{"id":34396,"date":"2026-08-17T14:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34396"},"modified":"2026-08-16T12:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:53:59","slug":"research-explores-how-faith-and-work-can-coexist-in-increasingly-diverse-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/08\/research-explores-how-faith-and-work-can-coexist-in-increasingly-diverse-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Research explores how faith and work can coexist in increasingly diverse workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

As workplaces become more religiously diverse, many organizations still struggle with how to navigate conversations about faith. Experts say religion is too often ignored, misunderstood or treated as too divisive for professional life.<\/p>\n

Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund has spent years studying that challenge. Through surveys of more than 15,000 workers and job seekers, focus groups with religious leaders and employees, in depth interviews and extensive analysis of existing scholarship, Ecklund has explored how religion shapes people\u2019s experiences at work and how organizations can better support employees of all faiths as well as those with no religious affiliation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not you are personally religious, religion still matters in society,\u201d said Ecklund, professor of sociology, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and director of Rice\u2019s Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance<\/a>. \u201cMost workplaces don\u2019t quite know what to do with faith. It often gets simplified, avoided or treated as something too divisive to bring into professional life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her research suggests that religion is often viewed as a workplace problem to manage rather than an important part of many employees\u2019 identities. Yet conversations about faith can reveal broader questions about ethics, belonging and inclusion that affect everyone in an organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith is a window into bigger tensions around ethics, identity, belonging and the struggle to feel fully present at work,\u201d Ecklund said. \u201cDesigning workplaces that work well for people of faith can teach us about designing work that works better for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than limiting her findings to academic journals, Ecklund wanted to make the research useful for the people most likely to encounter these challenges in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe imagined people sitting around in a book group reading the research,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve even led a book group in my home with neighbors, a mix of academics and nonacademics. That\u2019s really humbling<\/strong> because you quickly see where you could have done better.\u201d<\/p>\n

That commitment to public scholarship reflects Ecklund\u2019s broader work at Rice and the Boniuk Institute, where researchers examine issues including religious discrimination, violence, tolerance and pluralism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI care deeply about doing research that matters to everyday people<\/strong>,\u201d Ecklund said. \u201cLeading the Boniuk Institute has been an amazing opportunity to join colleagues across disciplines in addressing issues of religious violence, discrimination and researching how societies can move toward greater religious tolerance and pluralism. Those are some of the most important issues in our world today, and all of that is happening in workplaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research has resonated well beyond academia. Ecklund has been invited to discuss her findings with religious organizations, faith based colleges and universities, major research institutions and professional associations, reflecting growing interest in how organizations can better navigate faith in today\u2019s workplaces.<\/p>\n

The research is detailed in Ecklund\u2019s book \u201cWorking for Better<\/strong>: A New Approach to Faith at Work,\u201d which she co-authored with Denise Daniels of Wheaton College.<\/p>\n

The book recently received the 2026 Outstanding Applied Research Award from the Religious Research Association<\/a>, an international organization which recognizes scholarship on religion that is innovative, accessible and has meaningful public impact. The association cited the authors\u2019 success in translating rigorous research into an engaging resource for a broad audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the book had been submitted, but you never think you\u2019ll actually win something like this,\u201d Ecklund said. \u201cYou don\u2019t do the work to get recognized, but being recognized by peers in the field whose opinions you value is a huge encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award will be presented at the Religious Research Association\u2019s annual meeting in Denver this fall. This research was funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. (2017 0021).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As workplaces become more religiously diverse, many organizations still struggle with how to navigate conversations about faith. Experts say religion is too often ignored, misunderstood or treated as too divisive for professional life. Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund has spent years studying that challenge. Through surveys of more than 15,000 workers and job seekers,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[831],"tags":[833,75,832,57],"class_list":["post-34396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","tag-belonging","tag-ethics","tag-faith","tag-identity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34398,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34396\/revisions\/34398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}