In a secularized country like France, the question of religion in business can cause a lot of tension. “A sensitive fact”, for human resources managers whose issues Institut Montaigne proposes to shed light on, in its annual survey carried out on this question among 25,000 executives and human resources managers from companies of various sizes.
Released on Wednesday July 5, the latest edition of the report shows that “the presence of religion in work situations is confirmed and one company out of two encounters situations marked by acts, behaviors or requests having a religious dimension”. In all, two thirds of the French companies surveyed indicate that religion exists in their work environment.
But for Lionel Honoré, university professor of management sciences at the Institute of Business Administration in Brest and author of the report, the most striking fact this year is the coexistence between two worlds within companies which have had to deal religious matters. On the one hand, the 80% of cases where things are controlled and managed in a peaceful way by both parties. On the other hand, 20% of companies where the behaviors “dysfunctional”, even “rigorists”, seem to be increasing.
A clearer framework in large companies
In the first case, it is companies, often of larger size, which have been able to anticipate and equip their executives humanly and procedurally so that the emergence of the religious fact does not obstruct the operation of the company. . Educated on the subject, the employees also learned what they had or not the right to do, formulating requests within a framework of which they know the limits. “It is more and more through discussion that things are settled”says Lionel Honoré.
Conversely, the 20% of companies facing difficulties face situations that “degenerate quickly”, according to the researcher. Concerning mostly young men, most often Muslims and poorly qualified, these dysfunctions are presented as the refusal, for example, to speak to women or even to shake hands with them.
“It translatesunderlines the report, a real paradox in business: even though the phenomenon is increasingly well known and organizations are developing tools for managing religion, this standardization in business is not always followed by a standardization of behavior and new Dysfunctional situations appear, or even take a more important place. »
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