As religion grows around the globe and Western societies become more diverse, the workplace becomes a natural place where faith is included.
This year’s third annual Religious Diversity Leadership Summit was the largest one yet, with attendance near capacity and a waitlist in hand. Tanenbaum’s first full day Summit boasted 155 attendees and 23 speakers plus moderators from 64 companies, spanning 18 industries. The day included four concurrent breakout sessions addressing focused topics, another first for the Summit. Hosted by Bloomberg, the Summit was sponsored by Bloomberg, DTCC, and the Walt Disney Company.
Ivy Latimer, Hanne Dalmut, Olivia Lang, Brian Grim
Public/Private Partnerships:
Hanne Dalmut, Director of Partnership Development, Concordia Brian Grim, President, Religious Freedom and Business Foundation Olivia Lang, Director, Workforce Initiatives, CVS Health
Moderator: Ivy Latimer, Senior Director of Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Strategic Diversity Management, CVS Health
During the Summit, the topic of why are public/private partnerships that address topics of religious diversity so important today. Each of the speakers addressed their organization’s engagement in public/private partnerships and shared some specific examples of the work public/private partnerships accomplish.
Panelists and moderators in the programs emphasized the importance of “bringing ones’ whole self to work” and the positive impact, as well as sometimes challenges, this can have for everyone. This was addressed in the context of varying positions of power in a company, the impact of generational norms, and the influence of different company cultures (corporate, non-profit, government, etc.).
In response to the Summit, attendees shared the following reactions and takeaways from the day:
“I have attended the previous conference[s]. They just keep getting better.”
“I appreciated ‘respectful curiosity.‘ As a baby boomer, I was taught never to ask questions about why people are different. However, I always found [that] by asking respectful questions, you get to learn the culture and practices of others.”
As organizations, we celebrate what we value. [Also,] don’t be paralyzed by potential backlash. Instead, be prepared to ask people what they want/need when they raise concerns and say ‘What about me?’”
“The Senior Leadership Panel described strong actions implemented at their company that describes the financial [return on investment] from diversity and inclusion. Using the Learning Lab assignment with Senior Management will generate dialogue and ultimately result in exercise to implement with staff.”
The overarching message of the day as one attendee so powerfully articulated was that “diversity of religion is a fact, but inclusion of religion is a choice.”
Brian Grim’s Introduction: We live in a world where religious populations will dramatically outgrow religiously unaffiliated populations. According to the Pew Research Center, the global religiously affiliated population is projected to grow by 2.3 billion between 2010 and 2050 compared with almost no growth in the religiously unaffiliated population (about 0.1 billion). This is more than a 23-fold difference in favor of religious populations. That’s like religion “winning” 23-to-1.
This religious growth is also changing the global marketplace. Today, three of the top five economies are Christian-majority. But in 40 years, only one is projected to be. The other four top economies in 2050 will include countries where Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and the unaffiliated predominate.
Research shows that this religious growth can be good for the workplace and the bottom lines of businesses –– as long as it is accompanied by respect for freedom of religion or belief by governments and societies. In such countries, innovative strength is more than twice as high as in countries where governments and societies don’t respect freedom of religion or belief.
So, freedom to believe – or not believe – is good for business. We can see this in the world’s two largest economies.
First, China. Admittedly it is perhaps a counter-intuitive example. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, religion was completely outlawed and people were routinely beaten and killed for having superstitious or religious beliefs. While it is true that today China has very high government restrictions on religion relative to other countries in the world, current conditions are far less restrictive than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, China has the world’s largest Buddhist population, largest folk religionist population, largest Taoist population, 9th largest Christian population and 17th largest Muslim population – ranking between Yemen and Saudi Arabia (Pew Research Center 2012). It is undeniable that had the Cultural Revolution’s draconian restrictions on religion and all segments of society continued, China’s economic progress would not have been possible.
Second, the U.S. Religion annually contributes nearly $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the U.S. economy. That is equivalent to being the world’s 15th largest national economy, putting it ahead of about 180 other countries. — It’s more than the annual revenues of the world’s top 10 tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and Google. — And it’s also more than 50% larger than that of the annual global revenues of America’s 6 largest oil and gas companies. So – you might say – that represents a lot of spiritually inspired fuel being pumped into the U.S. economy.
Religion-related and religion-friendly business add about $438 billion to the US economy each year. These include faith-based businesses, ranging from the Halal and Kosher food industries to religious media such as EWTN and the Christian Broadcast Network. The largest group within this sector are not religious companies, per se, but are faith-inspired or religion-friendly companies. Tyson’s Foods, for example, employs a large force of chaplains for their multi-religious workforce.
