Harry Van Buren, Jawad Syed, & Raza Mir

In India, multinational corporations are often known to inaugurate state-of-the art production plants and “smart buildings” with a ritual puja (prayer meeting). In the USA, despite the establishment clause embedded in the First Amendment of the Constitution, politicians routinely quote the Bible to justify or contest state policies that affect corporations. Similar intersections between religious practice and economic/organizational activity are observable in every part of the world. Religion, in short, still matters for both business and society.

In our paper, we argue that while religion is one of the most significant forces shaping social and organizational actions, it has often been neglected or even seen as a taboo subject in organizational research and management practice. This is unfortunate because religion has played a significant role in the vast majority of societies and continues to remain relevant in almost every society as a source of moral norms and beliefs. In an effort to correct this imbalance in organizational research and management practice, we try to accomplish three things in our paper, which also introduces the contributing papers in the special issue of Business & Society on religion as a force affecting business.

First, we discuss how religion has functioned as a macro social force affecting business and society. We identify seven potential areas of research: (1) how religion as a social force affects the expectations businesses face with regard to responsible behavior in different cultural contexts; (2) the relationships between religion-based social movements and corporate social responsibility; (3) the manner in which businesses with operations outside of their home countries can interact with different religious belief systems in ways that are simultaneously respectful of pluralism and consistent with their home country’s values; (4) the ways in which macro-level linkages or intersections among religious faith such as race, gender, and class can be theorized in organizational research; (5) key faith-related issues in business ethics, stakeholder relations, environmental sustainability, and base of the pyramid strategies; (6) how theories such as social movements theory, institutional theory and stakeholder identity can be used to examine and explain the social impact of religion on business; and (7) the impact of historical context and religious interactions and conflicts on approaches to CSR, ethics, and governance. We also define religion in a manner that makes it amenable to critical analysis and examine its impact on business and society.

In the second section, we examine three key questions and issues related to research in this domain. They are:

1. Why has religion, as a macro social force, not received as much attention as seems to be warranted?
2. When is religion an inspiration to more ethical and responsible business conduct and when is it a barrier?
3. If religion is indeed a macro social force that affects business, what forms does it take in this regard?

Third, we offer some observations about why religion may be problematic with regard to its effects on business. While religion can potentially play a strong, significant, and constitutive role in the macro social environment of any society, we do not offer a blanket endorsement of its role or assume that its effects are always positive. Indeed, we are very clear that the strength of religious institutions may be deployed in the support of socio-organizational routines that may be inequitable, imperialistic, exploitative, and inhuman.

Our overall contention in this paper is that religion functions as an important macro social force that affects business and paying attention to it opens up a number of interesting questions for anyone trying to understand linkages between business and society.  We hope that this essay and the special issue animates future research on this important—but largely neglected—area of research.

Reference:

Van Buren, III, H.J., Syed, J., & Mir, R. 2020. Religion as a Macro Social Force Affecting Business: Concepts, Questions, and Future Research. Business & Society, 59(5): 799–822. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0007650319845097