions: The workplace inclusion questionnaire fulfills the need for a quantitative measure of attitudes to include individuals with various health problems into the workplace. Comparison of risk ratios showed clear differences between case stories, indicating that the workplace inclusion questionnaire is a valuable tool to measure the variance in workplace inclusion.

Keywords: Attitudes; discrimination; prejudice; stigma; vocational rehabilitation; workplace; workplace inclusion.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Mean and 95% confidence interval for workplace inclusion of each case story on a scale from 1 (very poorly) to 5 (very well): ‘Given the current circumstances, how do you think person N.N. fits into your work group?’.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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