Religion in the Workplace (Essay Sample)

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The world is fast changing. The workplace has moved on from an age where any form of spiritual expression in the workplace was frowned upon to an age where religious pluralism is encouraged. This might be due to the fact that the world has become a jaded cynical place and the only way to counter this is by encouraging strong belief in a deity. In an age where workforce downsizing and layoffs are the norm, it has become paramount for companies to encourage spirituality in the workplace so as to keep the workers properly motivated and therefore more productive. Spirituality issues at the work place mainly arise when workers ask for time off for prayers and special holidays or when they request for permission to wear religious garbs at the workplace such as hijabs.(Duchon et al 2012)Policies to govern the hows, wheres and whens of the intersection vary from organization to organization, as they should. They can be based on biblical principles, federal law or a study of religious-work cases. This paper looks at what the bible says about spirituality at work.
Spirituality at work can have both a positive and negative effect on work. This depends mainly on how extremely or moderately spirituality is being practiced in the workplace. The trick has to be how to strike a balance between the two such that the non-spirituals do not feel threatened or left out while the spirituals do not feel overly important. Spiritual practices at the workplace range from personal nonintrusive practices such as meditation to loud prayers every few hours. How management decides what and when to allow this is entirely up to them. This diversity in religion has to be considered as it bears as much importance as diversities in race, gender or age at the workplace. (Benefiel et al, 2014) The Bible supports spirituality at work. It insists that people should not choose which spheres to let their deity into but should allow him free reign in all spheres of their lives. This means that spirituality should inundate all spheres of a believer’s life be it at work or at home. The Bible insists on the importance of being the best at whatever one chooses. This is a principle that promotes maximum output and responsibility from the workforce.
On the other hand, no one likes Bible-thumpers with holier than thou attitudes; people who threaten all non-Christians with the eternal promise of hellfire and damnation. Unfortunately religious zealotry is not confined to Christians only. It is found in other religions too and normally spawns intolerance and even religious killings in extreme situations. It can lead to tension at the workplace leading to low productivity and high employee turnover. The Bible emphasizes the importance of tolerance among believers and non-believers. It states that though it might be the duty of the believers to preach to the nonbelievers, they have no business judging them. It emphasizes on the import...