Many Companies Engaging
Tyson Foods isn’t the only company that’s religion-friendly or that has religious roots. Walmart came out of the Evangelical culture of Arkansas – at the time one of the most rural and least technologically advanced U.S. States. Ted Malloch notes that although the commercial success of Walmart is well known, “less well known are Walmart’s connections to the distinct religious world of northwest Arkansas and rural America … [and its] corporate culture and how specific executives incorporated religious culture into their managerial philosophy” (2015: 82). For a full discussion of the religious roots of Walmart, see Bethany Moreton’s Harvard book (2009).
Ethos of the company
Worldwide, a number of companies adhere to a religious or belief-based ethos. For instance, Sanitarium, the most popular breakfast cereal company in Australia, is owned and operated by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. As a practical demonstration of the Church’s doctrinal dedication to health and well-being, Sanitarium is a South Pacific leader in producing healthy products and in organizing community programmes to encourage healthy lifestyles.
One such Sanitarium programme is their popular nationwide TRYathlons, which inspire children to get moving in a friendly and supportive environment with an emphasis on enjoying the experience as part of an active lifestyle rather than competition.
In fact, breakfast cereals in general have Adventist roots. The parent company of Sanitarium was Sanitas, the original company set up by then-Adventists John Harvey and W.K. Kellogg to manufacture toasted corn flakes as a healthier alternative to the greasy American breakfasts of the day. And now you know the religious roots of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes!
Religious Diversity & Inclusion
Major global companies are adding religion as part of diversity and inclusion programs. Recently, EY created an online program, Religious Literacy for Organizations, winning EY UK Chairman Steve Varley a Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award at a March 2018 gala keynoted by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with the collaboration of the UN Global Compact.
Bloomberg, DTCC and The Walt Disney Company are sponsoring the 3rd Annual Tanenbaum Religious Diversity Leadership Summit on May 10 at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. At the summit I will discuss the global traction of the Corporate Pledge on Religious Diversity & Inclusion, which has a growing number of signatories including the CEOs of Hyundai Elevator, Berkshire Capital, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Yuhan-Kimberly and the Mizan Group, Indonesia’s largest Muslim publisher.
Religion, not just religious diversity and inclusion, also animates business leaders. Here, at the annual Horasis Global Meeting of business and world leaders, five CEOs will share with their peers how their faith inspires and animates their work in business. And faith is a consistent topic at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, ranging from special sessions on the power of faith to informal events like the Davos Shabbat initiated by the late Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
A question Davos has yet to address
Today at the annual Horasis Global Meeting of business and world leaders, five CEOs, each from a different faith tradition (Catholic, Confucian, Evangelical, Mormon and Muslim), shared with their peers how faith inspires and animates their work in business. This is an issue the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos has yet to take up.
Brian Grim will moderate.
May 7, 14.00-15.00 Plenary Session: Religion’s Role in Business (Auditorium, Estoril Congress Centre, Cascais, Portugal)
Many global events seem beyond control and ultimately affect people locally. People become disillusioned, and without hope fall prey to despair and populism. How may we develop trust, faith and togetherness to enable inspirational progress that can develop economic, political and spiritual change? Businesses by and large are secular, but how are they impacted and inspired by religion?
May 4, Washington, DC: Who can imagine Corporate America pausing today for the U.S. National Day of Prayer? After all, the business of America is business. And yet, a major food supplier – one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” in 2017, employing more than 100,000 in the U.S. – does just that as a matter of course.
Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein, employs a force of 98 dedicated chaplains to provide compassionate pastoral care to their workforce and their families, no matter what their religious affiliation or beliefs might be. This includes prayer, not just on the National Day set aside for it, but when people face issues of life that a spiritual perspective can help address.
U.S. law requires the President to issue annually a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer. The law envisions prayers in places of worship, in groups and by individuals, but it makes no mention of prayers in the workplace. In fact, the non-profit National Day of Prayer Task Force’s guidance on the matter is to pray for business, apparently not expecting businesses to join in.
Including and recognizing faith is part of other diversity and inclusion commitments. In 2017, Tom Hayes, President and CEO of Tyson Foods, Inc., also joined the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion group of more than 250 CEOs. “As part of our core values, we strive to treat each other with dignity and respect every day,” said Hayes. “Signing this pledge is another visible demonstration of our ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion, which we believe makes us a stronger, better team.”
