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By positioning this study within the theoretical lenses of Bourdieu’s practice theory, this paper aims to provide a more contextual understanding of training transfer (TT) with a particular focus on the duality between objectivity and subjectivity that characterize social structures within two different fields (a public post office company and a multinational evolving in the ICT high-tech sector).

Multiple case study.

The findings demonstrate that TT cannot be dissociated from social interaction dynamics in the workplace, where objective and subjective structures play a strategic role. In fact, capital dispatching, power disparities and cultural imperatives influence TT practice in both cases. However, this influence differs from one field to another.

Top management team should pay more attention to power and particularly to symbolic power as it can influence TT intentions and effectiveness. They must be aware that not only the economic capital is sought after but also the cultural and the symbolic capital.

This study aims at lessening the gap between theory and practice on the TT problem, in an effort to increase comprehension of the social roots of the transferring process. This research deepens the analysis of the complexity of socialization structuring TT practice in two different fields.

In this research, we apply a sociological lens to reconstruct the perspectives of disabled workers in their use of digital technologies within the organizational setting. Our study has two objectives. First, we aim to investigate how disabled workers use digital technologies to enact socially valued roles, thereby helping to counteract internalized societal norms through enhancing workplace inclusion. Second, we seek to explain under which conditions disabled workers can better approach the digital imperatives in the workplace.

This research has a qualitative research design, employing the thematic-content analysis method. We conducted one-to-one interviews with 33 disabled workers in various positions who used a variety of digital technologies in their work.

Our findings outline how the digital environment in the workplace creates a distinct set of rules and expectations that disabled workers must navigate. These rules reflect the structures and practices inherent in digital technologies (logic of practice), which either empower or constrain disabled workers based on their habitus and the ability to leverage various forms of capital. This study discusses how some disabled workers who have greater access to cultural capital (such as digital skills) are better positioned to navigate the digital environment, whereas those with limited access to such capital face additional challenges. It explained how symbolic violence arises in the experiences of some disabled workers by revealing how the implicit rules of the digital workplace reinforce power dynamics that marginalize them, thereby perpetuating social domination.

In examining the ambivalent role of digital technologies for disabled workers, this research navigates the complex interplay between empowerment and barriers within the digital workplace. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this study explains how the enactment of digital technologies can enhance the sociability and inclusion of disabled workers. Thanks to his concepts of habitus, forms of capital, field, illusion and symbolic violence, we highlight the disruptions that can emerge in reconciling disability with digital requirements. Moreover, the study makes pivotal contributions to the discourse on diversity, inclusion and equality. It underscores the empowerment aspect, wherein digital technologies serve as critical enablers for communication, productivity and independence for disabled workers and critically evaluates the persistent barriers to digital inclusivity.