Fostering workplace respect in an era of anti-Muslimism and Islamophobia. A proactive approach for management

• Published date: 20 November 2018
• Date: 20 November 2018
• Pages: 813-831
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2017-0265
• Author: Leslie Elizabeth Sekerka,Marianne Marar Yacobian
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Fostering workplace respect

in an era of anti-Muslimism

and Islamophobia

A proactive approach for management

Leslie Elizabeth Sekerka

Department of Management, Menlo College, Atherton, California, USA, and

Marianne Marar Yacobian

Department of Global Studies, Menlo College, Atherton, California, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The marginalization of Muslims can foster anxiety, anger, or fear in the workplace. Such negative

reactions may prompt incivility among coworkers, denigrating a thoughtful regard for others. While legal

protections are intended to promote fairness, mandates do not always prevent discrimination. As a result,

management needs to frame anti-Muslimism as an ethical issue and proactively cultivate environments that

support respect. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach –To understand how anti-Muslimism may emerge in organizational

settings, this work defines Islamophobia and examines how it manifests as workplace discrimination. The

extant literature on the subject and a sample of anti-Muslim discrimination cases are studied to better

understand this phenomenon.

Findings –An analysis of representative Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases shows that a

lack of accommodation for religious practices is a major ethical issue. Management can proactively address

value tensions by creating safe spaces for organizational learning. Balanced experiential inquiry is offered as

a process to help employees reveal their embedded biases through personal reflection and collective inquiry.

Practical implications –If managers intend to encourage equity and inclusion, they need to foster

organizational learning that tackles emerging forms of discrimination like Islamophobia. A sustained focus

on moral development becomes an imperative toward establishing an ethical climate and a workplace that

fosters respect for all organizational members.

Social implications –Because organizations are at the intersection of business and society, it is incumbent

upon managers to create environments that reject hostilities toward those who may be perceived as different.

Originality/value –In today’s sociopolitical climate, the concern of discrimination toward Muslims is a

mainstream ethical issue. A compliance-based approach to advance organizational ethics is not enough.

The authors present a way forward, building moral strength through moral competency.

Keywords Ethnic minorities, Workplace, Managers, Employee attitudes, Education, Discrimination

Paper type Case study

Introduction

For decades scholars have contended that to be genuinely representative, organizational

settings must be inclusive and diverse (e.g. see Long, 1952). It is, therefore, incumbent upon

managers to help create a workplace environment that supports inclusivity; a safe and

respectful context where employees can effectively achieve their individual and collective

performance goals. While these efforts offer universal benefits (McKay and Avery, 2015),

performance demands, public discourse, media coverage, and today’s broader sociopolitical

narrative often impose a very different message. Rather than encouraging respect, the

dominant focus amplifies and encourages self-interest, exclusion, and divisiveness. Democratic

legal protections are intended to prevent discrimination and strive to support fairness, but the

reality is that laws cannot ensure that an organization’s climate genuinely endorses ethical

actions that support inclusion and foster respect. For example, there is a rise in anti-Muslimism

and Islamophobia in today’s workplace , despite having polic ies in place that mandat e employee

training (e.g. to prevent harassment) (Society for Human Resource Management, 2018).

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 8, 2018

pp. 813-831

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2017-0265

Received 26 November 2017

Revised 24 March 2018

Accepted 12 May 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

813

Proactive

approach for

management

The Council on American–Islamic relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy

organization in the USA, reported a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents in 2016 over

the previous year (CAIR, 2017). When Muslims are repeatedly marginalized in public, it is no

surprise that Islamophobic forms of prejudice and discrimination are becoming more prevalent

in today’sworkplace.

Purpose of this research

This work addresses Islamophobia and anti-Muslimism, which are emergent forms of

discrimination, now salient management ethical issues requiring attention (Mahadevan and

Mayer, 2017). To understand how this type of discrimination manifests in organizational

settings, we started our inquiry with an examination of the current literature regarding

Islamophobia and anti-Muslimism. Seeing the need for more granularity on the subject, we:

conducted an exploratory study to examine salient cases where anti-Muslimism and

Islamophobia were present, in a representative sample provided by the Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and identified key elements of conflict over a ten-year

period (1996–2016), bringing forward core themes. A central observation from this analysis

was that adherence to organizational policies may be in conflict with the appearance of

being Muslim. Findings from this study informed our recommendations to inculcate a more

proactive approach to develop and sustain respect in the workplace. To advance this idea,

balanced experiential inquiry (BEI) is presented as a means to experientially reveal and

address employees’embedded biases through personal reflection and collective inquiry. The

implications suggest fostering adult moral development can help employees achieve a

balanced sense of self and support more deliberate awareness of role-modeling respect

toward others.

Literature overview

The term “Islamophobia”appeared in the early 1900s; however, historical accounts of

phobic reactions toward multiculturalism and immigrant populations have been a part of

the geopolitical dialogue for centuries (Oldenburg, 2009). Islamophobia is defined as an

unfounded hostility toward Muslims (Runnymede Trust, 2000), representing negative

judgments for those who adopt a range of discriminatory values and practices toward

Muslims, Islamic discourse, and associated cultural practices (Allen, 2007). The Commission

on British Muslims and Islamophobia expanded the term’s meaning and application,

framing the stigmatization of Muslims and/or the Islamic faith as:

(1) monolithic and static;

(2) separate, not sharing the values of other cultures;

(3) irrational, primitive and inferior to the West;

(4) aggressive, violent, and implicated in a clash of civilizations;

(5) an ideology used to promote political and military interests;

(6) intolerant of Western critiques;

(7) deserving of discriminatory practices towards and exclusion of Muslims; and

(8) making anti-Muslim hostility natural and normal (see also Taras, 2012).

Runnymede Trust (2000) set forth the first comprehensive contemporary definition of

Islamophobia, describing it as dread, hatred, or hostility toward Islam and Muslims

(Conway, 1997). Such perceptions and associated behaviors apply or attribute negative and

derogatory stereotypes and beliefs, resulting in practices of exclusion and discrimination

(Kalin, 2011). Islamophobic sentiments frame Muslims as both an internal and external

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