Many Companies Engaging
Tyson Foods isn’t the only major global company adding religion as part of diversity and inclusion programs. Recently, EY created an online program, Religious Literacy for Organizations, winning EY UK Chairman Steve Varley a Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award at a March 2018 gala keynoted by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, with the collaboration of the UN Global Compact.
Bloomberg, DTCC and The Walt Disney Company are sponsoring the 3rd Annual Tanenbaum Religious Diversity Leadership Summit on May 10 at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. At the summit I will discuss the global traction of the Corporate Pledge on Religious Diversity & Inclusion, which has a growing number of signatories including the CEOs of Hyundai Elevator, Berkshire Capital, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Yuhan-Kimberly and the Mizan Group, Indonesia’s largest Muslim publisher.
Such corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives are tapping into a couple of current trends. First, workplace religious diversity is increasing as people have more job mobility. Second, religious switching in the United States and elsewhere has increased the number of people who identify as spiritual but not religious. Within this increasingly fluid religious marketplace, it is natural that the workplace becomes part of the environment where religious identities are lived and shaped, especially because that is where so many of us spend so much time.
Underlying religious diversity and inclusion initiatives is the need for freedom of religion and belief in the workplace. Workplaces adopting these values send two clear messages to current and prospective employees: (1) you can work here without changing who you are; and (2) the company respects all employees and will not discriminate on the basis of religion or belief. And that’s good for the business of all.
Religion Animates Business People
Religion, not just religious diversity and inclusion, also animates business leaders. Next week, at the annual Horasis Global Meeting of business and world leaders, five CEOs will share with their peers how their faith inspires and animates their work in business. And faith is a consistent topic at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, ranging from special sessions on the power of faith to informal events like the Davos Shabbat initiated by the late Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
We live in a world where religious populations will dramatically outgrow religiously unaffiliated populations. According to the Pew Research Center, the global religiously affiliated population is projected to grow by 2.3 billion between 2015 and 2060 compared with almost no growth in the religiously unaffiliated population (less than 0.1 billion). This is more than a 23-fold difference in favor of religious populations.
Given these workplace, religious and demographic trends, it will not be surprising if more companies join in the National Day of Prayer in 2019.
If your business or organization wants training on successfully navigating religious diversity and inclusion in the workplace, please contact Brian Grim, RFBF President.
Frank-Jürgen Richter, chairman at Horasis, previews the upcoming Horasis Global Meeting that will bring together 600 CEOs and discusses French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit with U.S. President Donald Trump, and the future of trade. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Mark Barton on “Bloomberg Markets.” (Source: Bloomberg, 25.04.2018)
A question Davos has yet to address
Next week at the annual Horasis Global Meeting of business and world leaders, five CEOs, each from a different faith tradition (Catholic, Confucian, Evangelical, Mormon and Muslim), will share with their peers how faith inspires and animates their work in business. This is an issue the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos has yet to take up.
Brian Grim will moderate.
May 7, 14.00-15.00 Plenary Session: Religion’s Role in Business (Auditorium, Estoril Congress Centre, Cascais, Portugal)
Many global events seem beyond control and ultimately affect people locally. People become disillusioned, and without hope fall prey to despair and populism. How may we develop trust, faith and togetherness to enable inspirational progress that can develop economic, political and spiritual change? Businesses by and large are secular, but how are they impacted and inspired by religion?
Microsoft’s most valuable assets are its employees and the unique perspectives they bring to their jobs each and every day. Produced for Microsoft by Untamed.
* UNTAMED is a film production company based in Seattle, WA. They create high-value content for international nonprofits, fortune 500 companies, universities, and startups. They seek to highlight the depth, emotion, and diversity of the human experience through intimate interviews and compelling vérité footage.
How does someone live out faith in a global, iconic company like Apple — especially when reporting to a brilliant but demanding leader like Steve Jobs?
Ron Johnson and John Brandon, both recruited to senior level positions by Jobs, share some surprising insights about implementing principles of faith and love at Apple.
Cast
SENIOR VP OF RETAIL OPERATIONS
Ron Johnson/
VP OF INTERNATIONAL
John Brandon/
Ron Jonson and John Brandon applied gospel principles into developing one of the most successful retail stores in history.
FAITH & CO. is a 13-part documentary film series by Untamed* and distributed by Seattle Pacific University, which explores the tensions, struggles, and life of leaders who approach the world of business through the lens of faith.
From senior executives at Apple who created the most successful retail store in history, to a high-fashion wearable technology company in Vietnam. From a couple revitalizing an entire town in Alabama, to a $1 billion dollar car dealership infused with the values of transparency and service. You can watch them all at FAITH & CO.
