Religious Issues in the Work Place - Essay Example

Diversity is a crucial part of today's globalized culture. Organizations today adopt diverse hiring practices so that they can have the best kind of workforce which has divergent qualities and can help the organization in moving forward in a positive way. It is being observed that today organizations are deliberately hiring diverse people so that they can portray themselves as tolerant people and this helps in bringing in business. People will feel that since the company is not discriminating against the race, color and religion of employees they are broadminded and hence a possible place for buying the goods or the services that they have to offer.

Diversity can be in the form of cast, color, creed, nationality and religion. The most famous of the discriminations among the difference as mentioned above is that of color and religion. Today, organizations portray complete tolerance of these differences so that they do not face any lawsuits. There are proper laws stated by the government that caters to all kinds of discrimination that an individual might face in his workplace. Workplace settings are today the most common ground where people face the discrimination on the basis of the possible difference that they might have from the majority. Religious discrimination is next most happening discrimination that occurs in the workplace. Many people have every low tolerance for the religious differences and hence tend to cause fights or throw verbal abuse at the different individual.

The religious diversity in the United States of America has specially stated injunctions for the people of the following religions, Muslims, Sikh, Hindus, Buddhist and other minorities. It is has been noted that workplace is the most common place where people tend to meet and discriminate each other on this religion basis.

The Civil Rights Act 1964, was designed to protect the rights of every individual citizen or not a citizen of the United States of America. The primary purpose of the act was to ensure that no persons right gets violated, and every individual remains aware of the possible rights he has in case his rights have been violated or denied. The Title VII clearly states that no organization has the right to stop a person from his religious obligations. It states that the company has no right to stop an individual from observing his religious activities as long as the person is not causing harm to the existing reputation of the enterprise. If the allowance of religious observance hinders the growth of the company or causes a decrease in the productivity of the said employee, then the company has all the right to lay off the person or stop him from observation of the religious task. The organization faces no legal or financial issue due to the observance of religious activity then they cannot prevent a person from his religious duties, but should facilitate him and provide him with the required days off. For example, a practicing Muslim needs to pray five times a day, and for that, he needs a properly purified place and a washing area where he can wash. It is the duty of the organization to provide the time and facility to the Muslim to help in observing his religious duty. Similarly, the Muslim are required to offer their Friday prayers in mosques in the congregation, and the organizations should make space for this activity. The time that the person is spending while offering his prayers should be predetermined between the employer and the employee to avoid any issues for the organization, or any loss is terms of financial gains. The other very major problem that is commonly seen is that Muslims simply refuse to transport alcohol from one place to another. It is also seen that in some cases they even refuse to carry people who are taking alcohol. The companies hiring the drivers tend to keep in mind the reservation that is religiously correct so that they safeguard their employee rights along with the proper provision of customer service (Alidadi, Foblets, & Vrielink, 2012).

The other most prominent example is that of a Sikh, the Sikhs are not allowed to cut their head hairs or beard hairs, and the organization should provide them with the space to allow this practice. The Sikh are only usually required to practice proper hygiene. Otherwise, there is no restriction. There was a very famous case that involved as Sikh driver who due to his diligence and prompt action was able to save a subway train, but he was criticized for wearing a turban. The company demanded that he should either put a logo on his turban or should discontinue wearing it. Many Sikh lobbyists were working to promote the awareness about the rights the Sikhs had as employees. He was able to win the case and had received money to compensate for the damage he had faced in the form of damaged reputation (Alidadi, Foblets, & Vrielink, 2012).

People living in the United States of America have the freedom to practice any religion that they want and hence it is also required as a part of the law that the companies should also be tolerant of any differences that existed among the hired people. In the wake of the recent international scenario of terrorist activities, and the names that have been appearing Muslims have been labeled as terrorist or intolerant and incentive humans who have no tolerance for other religions. This is the perception that majority of the westerners have. This causes to discriminate as people divert their inbuilt anger towards the people of a same religious group that they meet. It is very crucial for the employees to be able to handle the diversity that they are facing in the organization so that the environment of the organization is free of any controversy. There had been one other very famous debate with regards to Hobby Lobby. The females were not allowed the medical facility to abort or use medications that aided in abortions. The management of the company was practicing Christians who were against the abortion, and thus, they had refused any assistance to their female employees. The employees were of the view that they had each, and every right to decide what they wanted to do in their personal lives and the corporation is a singular entity that has no personal opinions about religion. This was the reason the case was filed, and the verdict was given in the favor of the corporation. This was considered as a landmark ruling in the legal world as it granted the religious freedom to people to practice their beliefs (Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, & Mills, n.d.).

There are some ways the organization can help their employees in ensuring that they are religiously liberal and allow space for religious practices and do not judge according to the religion that people are following (Bendl, Bleijenbergh, Henttonen, & Mills, n.d.):

The most important of them all is to train employees. The employees when adequately trained tend to be more tolerant of the differences. These workshops and training can help them in understanding that the differences when tackled efficiently can assist in the development of synergy in the organization and aid in positive attitude building. The training will also help the employees in understanding the necessities and requirements of the other religions and enable them to give space as and when required. Most importantly the employees develop the understanding that they should be mindful of how they are acting in a public setting and be aware of not imposing their personal religious beliefs upon the office mates (Alidadi, Foblets, & Vrielink, 2012).

The second method that the organization can adapt to allow diversity in their workplace is to enable time and days off for various religious practices. Working out a proper routine and days off before a new year helps in avoiding any loss that the company might incur. This also helps in maintaining the productivity of the employees and enable them to own the organization they are working for.

Employees should be encouraged to understand each other and develop a common ground amongst themselves. This will help in the development of an excellent environment in the organization. If the employees are having some kind of conflict amongst themselves, the management should step in and help in the resolution of the issue so that the conflict can be resolved without causing further discomfort in the organization.

The management should not overreact to any discriminatory issue that has occurred in the organization and instead look for ways to handle it with little less fervor so that the rest of the employees do not become involved unnecessarily.

The last and perhaps the most efficient method to handle discrimination is to have a no tolerance policy this will make the employees remain aware that they have to be tolerant, or they will have to face the consequences in the form of serious action from the management.

CONCLUSION

Diversity in hiring practices should be adopted, but the organizations should make sure that the employees are tolerant of the difference and do not disrupt the regular functioning of the organization in any way.