Manage Difficult Conversations Workplace Religious Accommodation Issues

Question:-

write a paper on Workplace Religious Accommodation Issues for Adherents of Islam

Answer:-

Kareem is a Muslim by faith and based on his faith, he is required to perform prayers five times a day. It is an integral part of the faith and culture of Kareem and being a practicing Muslim, Kareem cannot compromise with his faith. Thus, he needs breaks five times a day to perform the prayer. Apart from this, he also needs to follow the rituals of washing hands, face, and feet before performing prayer.

Assessment of ABC Corporation’s organizational culture

The organizational culture of ABC Corporation is completely based on the value of performance. Every employee is expected to deliver excellent performance in order to meet the expectations of the organization. The manager of the call center Thomas only believes in the performance. He wants to ensure that his call center should remain on the top of all call centers run by the ABC Corporation. According to him, nothing is more important than the performance of employees working in the call center. It defines that the organizational culture of ABC Corporation was poor that can potentially demotivate employees who are working within the organization. The organization does not care for the welfare of its employees. Apart from this, it has also been found that the organizational culture does not entertain the values, culture, customs, beliefs, and behavior of its employees (Roth, 2017). For any organization, it is very important to create an organizational culture that celebrates diversity and allows every individual to practice their cultural, traditional, as well as religious practices. The perception of the manager of the call center that a strict working environment improves the performance of the organization is a myth and he must understand this. The organizational culture of an organization may lead to a high rate of employee turnover rather than increasing the performance of the organization (Emengini et al., 2020).

The cultural perspectives of the stakeholders affect their point of view and hence their behavior is also modified accordingly. For example, Michael who is an employee of ABC Corporate does not care for Kareem and his beliefs. He noticed that Kareem frequently leaving his workstation and doing some unacceptable practices and hence he reported to Janet.

Description of organizational matches and gaps

There are several pieces of evidence that show a significant gap between the formal employee and the organizational culture. One of the most significant pieces of evidence is how the management treated with Kareem. The supervisor as well as the manger of Kareem who was responsible for dealing with any issue did not bother to communicate with Kareem before terminating him. Apart from this, the supervisor and the manager also did not feel it necessary to evaluate the past and present performance of Kareem before making the final decision. Janet the supervisor had appreciated Kareem over his performance but it was not evident at the time of making the final decision of Kareem’s termination. The process of terminating an employee of the organization is very poor and it should be improved for higher performance and productivity because termination of Kareem will not encourage others to perform well and do not take frequent breaks but it will demotivate them (Pedrosa et al., 2020). Other employees will have a fear of job loss at any point in time.

Recommendation of strategies

There is a need for a set of strategies that could be implemented within ABC Corporation in order to improve the organizational culture, working environment, perception, and attitude of the management towards employees.

The organization must focus on creating a healthy organizational culture in which every individual should have enough space to practice their religious or cultural practices. The focus of the organization should be on meeting the needs of employees. There is an urgent need for effective communication within the organization. The organization should encourage open and effective communication. There is a need to create a sense of responsibility in the mind of the management of the organization so that they can value the cultural and religious beliefs of employees (Lopez, 2016). Apart from this, the organization should also develop a set of policies and procedures to deal with any issue within the organization. A conflict management team should be established in order to manage the conflict internally without creating further problems for the organization. Employee motivation and morale are important for higher performance and productivity and it should be understood by the management of the organization (Gulua, 2018). The attitude of the manager should be changed towards employees and the self-respect of every individual within the organization should be maintained.