Neurodiversity, Organisations, Work and Intersectionality Lab

Our work shows how organisational systems—whether in hiring, leadership, learning, or everyday routines—can be reimagined to recognise diverse ways of thinking and reduce barriers created at the intersections of neurodivergence, race, gender, class, sexuality, and age.

NOWI Lab brings together researchers, neurodivergent professionals, employers, and advocacy organisations to rethink systems of work and co-create practices that are inclusive across identities and sustainable across careers.

Vision

Workplaces should expect and value difference. NOWI Lab exists to reimagine systems so that neurodiversity and intersecting identities are recognised as central to fairness, inclusion, and innovation.

Objectives

Produce rigorous research grounded in lived experience.
Illuminate how intersectional stigma shapes careers and wellbeing.
Prototype and evaluate interventions that dismantle barriers.
Share accessible lessons and best practice across sectors.

Focus areas

Our work spans five interconnected areas:

Neurodiversity: advancing understanding of neurodivergent experiences and strengths in organisational contexts.
Intersectionality: examining how neurodiversity intersects with race, gender, age, class, and other identities to shape workplace inclusion and exclusion.
Research: conducting critical organisational studies on disclosure, masking, stress, identity, leadership, and HR systems.
Engagement: building sustained partnerships with employers, policy-makers, and advocacy groups to co-design and test inclusive practices.
Training & Action: delivering evidence-based workshops, toolkits, and interventions developed in collaboration with neurodivergent professionals.

Our research challenges deficit models by asking how neurodivergence is shaped by — and shapes — organisational systems. Current projects include:

Intersectional stereotyping of ethnic minority neurodivergent employees.
Neurodiversity and menopause at work.
Ageing, late diagnosis, and long-term workplace adaptation.
Neuroinclusive leadership and HR practice across global contexts.

Selected publications

Gottardello, D., Calvard, T., & Song, J.-W. (2025). When neurodiversity and ethnicity combine: Intersectional stereotyping and workplace experiences of neurodivergent ethnic minority employees. Human Resource Management, 64(3), 841–859.

Editorial roles

Debora Gottardello is serving as a Guest Editor for a special issue on Work, Intersectionality, and Neurodiversity: Understanding and Improving Inclusion Across the Career Span at the Journal of Managerial Psychology (Emerald Publishing). Call for papers closes 31 December 2026.

From international paper seminars to practitioner roundtables, NOWI Lab fosters dialogue that translates research into practice. Recent highlights include:

Intersectionality and stereotyping of workplace minorities (Stockholm School of Economics).
Understanding neurodiversity at work (Korea Labour Institute).
Inclusion workshops with 800+ Canadian civil servants.

We design training that is both neuroinclusive and intersectional, covering:

Leadership practices that build credibility and trust across identities.
Disclosure and accommodations that work for neurodivergent staff with intersecting marginalisations.
Learning designs that respect cognitive diversity, age, and gendered life-course differences (e.g., menopause).