RELIGION AND WORKPLACE IMPLICATIONS

A presentation and discussion by:

MBA 8811

Human Resource Challenges

April 14, 2003

RELIGION AND WORKPLACE IMPLICATIONS

To merely state that religion is part of our essential make-up, would be stating the obvious and indeed would be an understatement.  By simply examining the historical lengths that various religions have been practiced, one can understand the significance of religion to human-kind.  Although it is nearly impossible to establish a specific starting point for religions, the following table displays a few major religions and their approximate time of existence.

        

Religion has been and will continue to be a significant element in our lives.  Further, as the self-proclaimed Melting Pot, all of the above religions, plus countless others are practiced in the United States.  

For many American workers, religion and spirituality provide a direct channel for life enrichment, happiness, and success.  In most cases, the fruits of religion are achieved in the person’s private life.  Increasingly, however, there are times when a person’s religious beliefs, practices, and opinions enter the workplace, come into conflict with job responsibilities, or perhaps even come into conflict with co-workers.  Additionally, if an employee for example, is the only one at work who practices Islam, that person may be subject to discrimination or lost opportunities due to their dissimilar belief system.  Further, an employee does not need to be part of a minority religion to be subject to discrimination or lost opportunities.  A practicing Christian in a predominately Christian workplace, who openly professes his/her faith, may be subject to negative treatment and may also make others uncomfortable.  These are a few examples of negative organizational outcomes.

Does religion/spirituality belong in a work environment?  Or is it out place?  There are extreme views on these issues.  A call for strictly secular work environments has its merits, while the call for more spirituality or religion in the workplace has its merits as well.  The final solution lies somewhere in between.  This solution will vary from organization to organization depending on the degree of diversity within the company.  It boils down to the administration of the company recognizing the diversity in its workforce, understanding their different needs and reasonably accommodating them accordingly.  In most cases good communication, flexibility and reasonable accommodation from both parties will solve the problem.

This report will help employers understand how religion affects the workplace and practical steps that not only will avert conflicts, but will also encourage and embrace diversity as an instrument for organizational success.  This will be accomplished systematically by:

  1. Understanding recent demographic changes regarding religion and spirituality that may or already have affected workplaces
  2. Developing a legal framework to understand employer/employee rights, regulations and obligations regarding religion and religious accommodation in the workplace
  3. Discussing potential issues or conflicts that may occur in workplaces
  4. Identifying practical employer solutions and case studies that may help alleviate these conflicts.
  5. Ending with a summary of the topics listed above  

RECENT RELIGIOUS AND WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATIONS

As we tread into the twenty-first century several realities have become apparent.

 

  • Religious activity has increased in the USA
  • American society, and thus the workplace, has become increasingly diverse.
  • The economy has become more globalized via expanded use of information technology, and increased global migration
  • Pressure for added time commitments at work has blurred the boundary between private-life  and workplace commitments

Several statistics back-up these statements.  In a book, The Next American Spirituality, by George Gallup, Jr., Gallup used his organization’s polling prowess to ascertain religion’s importance to private American citizens in 1999.  The results of one specific poll are poignant.  According to that poll, 78% of respondents felt the need to experience spiritual growth.  In that same poll 48% said they had reason to talk about their religious faith in the workplace during the past 24 hours.  Although, Gallup respondents in the poll were predominately Christian, the results do show that there is a definite divergence of religion and work.  (Conlin, 1999)

In the United States some of the more practiced religions, alphabetically, are Buddhism, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Native American and Sikhism.  Within this large umbrella there are various denominations and “flavors”.  According to Gale Research, the total numbers of religious organizations are placed at 1,550 in the Encyclopedia of American Religions.  Out of this group, 900 are classified as Christian denominations and around 75 are classified as various forms of Buddhism.  More than 100 Hindu denominations have come to the US since mid-1960’s.  Also of note is that several different projections show Islam overtaking Judaism as the second most practiced (by sheer numbers) religion in the United States within five years.

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The Tanenbaum Center for Inter-religious Understanding teamed with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) for two separate thorough surveys of both employees of faith (1999) and HR professionals (2001).  According to the HR survey, over 80% of the HR Managers responding identified Christianity as being present, either by obvious visual cues or by conversation, in their respective workplaces.  That is probably not very surprising for most white Anglo-Saxon, Christian Americans.  However, nearly 50% of the HR Managers responded that the Judaism was present in some form.  Most surprising however is that nearly 30% of the HR Managers responded ...

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