Search results

Religious pursuits may promote explicitly “spiritual” goods (theo-relational connectedness, character formation, etc.) and “secular” utilities including health. The purpose of this paper is to initiate investigation of this intersection for paternal religious practices in Lithuania’s dynamic post-Soviet social context. Reflecting on religio-political history, the nature of the religious field, spiritual capital, and externalities related to confessional identity, what relationships exist between institutional engagement, devotional practice, education and other predictors in the post-Soviet Lithuanian religious context?

Original data were collected in 2011 (returning 73 of 100 surveys) in Klaipėda, Lithuania. Correlation and χ² identified variables for regression analysis. Given Ordinary Least Squares heteroscedasticity (Breusch-Pagan test), weighted least squares modeling estimated coefficients for extra mural and institutional religious practice generically and differentiated by confessional identity.

Generically and by confessional identity, utility differences in institutional context appear paradoxical to secularization hypotheses. While correlated, institutional engagement and non-institutional devotional practice evidenced non-complementarity regarding educational attainment: greater education predicted higher institutional engagement but sparer devotional life. The authors suggest in explanation higher opportunity costs in individual devotional practice opposite positive offsets from secondary institutional utilities (e.g. social networking). Both were predicted by education, work hours, the non-dependent religious practice variable, self-reported health status, patterned by confessional identity, specifically Protestant opposite majority Catholic. Intergenerationally, a gender gradient was identified.

This analysis illuminates with original data divergent public institutional and private devotional religious practice utility structures in a dynamic transitional post-Soviet context.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that national history plays an important role in formulations of workplace religious diversity strategies and practices. It builds on a discussion of the organization of religion in the workplace in two countries, namely, France and Lebanon.

This is a conceptual paper that provides an analysis into how national history plays an important role in formulations of workplace diversity strategies and practices.

The paper shows how religion has historically been organized and deployed in contemporary France and Lebanon by the same colonial power, albeit in different ways. While the workplace in France remains religiously neutral in the context of its national labor market, the colonial power has largely contributed to organized religion in contemporary organizations in Lebanon. In analyzing the Lebanese and French cases, it is argued that the use of religious diversity has weakened the process of adopting equal, diverse, and inclusive managerial strategies.

Experiences in both countries suggest a failure of “blind neutrality” in the case of France, and another failure of a form of positive discrimination in the case of Lebanon. The authors draw lessons from those two experiences and propose future directions of how policy makers/legislators and organizations can advance and capture more equal, diverse, and inclusive diversity strategies.

The above two cases offer rich lessons for religious diversity scholarship and practice. The paper contributes to the literature on diversity in the workplace by questioning the organization of religious diversity in two countries that are under researched in management and organization studies.

Christian-affiliated social groups and leaders have been active and vocal in movements advocating democracy, equality and social justices. Christians are also specular in the “July 1st Protest” in 2003 and “Umbrella Movement” in 2014. Are Christians, in general, more politically active in Hong Kong? This paper aims to examine these questions from a quantitative viewpoint.

This paper examines the effects of religion and other socio-demographic factors on both electoral and non-electoral participation based on data from the World Value Survey 2013 Hong Kong data set.

Interest in politics and education level are strong predictors of both electoral and non-electoral participation in Hong Kong. Confidence in government is negatively associated with political participation. Religious affiliation is not a predictor of any kinds of political participation. The effects of interest in politics are greater among Protestants and Catholics than people with no religion.

While previous surveys show that Christians have a strong presence in political participation, the results suggest that being a Christian is not statistically related to a higher level of political participation. On the other hand, affiliating to Christian churches may provide necessary resources (e.g. networks, skills and knowledge) only to those members who are already interested in politics and thereby facilitate their political participation.

Based on national sample data, this study debunks the public perception that “Christianity is politically active” and suggests the possible role of churches in mobilizing politically interested members into political activities.

Purpose – In this chapter, we advance research on the socioeconomic ranking of religious groups by using both income and wealth to document the rankings of the six major religious groups in the United States – Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, black Protestants, and the religiously unaffiliated – during 2001–2007, a period marked by both catastrophic economic losses and widespread economic gain.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Drawing from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID), we provide descriptive statistics to explore the socioeconomic differences among the six major religious groups. In addition, we note their ownership rates and changes in wealth and income during 2001–2007.

