Should organisations in the western world make reasonable adjustments for their religious minority employees?
Abstract
This research investigates whether organisations should be making reasonable adjustments
for their religious minority employees. For example, the provision of prayer rooms or meeting
dietary requirements. There is literature that discusses whether there should be adjustments
implemented and the different attitudes towards such implementations. However, there is very
little literature considering the perspective of religious minority employees. This is the gap this
research intends to fill, and this is crucial due to the constant rise in diversity within the
workforce. This research aims to investigate the perspective of religious minorities that are
members of organisations within the western world, on whether they believe reasonable
adjustments should be made for them and what the impacts of such adjustments would be.
The aim, objectives, and time constraints of the research dictated the methodology to be a
quantitative one. The method that was used was online questionnaires, where a total of 47
valid responses were recorded. Online questionnaires were selected because it was found to
be the best method of reaching a specific sample due to the resource constraints and
timeframe given. The general characteristics of the sample were Muslim males between the
ages of 21-30.
The results concluded that there are currently not enough adjustments being implemented
within organisational practices for religious minorities. The preferred adjustments were prayer
rooms alongside the time to pray, time off during religious holidays and meeting dietary
requirements. It was found that reasonable adjustments would have a huge impact on
employee motivation and engagement, and the majority stated that it would change the way
they felt about work in a positive manner. Also, it was found that the majority of public and
private sector workers highlighted that they felt their employer would be willing and receptive
to implementing change within their organisations. Lastly, it was recommended for
organisations to hold one-to-one meetings, and the training of all staff to raise awareness
about religions and flexitime workers, to ensure a smooth implementation of such adjustments
without any issues within the organisation.