* UNTAMED is a film production company based in Seattle, WA. They create high-value content for international nonprofits, fortune 500 companies, universities, and startups. They seek to highlight the depth, emotion, and diversity of the human experience through intimate interviews and compelling vérité footage.
United Religions Initiative’s (URI) Executive Director, The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr., and Religious Freedom & Business Foundation’s (RFBF) President, Brian Grim, have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to strengthen each organization’s efforts to create cultures of peace through interfaith cooperation and understanding. The two organizations were introduced by Ambassador Mussie Hailu, URI Global Envoy, Continental Director for URI-Africa and URI Representative to the United Nations.
With U.S. offices in San Francisco, California, URI is the largest grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network in the world, cultivating peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. URI implements its mission through local and global initiatives that build the capacity of its member groups (called Cooperation Circles) in 104 countries to engage in community action such as conflict resolution and reconciliation, environmental sustainability, education, women’s empowerment, youth leadership programs, and advocacy for human rights.
Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, RFBF educates the global business community about how religious freedom is good for business and engages the business community in joining forces with government and non-government organizations in promoting respect for freedom of religion or belief. RFBF envisions a global future of innovative and sustainable economies, where freedom of religion or belief and diversity are respected. It accomplishes its work through its Empowerment Plus initiative, research, global awards, world forums, and education on how freedom of religion or belief is in the strategic interests of businesses and societies.
URI and RFBF will initiate their combined efforts by rolling out Empowerment Plus in conjunction with Launching Leaders Worldwide in URI’s East Africa Region under the leadership of URI’s Mussie Hailu. Empowerment Plus is an interfaith action program teaching young adults how to apply spiritual principles in their personal and professional lives, helping them develop a faith-centered framework with a focus on giving back. The interfaith Launching Leaders course is the cornerstone of Empowerment Plus. The course is packed with state-of-the-art videos and interactive exercises that help young adults answer important life questions and make plans for their lives. As an integral part of Empowerment Plus, young adults from different faith groups partner together to carry out practical interfaith action projects ranging from jobs programs to service projects.
Visualize impact and change the world. Explore our video-rich initiatives: in-company training, network of CEOs building interfaith understanding and peace, women filmmakers creating new narratives, Millennials exercising leadership, and research showing religion’s socio-economic impact is measurable.
Workplace Training
RFBF together with the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute provide best practice training for companies on why allowing employees to bring their whole selves to work – faith and all – is good for the bottom line. Watch and share the promo video with companies and organizations in your network.
CEOs support peace at Paralympics
Be inspired by business leaders advancing interfaith understanding & peace worldwide hailing from Australia, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Italy, Myanmar, Netherlands, South Korea, UAE, UK, US.
Award-winning Short Films
Watch original short films that showcase how religious freedom leads to innovation, peace, entrepreneurship and human flourishing.
Interfaith Action
With Launching Leaders, we have just signed an agreement with the United Religions Initiative to provide our video-rich Empowerment+ leadership and empowerment initiative. URI has 914 local chapters in 104 Countries.
Impact is Measurable
The socio-economic contributions of religion and religious freedom to society are measurable. Check out this award-winning video.
We live in a remarkable age in where women’s rights in the workplace are gaining unprecedented traction. But as we approach the tipping point of global change, so are the forces that oppose it. As millions promote liberty around the world, too often the critical factor of religious freedom is overlooked in our conversation about gender equality in the business world.
Over the years, I have become passionate about religious freedom and its impact on women’s rights. My exposure to religious freedom was birthed in many ways while growing up in a home with an Iranian Muslim father and an American Christian mother.
My mother passed away from cancer when I was 14, so her spiritual role in my life was limited. Even though my father was a practicing Muslim, he never pressured me to follow his faith as he did. In fact, he encouraged me to think for myself, explore new ideas, play sports, travel abroad, and determine my own spiritual path. The religious freedom he allowed me became a conduit to uncover my personal faith, talents, vocation, and calling to help empower marginalized women.
I have also learned that women’s empowerment and success in the business world cannot occur without religious freedom. Women around the world must be able to choose their own faith perspective. Religion cannot be handed down to them by male-dominated communities. A woman’s choice regarding religion (and its practices) will be one of the greatest factors that impacts her personal peace and development.
In our age of media, we believe the important message of women’s rights connection to religious freedom must be shared as widely as possible. Furthermore, we believe we must create visual narratives which encourage indigenous leaders to advance the legal principals of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief for every person without distinction.