Findings – Overall, these findings point to enduring stratification in the U.S. religious landscape. Based on median net worth, leading into the Great Recession, the six major religious groups ranked in the following order: Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, the unaffiliated, and black Protestants. At the same time, these findings point to the upward mobility of white Catholics, who increased their income and made the greatest increase in net worth between 2001 and 2007. These data also suggest a decline in the socioeconomic status of the religiously unaffiliated as compared to previous studies.

Research implications – These findings illustrate the degree to which certain religious groups have access to wealth and other resources, and have implications for how the years leading into the Great Recession may have influenced households’ vulnerability to financial shocks.

Originality/Value – We use both income and wealth to examine whether different religious groups experienced any changes in income and wealth leading into the 2008 economic downturn.

The purpose of this qualitative comparative study was to explore the brand-switching behavior of Muslim consumers in selected cities from Pakistan and Malaysia.

Data were collected through interviews which were conducted with 30 participants including universities (5), shopping malls (5) and restaurant locations (5) of each country. The constant comparative analysis was used to analyze the data.

Results revealed that a demonstration of awareness of American brands, their image and perceived quality causes Muslim consumers to switch away from American brands to non-American brands. In addition, this study also showed that the certain reasons compel consumers to stay with American brands.

The findings are helpful for American brands in reconsidering their strategies while segmenting the Muslim consumers as target market.

This is the first paper of its kind to explore Muslim consumer brand-switching behavior by using a qualitative method.

The study aims to test a measurement scale to examine social business networks (Wasta) surrounding Arab Christians and Arab Muslims.

A 31-item scale was used to capture Wasta, consisting of the following: Mojamala (emotional), Hamola (conative) and Somah (cognitive) tri-components. A total of 149 Christian Arab and 304 Muslim Arab respondents were sampled and multi-group structural equation modeling was used to confirm the concept and test several hypotheses.

The findings from the study reveal that in order for success to occur within the Arab context, a sequential process of first developing Mojamala is necessary, before Hamola can prevail. Christian Arabs are motivated to integrate with society and form relationships via generalized trust. Muslim Arabs meanwhile tend to retain their distinct culture, using social networks to forge particularized trust. Shariah principles may also play a significant role in explaining why satisfaction was not found to be a necessary condition for Arab Muslims in driving relationship performance.

The study suggests that the 370 million Arab population may not be totally cohesive and should be refrained from being grouped together. In-group identification is a major contributor in explaining why business models are different between Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. The findings further support that Muslim Arab business models are based on tribalism or sheikocracy, whilst Christian Arab business models are based on legalistic frameworks and integration.

The study supports prior research associated with Muslim Arab business models based on tribalism or sheikocracy (Ali, 1995). The findings suggest that Arab Muslim business models focus on particularized trust as opposed to generalized trust that is common in Arab Christian business models and in most western countries. The study demonstrates that Mojamala (the emotional construct), Hamola (empathy) and Somah (particularized trust) are useful constructs for building Wasta and they serve a core element for Arab Muslim business models. Mojamala and Somah both directly affect satisfaction. Somah and satisfaction have a direct influence on performance.

The findings provide evidence to support institutional theory. Also from a stakeholder theory perspective, viewing companies, not only through an economic lens, but also building social institutions, can lead to a better understanding of business models drawing on diverse cultures and faiths. The study may therefore serve as a useful reference for academics and practitioners as they grapple to enhance satisfaction and leverage performance advantages within this context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how school-based sexuality education has had a long and troubled history of exclusionary pedagogical practices that have negatively affected such populations as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer (LGBTQ) individuals, people of color, and the disabled. The social ecological model is introduced as a way of offering sexuality educators and school administrators a way of thinking more broadly about how to achieve sexual health through sexuality education efforts inside and outside of the school environment.

This paper uses critical analysis of current and historical school-based sexuality education methods and curricula used in the USA. Authors use both academic journals and their own expertise/experience teaching sexuality education in the USA to analyze and critique the sources of sexuality education information and curricula used in schools.

