Religious Diversity in the Workplace

Employees bring their beliefs and religious values to work, and this can be a source of either positive performance or negative conflict. Social conflicts around religion impact more than societies and communities. They also impact organizations. 'Anti-religion' sentiments tend to be based on the perception that religion can be neatly separated from the 'more acceptable/palatable' spirituality, but this ignores the fact that - for most people - the two are intimately intertwined and inseparable. As religious identity is salient for a majority of the world's population, it is thus an important aspect of organizations - particularly those with a large and diverse body of employees. This handbook provides a timely and necessary analysis of religious diversity in organizations, investigating the role of national context, the intersections of religion with ethnicity and gender, and approaches to diversity management.

Introduction: the complex interface of work and religion Jawad Syed, Alain Klarsfeld, Faith Wambur Ngunjiri and Charmine E. J. Härtel; Part I. General Frameworks and Sources of Reflection: 1. A relational perspective on religious diversity at work Jawad Syed; 2. Religious diversity, identity and workplace inclusion Charmine E. J. Härtel, Jasmin C. R. Härtel and Prem Ramburuth; Part II. Religious Approaches: 3. The Christian faith and the preservation of personal identity Timothy Ewest; 4. Islamic view of diversity: implications for the business world Abbas J. Ali; 5. The untold, the unseen and the forgettable: Jewishness, Jews and Judaism in diversity management scholarship Alain Klarsfeld; 6. National perspectives on Jews at work: contrasting Australia, France, Israel and the UK Alain Klarsfeld, Diane Bebbington, Avi Kay, Lucy Taksa, Fei Guo and Philip Mendes; 7. Hinduism, religious diversity and spirituality at work in India Radha R. Sharma and Rana Haq; 8. Buddhist Brahmaviharas and religious diversity at work Edwina Pio; Part III. Regional Approaches: 9. Spirituality and workplace diversity practices in Africa Kurt A. April, Thabo Makgoba and Dion A. Forster; 10. The French principle of Laïcité and religious pluralism in the workplace: main findings and issues Patrick Banon and Jean-François Chanlat; 11. Lessons from the academy: Concordia College's journey toward religious pluralism Jacqueline Bussie and Michelle Lelwica; 12. Religious diversity in the Canadian workplace: the case of Muslims Hanifa Itani and Yusuf M. Sidani; 13. Religious diversity at work in the Asia-Pacific region Edwina Pio and Timothy Pratt; Part IV. Organizational Approaches: 14. Organizational approaches to religious diversity in the workplace Timothy Ewest; 15. From diverse references to diverse attitudes towards religion at work: focus on the French case Géraldine Galindo and Hédia Zannad; 16. Resilient leadership and tempered radicalism: navigating the intersections of race, gender, nationality and religion Faith Wambur Ngunjiri and Kathy-Ann C. Hernandez; Index.

Jawad Syed is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Dean of Suleman Dawood School of Business at Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. Professor Syed is an Academic Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Program Co-Chair of the European Academy of Management's (EURAM) Gender, Race and Diversity in Organizations (GRDO) Special Interest Group. He is a Director of the Global Centre for Equality and Human Rights (GCEHR). He has written more than 75 journal articles and book chapters including articles in British Journal of Management, Business Ethics Quarterly, International Journal of Human Resource Management, and Gender, Work and Organization.
Alain Klarsfeld is senior professor at Toulouse Business School, Toulouse, France, where he created and managed the Human Resource Management Specialized Master program (2003–2015), and acted as Department Head from 2012 to 2016. He co-founded the competence management SIG (Special Interest Group) and the equality-diversity SIG within the French-speaking HR society (AGRH). He has published extensively in both of these fields in various French-speaking and international journals, including Cross-Cultural and Strategic Management, Equality Diversity Inclusion, European Journal of Industrial Relations, European Management Journal, International Journal of Human Resource Management.
Faith Wambura Ngunjiri is Associate Professor of Ethics and Leadership at Concordia College, Minnesota. She is also Director of the Lorentzsen Center for Faith and Work at the Offutt School of Business of Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota. She is author of Women's Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders (2010), co-author of Collaborative Autoethnography (2013), and co-editor of Women as Global Leaders (2014) and Women and Leadership around the World (2015). Her research has been published in various academic journals, including the Journal of Manageme