The Effects Of Religious Fundamentalism On Individual Belonging

In the last several years there has been an increase in the interest of religion in the workforce (Mitroff & Denton, 1999; Konz & Ryan, 1999; Mohamed, Wisnieski, Askar, & Syed, 2004; Marques & King, 2005). A number of reasons for this interest, such as the graying of the workforce, increased distrust of upper management, an increase in demand for longer work hours and higher profits, and recent reductions in employee retirement and health care benefits, have been theorized as some of the causes (Burack, 1999; Bell & Taylor, 2001; Mohamed et al, 2004). Although there has been increasing interest in religion in the workplace, for various reasons, there still exists a huge chasm in the study of religion in organizations (Day, 2004). According to the World Fact Book (2007), over 90% of the United States population affiliates with an organized religion. Since this many people incorporate religion into their lives it may be an important facet of work organizations that should be researched. In addition, previous research from multiple domains have illustrated the importance of religion in a variety of mental and physical health outcomes, multiple aspects of behavior, and attitudes towards others, to name a few (Hamley, 1979; Kelly, 1995; Denton, 2005). As a result of the majority of the United States population ascribing to a religion and previous research illustrating that religious fundamentalism, in some capacity, can influence behavior, this study focuses on the effects of religious fundamentalism on individual belonging. Two distinct measures from different research streams, perceived cohesion and sense-of-community, are used to assess the effects of religious fundamentalism on an individual's tendency to cohere to a group. Two different moderators, organizational workplace acceptance of religious expression (OWARE) and religious commitment, are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between religious fundamentalism and coherence.