The Hindu Business Line : Religion in workplaces

Workplaces over the years, and especially in the era of globalisation leading to an admixture of different nationalities, cultures, customs and manners have been undergoing transformation in directions that would have been thought strange barely 25 years ago. For instance, dress codes have been relaxed to the extent of some companies permitting or winking at T-shirts and slip-on sandals.

Tele-commuting, working from homes, and flexitime are now routine. There are crèches provided to help ease the stress of women employees with babies, and it is not an uncommon sight to see the older children of some of them at play in their office rooms. Maternity leave is no longer women's exclusive prerogative; the eligibility is being extended to male employees too on the reasoning that raising a child is the joint responsibility.

Manifestations of cultural and religious diversities have, however, been slow to make inroads into workplaces. This was, in part, because cultural mores and religious beliefs were regarded as inborn and personal and did not jell with work environment where decision-making and conduct of business had to be based entirely on unsentimental and rational considerations.

In part, the need to eschew them stemmed from a desire to avoid disharmony and conflict that their sensitive, and even explosive character could have generated.

This is evidenced by instances leading sometimes to violent disturbances where managements or governments interfered with religious or cultural prescriptions such as the use of burqa by Muslim women employees or girl students, or the turban by the Sikh conductors and drivers.

It is because of these possibilities that non-interference with religious practices of the natives was one of the settled policies of British colonial rulers. In fact, in domestic settings also, in social gatherings, it is considered prudent to keep away from topics bearing on religion.

From recent writings by respectable scholars on the evolving workplace scenario, it appears that religion is being increasingly viewed as a means of inducing spirituality and respect for values on the part of businesses. I came across a reference to an NBC poll conducted in 2005 according to which in the opinion of a conspicuously large number (60 per cent) of respondents, religious beliefs played some role in making decisions at work, while for an even higher percentage of them, such beliefs influenced their interactions with co-workers.

Dr. Stew Friedman, practice professor of management and director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project, has been quoted in an article on the Wharton School web site, to say: "The old paradigm of leaving your beliefs behind when you go to work is no longer satisfying...More than ever, people want work that fits in with a larger sense of purpose in life. For many people, that includes a concept of God, or something like it."

A major contributory factor could also be the very character of a pluralistic society which makes people tolerant of differences in religious beliefs and practices.

Workplaces in the globalised era bustle with persons whose origins can be traced to a number of countries and cultures, and they are willing to blend the best of what each religion teaches in their inter-personal relationships. Facilities for meditation, yoga and prayers in offices are also seen to be conducive to a better integrated personality true to Tennyson's memorable stanza in In Memoriam:

"Let knowledge grow from more to more,/

But more of reverence in us dwell,

That mind and soul according well

May make one music...."

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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