The role of line managers in the implementation of work adjustment practices for chronically ill employees: A qualitative study

Despite chronically ill employees (CIEs) constituting a significant part of the working population, there is a lack of systematic research using the HRM lens on the role of line managers in the implementation of work adjustment practices (WAPs) aimed at meeting the needs of this vulnerable group of employees. This qualitative study represents a first attempt to fill this gap and examines the conditions under which WAPs are most likely to meet the needs of CIEs. The model that emerges from our study in a large energy company shows that dualities and tensions occur during the entire process of local WAP implementation, from initiation through adaptation to routinization, that can result in either positive or dysfunctional outcomes for CIEs depending on several identified contextual factors. We also found evidence of a far more diffused agentivity than is generally assumed, with line managers, employees, and HR Business Partners understanding WAPs idiosyncratically and contributing, both individually and as a group, to their shaping.