Religion in the Workplace
Sydney Royce
Why Research?
Importance
There are 4,200 religions in the world and because of this, many people may disagree on which one is right vs. which one is wrong, making religion a controversial topic. "Gallup polls show that approximately 75–80% of Americans believe in God (Hrynowski 2019), and 50% of Americans identify as a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque (Jones 2019) (Hyodo and Bolton 807)." As spirituality can be a passionate part of someone's life, one may wonder how this plays a role in the workplace.
Who would be interested in this topic?
- Religious or not, anyone who works with others whether it is in the business field or another area
- Managers or supervisors
- Consumers
Religion for Workplaces
How does religion affect the workplace?
Workplaces
Importance of religion in the workplace
Importance
- In a workplace it is important to create a safe environment for all employees and associates. In order to do so they should not be judged on religious views. Dal Corso finds in her research that workplace spirituality is associated with a positive impact on an employee and organization's well-being.
- "Workplace spirituality is associated not only with employee well-being, but also with other subjective feelings, such as positive affectivity, resilience, self-efficacy, and work engagement (Dal Corso 11)."
- "Spirit at work has a relevant role in several areas of working life, which affect both organizational well-being and global wellbeing of employees (Dal Corso 11)."
Challenges Managers May Face
Challenges
- Business/Organization managers are "responsible for the functioning of their organizations and for including the requirements of their stakeholders (Cabodevilla 6)."
- Because of this they may face challenges integrating religion because they need to please their employees, customers, and stakeholders.
- "One possible challenge for consumers who wish to satisfy religious mandates is finding a provider that is both aligned with certain convictions and trusted to act accordingly (Sarofim)."
- A manager needs to uphold values such as trust and transparency that will please his consumers and stakeholders in order to keep his business running. This could be challenging when specific religions may require different values to be upheld than others
Integrating Religion
Integrating Religion
- "We can say that modern economics aims to maximize economic profit and in doing so it cultivates human desires, develops markets, and favors instrumental value and self-interest-based ethics. This is the exact opposite that St. Francis represented in his entire life (Zsolani 1)."
- If a religious person wishes to integrate their relgion into their workplace, one may do so by using ethical behavior and creating a caring environment by helping one's associates instead of only helping himself
- Efforts can be devoted to developing intervention programs that focus on the employees' spiritual needs (Dal Corso)
- Dal Corso suggests that an organization should have spirituality interventions to promote and check in on its employees' well-being
Religion for Consumers
How are consumers affected by religion?
Consumers
Forgive a Firm
- Since forgiveness is a value of many religions, religiously affiliated individuals "tend to value forgiveness more and see themselves
as more forgiving than less religious individuals (Barnes and Brown 2010) (Hyodo and Bolton 808)."
- Forgiveness is a value in many religions and it has been thought that forgiveness is positively correlated to religious values
- Because religiously affiliated individuals are more likely to forgive it was found in Hyodo and Bolton's study that "religion salience enhances consumer response to recovery in the form of apology but not compensation (Hyodo and Bolton 820)."
- This is because a firm making an active recovery shows that they are sorry and acknowledge their wrong doing in the form of repentance
- Not in all cases is relgion correlated to individuals forgiving a firm and sometimes firms don't always deserve to be forgiven, however in Hyodo and Bolton's study the tendency to forgive a recovering firm was correlated to religious individuals
What is bought
- "Religious identity, consequently, influences a consumer's judgment of what is ethical in both business and consumption situations (Vitell, 2009) (Sarofim)."
- Religion is found to affect a consumer's opinion on products and businesses
- An example of this may be Hobby Lobby- this craft store sells a lot of canvases with Christian quotes. This may be a turn off for other religiously affiliated individuals
- In some religions material items may be viewed as negative and it is sometimes expected that one live a more simplistic life
- "Religiosity is negatively associated with materialism, trendiness, and hedonism (Hyodo and Bolton 808)."
- This can affect what consumers buy, thus influencing how they interact with a business/organization
What to Buy
Religion in Marketing
- Sometimes a consumer can tell if a business is religiously affiliated based on its operating hours or references
- "The Chick-fil-A restaurant chain is closed on the Christian Sabbath (Sundays), Forever 21 prints a biblical reference (“John 3:16”) on its shopping bags, and Marriott equips most of its hotel rooms with a Book of Mormon and a Bible (Hyodo and Bolton 807)."
- In many religions feelings of shame and guilt may often be associated with fiscal spending (Sarofim)
- This can affect how a business needs to market their product because they might want to make religious consumers feel less guilty about buying their product by making it seem like a necessity
Marketing in Religion
Marketing in Religion
-How might marketing be used in a Church?
- "The United Methodist Church [for example]has resources that answer questions about the church and its beliefs similar to what any retailer would do in attempting to provide consumer information(Kuzma 5)"
- By creating a website that is updated regularly, userfriendly, and is easily accesible for all people, people, just like consumers in a business, would be more inclined to attend this church as opposed to a church whos website is not updated regularly
- A church's website that is not updated regularly or userfriendly, may give off a negative connotation that it is not as welcoming
How Religion and the Workplace Connect
Conclusion
"[R]eligious beliefs often have the strongest influence on behavior and lifestyle choices (James, 1902; Mathras et al., 2016; Minton and Kahle, 2017), partnered with the undeniable influence of financial decision‐making on well‐being (Sarofim)." Because religion has such an impact on peoples' lives it can affect the way consumers spend their money and the ways in which people work whether that is by their ethical practices or how they run a business.