Sustainable employment depends on quality relationships between supervisors and their employees on the autism spectrum.

This study looked at what helps autistic people succeed in jobs by interviewing managers, autistic workers, and job coaches. The most important factor was having a good relationship between the autistic employee and their supervisor. Job coaches were key in helping both sides understand each other better throughout the whole employment process, from getting hired to ongoing work support.

This qualitative study examined organizational factors influencing employment success for autistic employees through nine case histories involving managers, autistic employees, and job coaches. The research found that high-quality relationships between supervisors and autistic employees were the key factor in successful organizational integration and sustained employment. Job coaches played a crucial role as skilled facilitators throughout the employment cycle, helping build mutual understanding between supervisors and employees during hiring, onboarding, training, and performance management. The study contributes to leader-member exchange theory by identifying skilled communication facilitation as a novel factor specifically important for autistic employees' workplace success.

Job coaching should focus on facilitating supervisor-employee relationships throughout the employment cycle. Training programs should emphasize communication facilitation skills for job coaches and autism awareness for supervisors to improve employment outcomes for autistic individuals.

Small qualitative sample of nine case histories limits generalizability. Study type and exact sample size not clearly specified. Findings based on interviews may be subject to recall bias and social desirability effects.

Employment outcomes for individuals on the autism spectrum may be contingent upon employers' knowledge of autism and provision of appropriate workplace supports. We aimed to understand the organizational factors that influenced the organizational socialization of autistic employees. We wrote nine case histories based on interviews from managers, autistic employees, and job coaches. Intra-case analysis, then cross-case analysis, provided an understanding of organizational factors that lead to sustained employment of autistic employees.

The quality of the relationship between managers and autistic employees was consistently seen as the key facilitator of organizational socialization and positive employment outcomes of autistic employees. These relationships, however, relied on the skilled facilitation of the job coach during each stage of the employment cycle (hiring, on-boarding, training, performance management), as they had an important role in building a mutual understanding between supervisors and employees. As such, our study draws upon and contributes to leader-member exchange theory. Consistent with prior research, our study shows the importance of high-quality relationships between supervisors and supervisees for positive employment outcomes of autistic employees in organization but adds skilled communication facilitation as a novel antecedent to leader-member exchange, as a potentially key factor for autistic employees.

Implications for rehabilitationThe relationship between the a manager and their employee is an important factor in effective organizational socialization and workplace outcomes for autistic employees.Job coaches can play a crucial role in building mutual understanding and high-quality relationships between managers and employees.Job coaches can support the inclusion of autistic employees by illustrating the multi-faceted socioemotional performance benefits over the longer term.