Diversity: Religion and Workplace

Diversity: Religion and Workplace

Introduction

Religion is one of the biggest differences segmenting the world into different parts. There is no other reason from the dawn of time which caused more strife's and argument among mankind than Religion. Religion can be defined as the faith or moral belief a person possess regarding the nature of being or existing the world. In the modern world there are roughly five or six major religious and yet countless other minor religions have sprung up and are continuing to spring up every day. Each believer of a religion defends and believes in it devoutly, to such an extent that he or she is willing to go towards bloodshed to defend its honor. The major religions of the world include, Islamic, Christianity, Hinduism, Atheism, Judaism, etc. These religions include the set of guidelines for the individuals on which to base their lives. The major religions all dictate that there is a Higher Entity, or God which governs the world and the Universe and all that is contains is it plaything and all the living creatures are its subjects (Trent, 2007).

Such devout belief and intolerance against one's faith becomes a very volatile subject and can become the cause of a major strike in an organization. Any good and reputed organization employees a variety of people all belonging to different backgrounds. Some of these religions might be major while some might be the minor ones. In such a scenario, the minority religion often suffers under the yolk of the dominant group. Its practices may be ignored, treated with disdain or even slandered, thus creating a discrimination factors among the employees based on their religions. Again, wherever there is discrimination, there arise stereotypes, most of which are untrue usually created by the hype or the actions of one or two fanatics of any group (Williams, 2006). Discrimination at work can occur in many different contexts, and under very different forms. This differential treatment of individuals can be based on grounds such as race, color or sex, and constitutes a violation of equality of opportunity and treatment. In other words, discrimination creates and reinforces inequalities. In defiance of their abilities, it hinders the freedom of human beings from realizing their full potential and to follow the way of their professional and personal choice. Unable to develop their skills and private professional satisfaction, they have gradually won by the humiliation, frustration and helplessness.

Workplace Discrimination

The concept of diversity in workplace builds upon the fundamental principles of equal employment opportunity to incorporate natural differences such as intellectual or physical ability, sexual preferences and orientation, gender, cultural background, language, religion, ethnicity, race and age (Childs, 2012). Diversity is also demonstrated by other ways in which people could possibly be different such as socioeconomic conditions, educational or academic background, family responsibilities, marital status, personality attributes, and life experiences. The complex task of managing diversity in the places of work involves recognizing and respecting individual uniqueness in the workplace to realize and utilize the ...