Beyond the law: processes underlying religious accommodation decisions

Abstract

Purpose Currently, the academic understanding of religious accommodation in the workplace is skewed toward a consideration of legal decision making. The purpose of this paper is to move beyond these legal considerations and provide a fresh perspective on antecedents of religious accommodation decisions when managerial discretion is high. To this end, the authors present a model that incorporates psychological and relational processes. Design/methodology/approach This research draws on a variety of theoretical perspectives from psychology, organizational behavior and human resource management to theorize a descriptive model of managerial decision-making regarding religious accommodation requests. Findings The authors develop a conceptual framework and research agenda for examining front-line decision-makers’ responses to employees’ religious accommodation requests. The focus is on characteristics of the decision maker, the requester and the request that can influence the perceived sincerity of a request and the perceived accommodation cost. Research limitations/implications The proposed model moves beyond US-based legal perspectives of religious accommodation and facilitates the identification of novel theoretical perspectives for better understanding accommodation decisions. Practical implications Twenty-first century managers are faced with a wide variety of religious accommodation requests. Identification of underlying mechanisms through which these decisions are made facilitates effective interventions to build and sustain an inclusive culture. Originality/value This work is among the first efforts in the management literature to theorize about the process of religious accommodation decision making. The authors address the paucity of academic research in this area by introducing perceptual drivers of religious accommodation decisions.

The 8-Inclusion Needs of All People: A Proposed Framework to Address Intersectionality in Efforts to Prevent Discrimination

“…Representation is about ensuring all people can contribute, are equally heard and valued, and can see themselves fairly and equally reflected in government and policy making (Bishin et al, 2021;Doel-Mackaway, 2019;Lajevardi & Spangler, 2022), the organizational hierarchy (Baldwin et al, 2022;Gerull et al, 2020;Trudgett et al, 2022), pay scales (Canedo, 2019;Longhi, 2020;Smith-Doerr et al, 2019), occupations (Alegria, 2020;Cech & Waidzunas, 2021;Nasager, 2020), communications and the media (Dutta & Elers, 2020;Fields & Newman, 2020;Johnson, 2015), and in decision making (Fujimoto et al, 2014;Harrison et al, 2019;Tabesh & Jolly, 2019).…”

“…Allowances must be made without judgement to accommodate the specific needs of people so they can do what needs to be done. This means providing allowances for people must be the rule, rather than the exception (Raymond et al, 2019), and can include accommodations such as (but not limited to); flexible working and job redesign (Blanck et al, 2020;Chathuranga, 2021;Dickson, 2020), work scheduling and leave (Heilman & Caleo, 2018;Tabesh & Jolly, 2019), learning and assessment…”