Historically, sexuality education in school settings in the USA has been biased and has generally not offered an educational experience fostering sexual health for all students. There are now welcome signs of reform and movement toward a more inclusive and progressive approach, but there is still some way to go. Sexuality education programs in schools need to be further and fundamentally reformed to do more to foster sexual health particularly for LGBTQ individuals, students of color, and people with disabilities.

This paper offers sexuality educators ways of addressing structural issues within the sexuality education curriculum to better serve all students to increase the quality of their sexual health. Integrating critical pedagogy and anti-oppressive education can increase students’ sexual health along physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions.

This paper provides historical analysis along with the identification of structural difficulties in the sexuality education curriculum and proposes both critical pedagogy and anti-oppressive education as ways of addressing sex and relationships education.

In the earliest decades of anthropological fieldwork in the late nineteenth century, fieldwork relationships with informants appear to have been anything but overly close. The stereotype of the anthropologist in the American Southwest is that of a white man who sat on the steps of the trading post and paid Indians to tell him words in their language. Attempts were made to elicit information on kinship systems through direct and imperious questioning: “What do you call your mother's brother?” The analogous British and German stereotypes were of those who sat on the verandah of the local colonial officer's house, conducting themselves similarly with “the natives.”

The purpose of this paper is to identify and measure the relationship between a leader’s religion and religiosity (independent variables) and leadership practices (dependent variables) in the context of non-western Christian and Muslim organizational leaders.

The quantitative correlation study involved 384 organizational leaders (150 Christians and 234 Muslims) working in various industries in Lebanon. Organizational leaders supplied their religious affiliation and self-rated their religiosity and leadership practices.

Results were somewhat mixed, supporting some prior studies and contradicting others. Differences in the hypothesized relationship between the religious affiliation, religiosity, and leadership practices of organizational leaders were noted. The findings revealed that religion and religiosity both have an influence on the behavior and practices of organizational leaders; although the former is much more significant than the latter.

Organizational leaders reported their leadership practices and religiosity, hence self-rating bias. The data collection method allowed participant self-selection, thus potentially introducing self-selection bias in this study. Cultural response bias may be another possible limitation to this study. There were no controls for possible confounding factors (such as organizational, psychological, personal, or environmental variables) that may have influenced respondents.

This study confirmed that leadership practices were significantly complicated by the respondents’ religious affiliation and religiosity. Scholars and practitioners may use the results as guidelines to further understand leadership dynamics generally, and more particularly in a non-western context. Leaders may gain practical insight about how to meet organizational challenges in a religiously diverse workplace.

This study sheds new light on how leadership practices may be influenced by people’s religious affiliation and religiosity; and especially so in the Middle East where a paucity of empirical research on workplace issues exists.

This study examines the relation between voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and the local religious norms of firms’ stakeholders. Little is known about how these local norms (measured at the county level) affect firms’ disclosure practices and firm value, especially voluntary disclosure on climate change and environmental and social responsibility.

Poisson regression models test for a significant relation between firms’ voluntary CSR disclosure intensity and the local religious norms of firms’ stakeholders. Also, an event study tests whether the local religious norms affect investment returns. The data analyzed are extracted from the archive of CSRwire, a prominent news organization that distributes CSR news to investors and the public worldwide.

The study finds that firms in high adherence (high churchgoer) locations disclose CSR activities less frequently, and firms in high affiliation (a high proportion of non-evangelical Christian churchgoers) locations disclose CSR activities more frequently. The study also finds that managers make firm-value-increasing CSR disclosure decisions that cater to the religious and social norms of the local community.

The results imply that managers self-identify with the local religious norms of stakeholders and appropriately disclose less about CSR activities when religious adherence is high and when religious affiliation (the ratio of non-evangelicals to evangelical Christians) is low. The authors find this noteworthy because religious bodies often call for greater CSR involvement and disclosure. Yet, at the firm level, it would appear that local community religious norms also prevail, as it is shown that they significantly explain firms’ CSR disclosure behavior, implying that managers cater to local religious norms in their disclosure decisions.

The findings suggest that managers vary the timing and intensity of voluntary CSR disclosure consistent with stakeholders’ local religious and social norms and that it would be costly and inefficient if the firms were to expand CSR disclosure without considering the religious norms of their local community.

This is the first large-sample study to show that local religious norms affect CSR disclosure behavior. The study makes use of a unique and novel data set obtained exclusively from CSRwire.