The goal of the film competition is to challenge filmmakers around the world to create short films that showcase how religious freedom leads to innovation, peace, security, entrepreneurship, and human flourishing in communities.
Strategically, these short films were shown at the 2018 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards ceremony. The grand prize winner of the 2018 competition received $5,000 and a trip to present her work. Additionally, the wining films are being shared with religious freedom networks, NGOs, and faith based organizations around the world.
My father impacted my life in many ways, but mostly I am grateful that he allowed me to choose my own religious identity, from which many of my personal freedoms and life accomplishments flow. I hope the same for the next generation.
The winning and finalist films include:
– $5000 GOLD GRAND PRIZE: Love Has No Borders (by Christy Anastas and Deborah Paul)
– SILVER FIRST RUNNER UP: Global FC (by Mariya Dostzadah Goodbrake)
– SECOND RUNNER UP: Equations (by Nancy Sawyer Schraeder and Naji Hendrix)
* Shirin is Iranian-American and the author of Muslims Next Door (Zondervan) and Wanting All the Right Things (Relevant). The Los Angeles Times, Detroit Free Press, Fox News Christianity Today and NewYorkTimes.com have featured her writing and work among Muslims and Christians alike. She served with Cru, Inspirational Films and the Christian Broadcasting Network. Shirin is passionate about helping women become world-class leaders by creating media for their mission. Partnering with various United Nations, NGOs and faith-based agencies, she helps leaders develop media strategies to expand their visibility and outreach platforms. She is a graduate of the University of Washington and speaks French, Farsi and English.
Leadership is both deeply personal and profoundly social. Similarly, religion shapes the core of personal beliefs and values, as well as an understanding of social relationships. It has extensive reach and intensive force. Too often it is regarded with a passive distance and a disdainful disregard.
Instead, we should more actively and constructively engage with religion and its impact on leadership. I have done so in an 18-month long study with LEAD Academy, a social business with non-profit status located in the heart of Berlin. The study builds on 32 semi-structured interviews with religious leaders of secular organizations and a half-day workshop. Interviewees and participants were adherents of the so-called Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Engaging with religion does not imply an uncritical rapprochement. On the contrary, engagement means to acknowledge religion as a social fact with a strong impact on many lives and wider society. It follows that religion needs to be taken seriously – both as a source for good and bad – and dealt with accordingly.
The study illustrates that religion is a double-edged sword that can cause both harm and good in leaders and beyond. Potential pitfalls are worldly negligence, non-critical reasoning, exclusivity claim and a belief in divine right. Potential opportunities are personal harmony, deeper meaning, social caring and lived values. If pitfalls are overcome and opportunities embraced, religion can be an anchor and compass for individuals, organizations, and societies in a complex world.
No room for faith?
Interviewees strongly encourage to put religion back on the agenda. Organizations need to consider how to literally and metaphorically offer room for faith. However, some leaders experience “aggressive secularism”, which makes the inclusion of faith particularly difficult. They acknowledge that yoga and meditation are trendy and have attributes of substitute religions, but often lack certain depth. In contrast, religion offers insights about concerns of deeper purpose. In other words, while essential themes for individual and organizational purpose are currently not sufficiently addressed and contemplated upon, religion may offer a means to approach these central concerns.
If practiced in context and in an inclusive way, religion offers an anchor for stability and guidance. This is not a small “if”. Still: religion can be a compass to navigate through and deal with ambiguity in a complex world. This can create a personal mindset and ‘soulset’ empowering leaders’ personal and social conduct. With the right engagement, this can have a significant positive impact on society.
The study concludes by offering five ways to engage with religion and leadership.
ABSTRACT: Religions are social constituents of present societies that need to be integrated into theories of leadership. In this paper, I outline how three distinct characteristics, particularly present in Abrahamic religions, can significantly impact leadership principles and practices: a belief in the existence of and relationship to a God, the faith in and pursuit of a hereafter purpose, and the belief in and attempted adherence to a sacred scripture. Subsequently, I classify two approaches to examine their impact on leadership: a scripture-based and an empirical-based lens. I then highlight how the distinct characteristics can either inform and blend into or transform and modify moral theories of leadership.
About the author
* Ali Aslan Gümüsay is a postdoctoral DAAD Prime Fellow at the Vienna University of Economics & Business and the University of Hamburg. Before, he was a Lecturer in Management at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, and a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He received his DPhil from Said Business School, University of Oxford.
As religion grows around the globe and Western societies become more diverse, the workplace becomes a natural place where faith is included.
Ivy Latimer, Hanne Dalmut, Olivia Lang, Brian Grim
