The diversity of the domestic and global workforce is increasing daily in the United States (U.S.). The growing number of immigrants and the expansion of globalization in the workforce forces organizations to make necessary adjustments to meet the needs of all their employees. People in organizations have different cultural and religious backgrounds that can be quite different in beliefs and practices (Johnson, 2012). The workforce is more diverse in ethnicity, culture, language, and religion (Borstorff & Arlington, 2011). The inflow of immigrants has augmented the number of religious denominations represented in the U.S. and as a result religious diversity is emerging as a significant issue.
Organizations often discriminate employees
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The operations manager ignored it and continued to attend his religious ceremony. The religious group he was involved with required his members to change their name as part of the commitment and religious practice. The operations manager changed his name and reported the information to Human Resources (HR). In addition, he spoke to the HR director about what his co-workers asked him about his religious beliefs. The HR director assisted him with providing the paperwork to change his name. She also assisted with the issues with co-workers.
The following day at work he encountered several negative situations at work that were not pleasant. His co-workers laughed at him. The operations manager’s office was found decorated with artifacts such as dolls with pins, witch hats, and containers of incense. The operations manager immediately contacted his supervisor regarding this incident. His supervisor saw his office and laughed and began to talk negative about his religious beliefs and ancestors. The operations manager got angry and the supervisor promised to handle the situation in a way to calm him down. As the months went by, the situation began to get out of hand. The operations manager went to the HR director to take care of the incident at work since his supervisor did not handle it accordingly. The HR director was out of the office and was unaware of the situation. The minute she found out about the issue she immediately called a meeting of all
From a reasonable person perspective, Maalick encountered discriminatory ridicule and insults on multiple occasions from multiple people. With cumulative instances of harassment, the Chenworth office was a hostile work environment. Therefore, the compilation of illegal behaviors may entitle Maalick to a Title VII lawsuit, as long as this lawsuit is filed with 180 days (Hersch & Shinall,
The circumstances, images and fallout related to September 11, 2001 have caused many Americans to revisit their spiritual beliefs in attempt to process the horrific events of such an unimaginable day (Smith, 2003). In the years since the Fall of 2001, employees have developed an increasing desire to integrate their personal spirituality and religious beliefs with their professional lives (Cunningham, 2010). Managers are now faced with the difficult task of accommodating the varying spiritual beliefs of their workforce while tactfully mitigating religion-based issues in accordance with Title VII.
When Maalick originally went to Marta Ford he spoke to her about the questions regarding his religion his co-coworkers had been asking. Rather than disregard his concerns she should have been proactive in addressing the issue rather than waiting until it got worse. She could have held a meeting with everyone in the facility and reminded them of the company policy regarding harassment. According to Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, D., & Cardy, R. (2012) companies that are proactive toward issues are better prepared to deal with future problems. Had she done this the issue likely would not have escalated to the point that it became a hostile work environment for Maalick. To prevent the situation from happening in the future Marta Ford could provide additional training to all employees and require annual retraining so that all employees and management are aware of company policies.
As we enter the new millenium, diversity in the workforce is rapidly increasing. Businesses and organizations are living up to the great melting pot image the United States has always been popular for. Employees now reflect a diversity of cultural perspectives, ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, physical abilities, and levels of education. This wave of multiculturalism is here to stay and cannot be ignored. It is in need of attention in order to uphold the well-being and success of businesses and organizations all over the country.
The act of treating a person or group of people unequally because of their beliefs is identified as religious discrimination. This is closely related to religious persecution, with the most extreme case, including the execution of individuals according to their beliefs. Often, the persons discriminated against are those within the minority group of society, leaving them outnumbered to the majority of the population. The course of American history has been plagued with intolerance and differences in opinion. Within three separate eras a significant event has occurred that brought about discrimination upon a set group of religious believers. The colonization of North America occurred as a result of religious persecution in Europe. Those events
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
Religious difference has been a question not just for theological schools and religious institutions but, increasingly for some businesses and corporations, offices and factories. In the past ten years the equal employment opportunity commission, which considers workplace complaints that may violate the civil rights act, has reported a 31 percent rise in complaints of religious discrimination in the workplace.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been the center of much attention throughout modern history, whether it be about the polygamists, the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith seeing God, or the restored priesthood. Though the church is known to have these forms of controversies, we see through history that no organization or group is free from mistakes and criticism. Throughout history in general, there has always been some sort of religious contention around the globe. A large point of contention then and even now is the factor of race in religion and the certain rules and restrictions implemented into the religion regarding race.
Religion in the workplace can introduce some of the most challenging concerns employers have to tackle. Solving these issues involves an understanding of the law as well as attempting to balance the business 's needs with an employee 's desire to practice his or her religion. One of the most controversial conflicts when dealing with religion in the workplace is between an employee 's desire to take time off to acknowledge religious days or holidays and the potential reduction in productivity and profitability.
Religious discrimination is an issue as old as civilization itself, but after tragic terror attacks against civilians by Islamic extremists, religious discrimination against muslims is on the rise not just in the US, but around the world. Recent terror attacks by Islamic extremists such as the Orlando club shooting, the various attacks in Paris, the San Bernardino shooting, and more have led to many people becoming angered by these events and seeking retaliation. However some are taking these issues into their own hands and are attacking muslims who are completely uninvolved. The United States is one of the world’s most developed and powerful countries, but these types of savage events still occur. Religious discrimination and harassment against
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.
This paper is aimed at providing a framework for discussion of diversity and how it pairs with demographic characteristics. It is divided into four parts. Part I represents diversity in the workforce, which reflects the rational of organizations and how they handle diversity in the occupations of their workers. Parts II characterize diversity and age, as it responds to the fact that older people have the skill set to keep them working well past retirement age. Part III denotes religion, where as more employers are beginning to recognize the need to allow employees to take time to pray. Part IV symbolizes the personality traits in diversity and how “different” is not always viewed as wrong but can be an incentive to other
In today’s society there are many culturally diverse people in the workforce. Most organizations can no longer make the assumption that every employee has similar beliefs or expectations. When entering into the global marketplace, people are considered one of the most valuable resources to an organization’s success. A well-managed culturally diverse workforce has the potential to thrive if managed correctly; or if mismanaged, there can be devastating negative attributes. With great expectations, culturally diverse employees can foster positive outcomes in the workplace. A company’s acknowledgement to embrace diversity and change, and implement the value of management techniques are
There is discrimination everywhere at anytime, anywhere in the world. Discrimination can occur in many ways due to different opinions and perspectives. One of them occurs by religion of different people. Religious discrimination is to treat someone differently with others in a bad way due to their religion or beliefs.There are lots of religious discrimination around the world. People should be against religious discrimination because it keeps people from harassment on their religious beliefs, prevent less wars happening, and people will correct their stereotypes on others.
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