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Ethical business practices
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Religious Diversity in the Workplace
A department has a coed softball team that has always been considered a big deal since the team began 10 years ago. The softball games are played on Sunday mornings and afternoons. Jenny, who was an all-star softball pitcher in high school and college, has just been transferred into the department, and her new coworkers are thrilled that their team has just become more competitive. Jenny, however, declines to be part of the team. Jenny is now tagged as “not a team player” throughout the office.
Religious Diversity
Williams (2010) stated that “religion is less apparent at times, but is by no means absent” (p. 258). Organizational employees and leaders must pay particular attention to small clues about an employee’s faith and/or religion. These clues can come in the form of pictures, poems, and décor within their workspace to gain an understanding of other’s religion. Williams (2010) stated that work is not a place known to welcome religion but none the less employees enter the workplace with their beliefs, values, and practices with them. Jenny’s religious preferences should be understood and respected by all employees and leaders. Jenny’s non-support of the Sunday softball games should not bring negativism towards her within the workplace. In this paper why people are treated badly, what mangers should do, and impacts of negative treatment will be explored.. Why would people in Jenny’s workplace not understand her religious convictions?
Why
Estreicher and Gray (2010) listed three factors that exacerbate the problems managers face today with accommodating religion in the workplace. The three factors include: immigration increasing religious diversity in the workforce, r...
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...012). Balancing employee religious freedom in the workplace with customer rights to a religion-free retail environment. Business and Society Review, 117(3), 281-306.
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Estreicher, S., and Michael J., (2010). Religion and the U.S. workplace. Human Rights, 33( 3), 17–20.
Kutcher, E., Bragger, J., Rodriguez-Srednicki, O, & Masco, J., (2010). The role of religiosity in stress, job attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 95,
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Religion, 71(3), 257-279. doi:10.1093/socrel/srq048.
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Butler, J., Balmer, R., & Wacker, G. (2008). Religion in American Life : A Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. Thus, the purpose of this comprehensive exam is to give me an opportunity to demonstrate mastery over relevant theories, methods, and empirical findings in major subfields of the sociology of religion. This reading list also provides a strong foundation in the central theoretical perspectives, main classic and current debates, and prominent published empirical studies in the field. Hence, this reading list includes a core set of readings to which we most often refer in our studies and enables comprehensive analyses about the
In this article, the woman in question is Carole Smith, a security worker at a major airport who identifies as a Wiccan witch. She has had numerous incidents of workplace complaints from those she works with and she herself has filed complaints against her coworkers unrelated to her religion. However, all of these serious complains came in after her report of religious discrimination. These c...
Religion is a subject that should be treaded on lightly during an interview. Questions regarding religious preference cannot be asked. An interviewer cannot even ask the question of “Which religious holidays do you observe?” instead if the in...
Robinson, B. A. (2000, September 26). The Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Retrieved May 29, 2010, from Religious Tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.org/rfra.htm
The article “Faith in the workplace”, featured in The Economist, is about a new admonition that came up last month from America’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which stated that last year there were 3, 721 religious discrimination cases in the workforce, which makes the year 2013 with the most amount of religious discrimination cases. Therefore they enforced a law, because it’s a human right for firms to respect their workers and provide them with religious needs, that all the bosses and managers of the Western part of the world, must respect and have to allow their employees to display their religious faiths and beliefs and let them practice it while at work, for example: letting Muslim women wearing their Hijab (head scarf), letting people celebrate their special holidays. That is why all Business firms and companies have changed their rules in order to meet employee’s expectations such Abercrombie Fitch, because if they don’t meet their expectations and discriminate them they will have suffer from lawsuits and so on.
Eileen P. Kelly was a tenured professor in Ithaca College’s School of Business and specialized in management, business ethics, and employment law. She was noted for her scholarly work and publications concerning business ethics, employment rights, religion and employee workplace rights, privacy rights, labor and management history. In this article, Kelly (2008) discusses the degree of religious diversity in the United States, the factors influencing religious expression in the workplace, the most common types of religious expression in the workplace and the extent of the legal obligations an employer has to accommodate them. “Clearly, religion and spirituality are key concerns of the American population. It should come as no surprise therefore that Americans would bring those beliefs into the workplace” (Kelly, 2008, p. 46).
Faith in the workplace and the level of accommodations employers should allow is an increasing problem. Moreover, the influx of people from different backgrounds bringing with them different religious practices has caused organizations to seek help from organizations such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the courts, and legal firms on how to deal with this new reality. Thus, the complexities surrounding religion and spirituality in the workplace and recommendations on the cause and solutions were examined.
I strongly believe that religious accommodations have positive and negative impact for the businesses. The religious accommodation required specific scheduling and change work assignments. For instance, my mom worked in Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Emily Herrmann, manager of Alverno Laboratories said, “She understands the needs of employees and accommodates their needs.” Because employees have to work Sundays, some of them are capabl...
Workforce diversity has become a reality in organizations. More organizations have written workforce diversity policies or programs. Although there is still no consensus on how to define workforce diversity, diversity policies and program are producing positive effects in organizations. Diversity in the workplace is a way of defining acceptable behaviors of employees. Diversity represents all the ways in which individuals are both similar and different. It involves a variation of characteristics such as: age, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, or any other differences. Although diversity initiatives are common in the workplace today, this is due mainly to the federal government use of constitutional amendments, legislation, and executive orders, along with court decisions to interpret the laws for equal rights (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2010). The way an organization defines diversity and how it manages its diverse workforce may determine its effectiveness.
Today there are over 900 religious employee resource groups, according to the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). These affinity groups can help encourage religious understanding by offering panel discussions that educate employees on their beliefs. By allowing open discussion, answering religious questions and creating an open, welcoming religious environment in the workplace employees can better relate to one another through shared religious principles (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). When looking at the business case for diversity, not asking employees to hide their faith at work allows for greater productivity, and time and energy focused on business results (Cañas & Sondak, 2010). Often time’s religious differences can create conflict in the workplace if not properly addressed and managed. In my paper I will be analyzing two scenarios of religious differences in the workplace and discuss how management, employees and coworker’s should respond to the situation. After analyzing these situations, I will discuss how Buddhism potentially impacts the workplace and draw upon my opinions to explain the importance of managing religious diversity.
I remember sitting in that office, with all the little crosses and religious knick-knacks and shelves lined with endless religious texts. Today was the day I would figure out how well I could survive college life. Today was the day I would figure out how well a religious college could practice tolerance. My hands turned white as I gripped the chair, my heart beating ever faster as the moment slowly approached. Father Hart proceeded to clear his throat and an eerie, long silence hung in the air. “The College’s President says it can’t happen.”, Father Hart managed to start, “He’s concerned that it will affect the Monastery.” There it was. After the endless talks of compromise, toiling work of religious research, and tapping all the right people
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP. (2002, October). Religious discrimination – Accommodating differences in the workplace. Retrieved from: http://www.vssp.com/CM/Articles/articles871.asp
Discrimination based on or derived from religion has been a cause of significant suffering. Prejudice directed against people based on their religious beliefs, practice, identification or association has resulted in a wide range of discriminatory practices. Prejudice and discrimination based on religion continue to be problems even in countries that otherwise has achieved a high level of religious diversity. Prejudice based on religion has been used to justify discrimination against those with different religious beliefs, individuals of various ethnicities, those who are not exclus...