Mod 5 reflection 614
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OUTLINE_RELIGION_and_the_Global_Working_Environment.pptxModule 5 Religion and the Global Working Environment
According to Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner
There is considerable evidence that the divide between individualism and communitarianism follow the Protestant-Catholic religious divide. Calvinists had contracts or covenants with God and with one another, for which they were personally responsible.
Each Puritan worshipper approached God as a separate being, seeking justification through works.
Roman Catholics, for their part, have always approached God as a community of the faithful. On this point, research has found that Catholics score higher on group choices and Protestants significantly lower.
According to Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner
Geert Hofstede’s research also confirms this tendency that the Latin Catholic cultures, along with Asian cultures of the Pacific Rim, score lower on individualism that the Protestant West: for instance, the UK, Scandinavia (as a rule), the Netherlands, Germany, the US, and Canada.
Hofstedes has an interesting approach about Religion and Power Distance. (G. Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences (London: Sage, 1980) .
Some Facts to Consider
More Religion, Not Less
A strong majority in the United States are religious, even as religious affiliation becomes increasingly diverse. According to a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:
92 percent of Americans say they believe in God.
83 percent are affiliated with a religious group.
54 percent attend religious services at least once or twice per month.
Nearly 60 percent pray every day.
39 percent meditate at least once a week.
74 percent believe in life after death.
63 percent say they believe Scripture is the word of God.
Spreading the Word
In a 2001 survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding in New York, HR professionals reported that 19 percent of the employees in their organizations engaged in proselytizing. Nine percent of employees in the same survey said they felt harassed by workers who expressed their religious beliefs.
In a 2005 survey conducted by The Barna Group, a research organization in Ventura, Calif., 55 percent of Christian respondents said they had shared their faith with nonbelievers “during the past year” in at least one of the following ways:
Spreading the Word
They offered to pray with a non-Christian who was in need of encouragement or support.
They engaged in “lifestyle evangelism,” described as living in ways that would impress non-Christians and cause them to raise questions about that lifestyle.
They engaged in “Socratic evangelism,” intentionally asking a non-Christian what they believe concerning a particular moral or spiritual matter, and continuing to ask questions about their views without telling them they are wrong but challenging them to explain their thinking and its implications.
Religion and the Legal Aspect
As a nation of immigrants, the United States has always had a diversity of religions among its people
Several considerations and definition of Religion under
Section 701, Title VII, section (j)
Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment based on religion
Term "religion" includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief
The Legal Aspect
Legal Parameters Of course, employers are obligated to make reasonable efforts to accommodate the sincerely held religious beliefs of all workers.
Accommodation may include opportunities for prayer, respecting holidays—even proselytizing and the distribution of literature.
Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination occurs if an employer fails to reasonably accommodate employees, or if employees are harassed by being required to abandon or adopt, or coerced into abandoning or adopting, a religious practice as a condition of employment (quid pro quo) or subjected to unwelcome statements or conduct based on religion so severe or pervasive that the person finds the work environment hostile or abusive.
The Legal Aspect
Hence, employers must balance the obligation to accommodate religious views of one or more employees—an obligation that legal experts say is becoming more onerous—with the obligation to prevent harassment or creation of a hostile work environment for others.
For example, unwelcome words or conduct, whether emanating from a fellow employee or the boss, may be permissible until the target of the communication or conduct objects. Even then, they may not constitute harassment unless considered pervasive or severe.
Navigating this terrain is dicey; hence, most employers opt for a hands-off approach wherever possible.
There are two interesting concepts of Religion in the workplace setting
Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship
Duty to reasonably accommodate: Employer’s Title VII duty to try to find a way to avoid conflict between workplace policies and an employee’s religious practices or beliefs
Undue hardship: Burden imposed on an employer, by accommodating an employee’s religious conflict too onerous for the employer to bear
Section 701, Title VII, section (j)
Unless an employer demonstrates that he or she is unable to reasonably accommodate an employee’s or prospective employee’s religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business
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Religious Harassment
Religion harassment is one of the most active areas under religious discrimination lately.
Employees should be permitted to engage in private religious expression in personal work areas
Employees should be permitted to engage in religious expression with fellow employees
Employees are permitted to engage in religious expression directed at fellow employees
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Lawyers’ Recommendations Regarding Religion
Employment lawyer Michael Homans of Falster/Greenberg PC in Philadelphia, and co-authors Ingrid Johnson of Legal Services of New Jersey in Edison and Kevin Henry of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated in Charlotte, N.C., in a paper delivered at an American Bar Association conference in April, suggest the following workplace practices regarding religion. Do:
Encourage diversity.
Promote tolerance.
Promote nondenominational “values” and ethics.
Establish a mechanism to review and consider requests for accommodation.
Encourage employees to report any discrimination or harassment.
Train managers and HR professionals on religious discrimination, harassment and accommodation.
Offer employees opportunities to promote voluntary participation in religious and nonreligious activities outside work hours.
Be wary of workplace proselytizing.
Respect employee beliefs, privacy and dignity.
Follow best practices to avoid religious bias, as you would with any equal employment opportunity category.
Lawyers’ Recommendations Regarding Religion
Don’t:
Mandate attendance at religious services.
Discriminate at work based on religion or non-religion.
Base accommodation decisions on the religion at issue.
Allow employees to condemn as “evil” or “damned” others who believe differently.
Rely on literature of only one religion to promote values or company ethos.
Give overly generous or solicitous accommodations to employees of one religion unless you are willing to do so for all.
Accommodate individual conduct, speech or religious observances that create a harassing environment for others or otherwise impinge on other employees’ rights.
Some tips for the International H.R. Managers
Take all employee notices of religious conflicts seriously
Once an employee puts the employer on notice of a religious conflict, immediately try to find ways to avoid the conflict
Ask the employee with the conflict for suggestions on avoiding the conflict
Ask other employees if they can be of assistance in alleviating the conflict
Keep workplace religious comments and criticisms to a minimum
See if it is more appropriate to use more inclusive language such as holiday to cover employees who do not celebrate a certain religious holiday
Revisit the issue of granting leave for religious events and make sure it does not favor one religion over another
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References
G. Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences (London: Sage, 1980
Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business – Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner
Religion at Work by Robert Grossman
https :// www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/religion-at-work.aspx
