TITLE:
“Better to Keep Quiet”: Current Practices and the Systemic Barriers to Neuroinclusion in Singapore-Based Organisations—A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of HR, Leadership, Ecosystem and Lived-Experience Perspectives
AUTHORS:
Juanita Mega
KEYWORDS:
Neurodiversity, Neuroinclusion, Disclosure and Masking, Psychological Safety, HR Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Singapore, Reflexive Thematic Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.6,
November
13,
2026
ABSTRACT: Neurodivergent adults remain persistently under-employed relative to their share of the population, yet most workplace research is Western-centred and oriented toward individual accommodations rather than organisation-wide cultural change. Drawing on an interpretivist, qualitative study of 23 participants across four stakeholder groups—business leaders (BL), HR and learning-and-development heads (HRLD), ecosystem partners (EP) and self-declared neurodivergent professionals (SDND)—in Singapore-based organisations, this paper examines current neuroinclusion practices (RO1) and the barriers and enablers to embedding them (RO2). Using reflexive thematic analysis, eight themes are developed. Current practice is ad hoc, informal and dependent on individual goodwill; promising initiatives such as employee resource groups and strengths-based job redesign exist but do not scale. Five barriers and enablers are identified: a self-reinforcing “stigma-silence” loop in which non-disclosure and masking function as trust signals rather than deficits; HR systems built on neurotypical norms; an HR function that is willing but not equipped for strategic change; a genuine paradox in which technology and AI both enable and exclude; and ecosystem support that is transactional and fragmented. The findings extend biopsychosocial and social-relational models into the hierarchical, face-saving cultural context of Singapore and reframe low disclosure as an indicator of organisational culture. Implications position HR as a strategic co-designer of neuroinclusion and call for measurement, neurodiversity-aware technology audits, and strategic (rather than transactional) ecosystem partnerships.