Facilitator Prods or Enforcer Jolts? How organizational actions change student disability disclosure decisions

This qualitative study examines how institutional actions in a business school influence student disability disclosure and shape student construals of its risks and benefits. Our findings indicate that while students experienced inclusion initiatives and accommodations as distant and abstract, they perceived sanctions for unexcused absences as immediate and tangible, which significantly increased disclosure rates. Drawing on longitudinal data collected over 3 years through surveys, semistructured interviews, and participant observations, we analyzed the lived experiences of students with disabilities (SWDs) alongside faculty and staff. Thematic analysis identified two types of organizational actions—Facilitator Prods and Enforcer Jolts, which produced divergent perceptions and outcomes. Despite extensive institutional advocacy efforts (Facilitator Prods), students were more likely to disclose only after a compliance-driven attendance policy (Enforcer Jolts) was implemented. Using Construal Level Theory (CLT), we explore how organizational actions shape students’ construals of disclosure costs and benefits and their decisions to conceal or reveal a disability. This study advances management education scholarship by illustrating how business schools, as arenas that actively socialize and professionalize future managers, can inadvertently reproduce ableist assumptions through the very inclusion initiatives designed to disrupt them and how enforcement-driven mechanisms may paradoxically engender more durable cultural transformation.