The increased American diversity is associated with challenges due to conflicting interests in religion and business ethics. In the cross-cultural setting, businesses should offer services that meet the cultural, social, and linguistic requirements of employees to avoid religious discriminations and administrative barriers in the workplace. This concept is called cultural competency. For example, an American jewelry store discriminated Aalia for putting on a headscarf while serving customers on condition that it is against the business policy to directly interact with customers while the hijab is on (NPR, 2016). Since she was a Muslim, she also cited fundamental religious dogmas that compel her to put on the headscarf every time whilst in public; thus, leading to a conflict of interest (U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, n.d.). Actually, the hijab is a representative of Muslim faith and identity. Therefore, the employer asked her to move to the bookkeeping section where she could not directly be in touch with customers albeit the request was against her interests and violates her legal rights. Published research confirms that the issues of religious discriminations often result from religious and cultural hostility among many minority faiths like Muslims, Sikhs and SDA in the US (Moodie, 2016). Based on limited interreligious understanding among the companies’ policy makers, the businesses have not keenly addressed the issue of workplace discrimination. From the above case, there is still a lack of an inclusive workplace culture in the US law, which may result in a failure to resolve employment discrimination conflicts; and this may negatively affect future professional behavior (Moodie, 2016).
Cultural Issue
The circumstance in the case study described above negatively impacts on the employers and members of the Muslim religion. For example, the employee may file a lawsuit against the employer in case of unfairness regarding religious biasness in the professional setting. Similarly, the Muslims may be mocked based on religious beliefs to the extent that they become unkind and lacking professional qualities, which may cause their job dismissal. For example, Hay’s ADRESSING model depicts the impacts discriminations based on religion and ethnicity on employers and individuals from specific spiritual (like Muslims, Jews, Hindus) and racial (like African-Americans, Arabs and Middle East People) backgrounds; though this research concentrates on religious discrimination as regards the case highlighted above.
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Perceived religious discrimination leads to interpersonal conflicts within the organizational setup due to misunderstandings that escalate the levels of prejudices among employees. As a result, employees belonging to the discriminated religious group may end up losing their psychological bonds with the employer and this implies that they will lack commitment to their jobs (Messarra, 2014). Regardless of whether the discrimination is either overt or covert, the religious group undergoing discrimination will eventually contribute less towards the organizational performance. Therefore, the organization will similarly suffer in terms of recruitment, poor organizational culture, and bad employee relations in addition to legislative decisions and this situation may cause international crises. Hence, the general employee engagement will reduce as regards a lack of vigor, dedication and absorption that can enhance devotion and resilience that can help in passionate solution of problems (Messarra, 2014). Hence, the lack of focus is a common impact of the discrimination of the Muslims in the context of most American workplaces.
Sad to note, religious discrimination also leads to anxiety and a general psychological distress among the Muslims and some Jews who undergo the same problems. Notably, the discriminations based on religious affiliations affect the mental health and general well-being of the Muslims in America due to associated fears, worries and social avoidance in the workplace (Ortiz-Díaz, 2015). Therefore, the group in question suffers a great deal of distress and anxiety due to the religious stressors. Further, such discriminations are exacerbated by sex, nationality, and race in accordance with Hay’s ADRESSING Model; thus make those groups of individuals vulnerable to anxiety and harassment in some instances.
Theoretical Explanations
Some research publications have theoretically focused on the intergroup anxiety theory (IAT) to expound the discriminatory religious factors that lead to anxiety. For example, lack of awareness, limited personal realizations and poor interactions with people from other groups lead to a lack of self-identity that usually promote perceived threats and eventually anxiety (Ortiz-Díaz, 2015). The limited social contacts also contribute to limited information about a specific social group and this leads to stereotypical and prejudicial thoughts and expectations that bear psychological distress. Again, the religious discrimination is associated with the integrated threat theory (ITT), which is the outcome of perceived threats originating from an out-group. Theoretically, the out-group represented by Muslims in this case causes environmental and cultural stressors to the in-group, as regards the jeopardy to the latter’s well-being and resources (Ortiz-Díaz, 2015).
Professional Behaviors
Individuals’ attitudes that are influenced by cultural, ethnic and diversity perceptions have negatively impacted on professional behaviors with respect to cultural incompetency. For example, most professionals lack the necessary exposure and awareness that lead to unethical practices in the workplace due to poor policies intended to discriminate against specific classes of individuals (Ortiz-Díaz, 2015). Therefore, the professionals cannot effectively promote societal empowerment and dignity of groups rather than the basic human dignity involved in program developments. Hence, the professionals cannot mitigate potential mental health problems amongst the discriminated groups including the minority religious faiths, the disadvantaged groups and the diverse races in general (Ortiz-Díaz, 2015).
Proposed Cultural Guidelines and Competencies
Cultural competencies are necessary soft skills that can allow Muslims to be integrated in the diverse American cultural context. Therefore, psychologists may devise policies that encourage either bicultural or bilinguals staffs that can listen to their colleagues and learn from them. Recognition of race and ethnicity will solve the problem of racial discrimination since the diversity of business personnel will contribute to a wider target market for customers because the diversity is reflective of a whole community. Hence, there will be a friendly and respectful treatment of all employees in the global workplace (The Guardian, 2016).
Similarly, social justice is a better suggestion that will ensure fairness and equity in resource distribution in all multicultural services since everyone will be treated equally despite their levels of marginalization. This implies that individuals will share equal power in the societal context regardless of their religious and cultural orientations. This will further rely on verbal sensitivities involving multicultural responses; hence, promoting effective communication in the workplace (Brownlee & Lee, 2018). For example, developing support for transition from cultural biasness to cultural competence is important in identification of barriers that can slow down organizational progress. Hence, setting goals measuring the levels of cultural competence will promote ethical professional behaviors in any organization though this must be dependent on mindfulness and willingness to respond to change (Brownlee & Lee, 2018).
Conclusion
Finally, individuals should develop positive attitudes towards people from different races, culture, or religious groups and ethnic backgrounds to establish culturally competent organizations across the world. As a result, employers will ensure that business policies conform to the organizational culture in integrating diverse workforce in their operations. For example, social justice will promote an efficient system in which everyone has equal access to opportunities without regards to race and associated social considerations that thwart development. Hence, the development of support systems in addition to goal setting will enhance appropriate integration of diverse religions and races in the American cultural setting for the general business progresses.
References
Brownlee, T. & Lee, K. (2018). Chapter 27. Section 7. Building Culturally Competent Organizations. Retrieved from https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culturally-competent-organizations/main
Messarra, L. C. (2014). Religious Diversity at Work: The Perceptual Effects of Religious Discrimination on Employee Engagement and Commitment. Contemporary Management Research . Pages 59-80, Vol. 10, No. 1. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.835.277&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Moodie, A. (2016). The Guardian. Are US businesses doing enough to support religious diversity in the workplace? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jan/28/religious-diversity-us-business-muslim-hijab-discrimination-equal-employment-eeoc
NPR (2016). American Muslim women explain why they do – or don't cover. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/02/02/465180930/american-muslim-women-explain-why-they-do-or-dont-cover
Ortiz-Díaz, S. M. (2015). The Impacts of Religious Discrimination Towards Anxiety in Diverse Populations. Dissertation. Walden University Press. [Updated: 2018]. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5950&context=dissertations
The Guardian (2016). Are US businesses doing enough to support religious diversity in the workplace? Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jan/28/religious-diversity-us-business-muslim-hijab-discrimination-equal-employment-eeoc
U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (n.d.). Religious garb and grooming in the workplace: Rights and responsibilities. Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/qa_religious_garb_grooming.cfm
