Issue 62 Strategies for dealing with religious practices at work: The case of Muslim employees in northern France

Résumé

Should I prohibit my employees from displaying their religion in my company? This is a question being asked by more and more managers today. Professionals are in need of guidance in the face of the “revival of religion” in our society, and more specifically of religious practices in the workplace. The research was conducted over several months in Roubaix with a sample of 15 Muslim employees aged between 32 and 38 years old in order to understand religious practices at work. The results show a strong attachment of this population to their religious values, which exist and are expressed in the workplace according to four strategies generating different behaviors at work (compromise, restriction, opportunism, and rupture). The managerial proposals made as a result of this study put the emphasis on the importance of building a framework specifying how to “play by the rules” in the company. In other words, what is admitted and what is not, the reasons behind managerial decisions, and the fact that employees must commit themselves to respecting those rules.