Not only do religious and nonreligious people question each other’s belief systems, often people of different religious faiths conflict with one another. There are few—if any—countries in which religion is a nonissue in the workplace. For this reason, employers are prohibited by law from discriminating against employees based on religion in many countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.52 Islam is one of the most popular religions in the world, and it is the majority religion in many countries. However, in the United States, Muslims are a minority group that is growing. There are nearly three million Muslims in the United States, and the number is predicted to double by 2030, when they will represent 1.7 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. At that point, there will be as many Muslims in the United States as there are Jews and Episcopalians.53 Despite these numbers, there is evidence in studies that people are discriminated against for their Islamic faith. For instance, U.S. job applicants in Muslim-identified religious attire who applied for hypothetical retail jobs had shorter, more interpersonally negative interviews than applicants who did not wear Muslim-identified attire.54

Religious discrimination has been a growing source of discrimination claims in the United States, partially because the issues are complex. Recently, Samantha Elauf, who was turned down for employment because she wears a hijab—a black head scarf—sued for religious discrimination. “I learned I was not hired by Abercrombie because I wear a head scarf, which is a symbol of modesty in my Muslim faith,” she said. When she interviewed, she was not aware of the organization’s rule against head coverings and did not mention her reason for the scarf. Should employers be required to deduce why applicants dress as they do and then protect them? Even the Supreme Court is not certain.55

While much has changed, the full acceptance and accommodation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees remains a work in progress. In the United States, a Harvard University study sent fictitious but realistic resumés to 1,700 actual entry-level job openings. The applications were identical with one exception: Half mentioned involvement in gay organizations during college, and the other half did not. The applications without the mention received 60 percent more callbacks than the ones with it.56

Perhaps as a result of perceived discrimination, many LGBT employees do not disclose their status. For example, John Browne, former CEO of British Petroleum (BP), hid his sexual orientation until he was 59 years old, when the press threatened to disclose that he was gay. Fearing the story would result in turmoil for the company, he resigned. Browne wrote, “Since my outing in 2007, many societies around the world have done more to embrace people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. But the business world has a long way to go.”57

We have seen that people sometimes define themselves in terms of race and ethnicity. Many people carry a strong cultural identity as well, a link with the culture of family ancestry that lasts a lifetime, no matter where the individual may live in the world. People choose their cultural identity, and they also choose how closely they observe the norms of that culture. Cultural norms influence the workplace, sometimes resulting in clashes. Organizations must adapt. Workplace practices that coincided with the norms of a person’s cultural identity were commonplace years ago, when societies were less mobile. People looked for work near familial homes, and organizations established holidays, observances, practices, and customs that suited the majority. Organizations were generally not expected to accommodate each individual’s preferences.

Thanks to global integration and changing labor markets, today’s organizations do well to understand and respect the cultural identities of their employees, both as groups and as individuals. A U.S. company looking to do business in, say, Latin America, needs to understand that employees in those cultures expect long summer holidays. A company that requires employees to work during this culturally established break will meet strong resistance.

An organization seeking to be sensitive to the cultural identities of its employees should look beyond accommodating its majority groups and instead create as much of an individualized approach to practices and norms as possible. Often, managers can provide the bridge of workplace flexibility to meet both organizational goals and individual needs.