Religion and the Workplace

In “Working it Out” by Diana Eck, she writes about religious oppression in the workplace. The examples she gives on the many ways people have been fired, or the ways in which people's faiths have been compromised, reiterates that the amendment that states freedom of religion in the United States, is

I grew up in a home where religion was deep rooted and where it is the basis for everything you do. For instance, my mother has strong religious belief which means that we were in church 5 days a week. I grew up in this culture, and I began to take on the traits, practices and beliefs associated with it. I heard my mother thank god and pray every night for the good thing that happens in our life. When you are fully engrossed in your belief it becomes second nature to you. We were taught that if you pray and belief in God, he would help you when you are in need and God will protect and look out for all those who believe and worship him. As you get older and keeping your faith, you find yourself believe more and more that your belief is what

Over the last several decades, workplace issues have become an area of controversy for most employers. This is because the regulations surrounding what practices are considered to be discriminatory have increased dramatically. To enforce these issues, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) is playing a central role in making employers follow these provisions of the law. A recent example of this occurred, with the case EEOC v. HCS Medical Staffing Inc.

Section 4 of the Equality Act 2010 lists many ‘protected characteristics’ that form the basis of discrimination law and one amongst them is ‘religion and belief’. Most of the provisions of the Act came into force on 1 October 2010 (Naamat et al., 2012). This Act repealed the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. . Section 10 of the EA 2010 covers the protected characteristic of religion or belief. ‘Religion’ means any religion or lack of a religion and ‘Belief’ means any religious or philosophical belief, or lack of such a belief. As seen in the case of Grainger plc v Nicholson [2010] Mr Nicholson was made redundant from Grainger plc, the UKs largest listed specialist landlord. Mr Nicholson belived in climate change, for this reason he was nominated for redundancy first. He argued, as a initial matter, this was a philosophical belief within the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 r 2(1)(b) and that should be construed in accordance with ECHR art 9. He said it affected where he lived and how he travelled. Among other things, Grainger plc argued that if it was a philosophical belief then lack of the belief would be protected too. The employment judge held that Nicholson’s beliefs about climate change

The United States is one of the most culturally and religiously diverse countries in the world. The founding fathers of the United States wanted to ensure that its people would have the ability to practice their religion with no threat of persecution. In order to accomplish the goal of religious freedom and continue to ensure that all people of any religion would be free to practice their religion, the United States passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits an employer from discriminating based on the religious views of its employees. As the citizens of the United States spend a large amount of time in their places of employment, religious practices that these employees feel are necessary for the true observance of their religion must be accommodated by the employers. This law contends that in cases where the accommodation of religious practices of its employees does not create undue hardships, an employer must make reasonable accommodations for employees to practices the beliefs of their religion. As the demographics of the United States continues to change with more religiously diverse people immigrating to the country, employers are coming under more pressure to ensure they are taking all possible precautions to accommodate the religious practices of its employees. These precautions are important as the once an employee has established a bona fide complaint of religious discrimination, the burden of proof then falls on the employer to prove they

The definition of religion can be subjective and vary from person to person. According to Gregory (2011), as a society, more and more employees are wishing to demonstrate their faith while at work. He further notes that this will continue as individualism and self-expression are more embraced by todays millennials. In addition, Gregory shows that the filing of discrimination based lawsuits rose 75% between 1997 and 2008. Because of this, Cintas Corporation must create a fair policy that meets the legal obligations of the company.

There are no set EEOC guidelines to define religious harassment; therefore, steps are not being taken to avoid or prevent religious harassment in the workplace. This was seen in the case Zayed v. Apple Computers when Zayed’s

Under the title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination. Discrimination of basis of sex, race, color, national origin, or religion. If a profit corporation have religious beliefs they will be able to argue they have the right to side-step Title VII and, for example, hire only those who sign a “statement of faith” or share the same religious

This religious discrimination not only demonstrates the cultural problems that are present at the Midwest facility, but for the entire corporation. Even though Martra Ford handled the situation correctly and effectively once she was aware of the problem, other changes must be made to Treton’s EEO training and reporting procedures. Ideally, Maalick’s formal complaints will be dealt with quickly and disciplinary actions distrusted accordingly. Once this issue is resolved Judith Dixon and Martha Ford should determine how to solve the underlying issues that this scenario

Cultural differences in the workplace can sometimes become a challenge in the work environment. In order to facilitate these differences, there must be some form of cultural awareness. Cultural awareness can help employees face the challenge of responding to individuals with different religions in the workplace, expose religious practices, and eliminate stereotyping in the workplace. Awareness of religions, and the beliefs associated with different religions, can be accomplished in many ways, such as training courses, workshops or company handouts (Thomas Kochan, 2003, p. 4). Companies must embrace multiculturalism and diversity.

suggest that there is an obvious solution that is fair. When it comes to fairness, I think it is fair

Growing up, Sundays consisted of family and Church. My sister, brother and my parents would all get up early and go to Sunday Mass. We would meet my grandparents, sit together in the front row pew and listen to the priest deliver the Gospel. I always got excited at the end of the Gospel when we, the parishioners would recite, “Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ” I knew that meant we could sit down for a while. After Church, we would venture down to the basement of our Catholic

Religion in the workplace can bring up some of the most difficult issues employers have to face. Resolving these issues requires understanding the law and balancing the business's needs with an employee's desire to practice his or her religion. One of the most contentious conflicts is between an employee's desire to take time off and the potential reduction in productivity and profitability. In ruling on Title VII religion cases, the courts have held that employers aren't required to accommodate employees' religious activities when it involves increased financial costs, transferring supervisory personnel or employees from other departments resulting in inefficiency, or discriminating against other employees or violating seniority systems. Accommodations that don't constitute undue hardship to the employer include voluntary substitutions or employee "swaps," flexible work schedules, floating or optional holidays, staggered work hours, and allowing employees to make up lost time. Transfers and job changes also are options if they don't cause reduced efficiency or

This paper explores an interesting paradigm that is emerging in many organizations, Spirituality in the Workplace. Many authors believe that employees are searching for a more humanistic work environment, simplicity, meaningful work tasks and a greater connection to a higher spiritual phenomenon. Research suggests that most people spend the majority of their time inside the work environment. People lack continuity and connection in so many other settings that most of them are looking to their organizations as a communal center (Mirvus, 1997). Howard (2002) argued that the explosion of interest in spirituality as a new dimension of management is likely one of the most significant trends in management since the 1950’s (p.230). Leader Member Exchange relationship is based on social exchange, reciprocity and role has evolved as a crucial factor in fostering competiveness of most organizations. High quality exchange relationships are more likely to occur when leaders are honest, trustworthy, and concerned about the well being of their followers (Erdogan et al., 2006: Wayne et al., 2002). Ethical leaders are likely to develop high quality exchange relationships with their subordinates through honest and open communication and principled decision-making (Brown and Trevin, 2006). Is spirituality a predictor of high quality LMX relationships? What does spiritual leadership look like? This paper begins to establish if there is a positive correlation between spiritual

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