Managing religious identity across cultures: Balancing employees’ and foreign cultural expectations

Abstract

This qualitative study explores the factors that guide the management of religious accommodation in call centers serving overseas clients. Conducted in 2012 and updated in 2024, it features Tunisia-based call centers engaged in business with Western clients. The study finds that these firms’ religious strategies are primarily guided by whether their interactions with Western clients require heightened levels of trust due to the exchange of sensitive information. We also find that some companies that impose religion-accommodation policies on employees do so as part of a dual-accommodation strategy directed both to meeting employees’ cultural expectations and to meeting the cultural expectations of Western clients. The study enriches the cross-cultural and religion management literature by revealing the key factors that guide religious policies in a cross-cultural setting.

Keywords

cross-cultural management call centers islam religion religious accommodation Tunisia

Introduction

Managing identities across cultural contexts involves the interaction between the identity aspects which an individual chooses with the societal or organizational expectations of identity (Lee and Gyamfi, 2023). Regarding religion in particular, organizations are expected to regard the individual’s religious identity as a fundamental freedom (Honoré, 2022), alongside managing the shifting emphases on different aspects of identity when occurring in cross-cultural settings (Belhoste and Monin, 2013).

According to extant literature, when addressing religion-related requests from employees, companies may 1/embrace religion with few or no restrictions (the favorable approach), 2/permit religious expression as long as it does not jeopardize company interests (the hybrid approach); 3/adopt a neutral stance by not encouraging or discouraging religious expression (the neutral approach); or 4/reject religion considering it as a private matter (the unfavorable approach) (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Borstorff, 2011; Galindo and Zannad, 2012, 2014; Galindo, 2019; Hennekam et al., 2018). However, most of the existing research has focused on companies with few or no international ties, making it difficult to understand the dynamics and reasons behind religious policies in firms that cross national, cultural, and religious boundaries.

Therefore, our study was guided by this research question: Which factors guide corporate religious accommodation strategies in companies engaged in cross-cultural business settings?

Addressing this question is essential for several reasons. First, religion is a fundamental part of individual identity and an important part of one’s culture. It is crucial to forming self-identity (Ysseldyk et al., 2010) and may inform the values to which individuals adhere. Religion can influence the way people dress, act, eat, and perform their duties (Tilson and Venkateswaran, 2004). According to Benifiel, Fry and Geigle (2014: pp. 177), “for many, faith is what shapes and informs their value system, ethics, character, leadership, and attitudes toward work.” This makes religion a significant and pertinent study topic.

Second, according to the literature, some key factors that guide corporate religious policies include legal obligations, cost control, the desire to attract personnel, to have a diverse workforce, or to boost company reputation (Beane et al., 2017; Bennani and Barth, 2012; Borstorff, 2011; Bribosia et al., 2011; Cash and Gray, 2000; Findley et al., 2014; Galindo and Zannad, 2014; Hennekam et al., 2018; King and Holmes, 2012). Since these studies did not focus on cross-national firms, our research question will help establish whether existing literature applies to cross-national firms—in other words, whether the factors thought to shape religious policies are also applicable in companies that serve clients from countries with different cultural and religious traditions than their employees.

Conducted in 2012 and updated in 2024, our study features employees and managers of three Tunisia-based call centers catering to Western clients. The study contributes to both the literature on religion management and on cross-cultural management. Contrary to the existing literature’s suggestion that companies usually adopt a single approach (favorable, hybrid, neutral or unfavorable) when responding to religion-related requests, our study found that when serving a foreign customer base, companies may adopt a dual approach, particularly when providing sensitive services, those involving money, privacy and other personal information. The study also provides an update of the factors guiding religious accommodation strategies. The study advances the understanding of managing across cultural contexts by suggesting that the heightened need of clients’ trust during highly sensitive exchanges informs how employees’ religious identity is managed.

The paper is structured as follows: The first section situates religion within the broader phenomenon of identity-based discourse in organizations. This section provides a detailed overview of the four existing accommodation strategies before outlining the reasons why previous research fails to adequately capture religion management in firms engaged in cross-national business. The next section outlines our empirical research and its context, while the following highlights our key findings. The last section addresses our theoretical contribution while offering directions for future studies.

Identity management in the workplace

Scholarly exploration of identity in the cross-cultural management literature acknowledges the construction of identity at various levels. Self-identity describes an individual’s ability to create and maintain a consistent narrative of who they are, consisting of a steady depiction of self-images, attributes, and traits (Alversson and Willmott, 2002). It reflects the individual’s own view or perspective of self (Watson, 2008). Alternatively, social identity refers to the formation of identity attributeable to external sources or broader discourses surrounding that identity (Watson, 2008). Beyond this dichotomy, scholars have examined the ongoing conceptualization of identity and its many folds, exploring the connection between identity and organizations, and the process via which identity evolves (Ashforth et al., 2008).

In turn, identity is rarely addressed as a static notion. Verkuyten and Martinovic (2012) and Roccass and Brewer (2002) explore social identity complexity, acknowledging the extent to which individuals relate to multiple identities, and establish an interconnectedness between them. Other scholars present the on-going negotiation between the individual’s internal attributes, and the external influences, such as those within the organization itself. In turn, organizational identification (Ashforth and Mael, 1989) describes the individual’s sense of alignment and ‘oneness’ with the organization. In this regard, the individual adopts the prevailing norms, ideas, and values of the organization (Albert et al., 2000). In turn, the scholarship speaks to the intersection between a professional and personal identity. In contexts where particular work identities are expected to be performed, “cultural mimicry” describes the act of impersonating another culture in order to enable seamless engagement between the employees and targeted stakeholders (Das and Dharwadkar, 2009).

Developments in the literature have further examined the presumed tension/engagement between the multiple identities which an individual may reconcile within the organizational setting. Recent streams of literature (Lebel and Ben-Hador, 2019; Ben-Hador, Lebel and Ben-Shalom, 2020) suggest that one identity usually prevails over the other due to organizational norms and constraints. A study of Israeli Zionists administrators reveals that, upon acquiring their professional positions, professional norms and constraints may limit the expression of community ideals and ideological principles (Lebel and Ben-Hador, 2019). The study goes on to suggest tension between dual identities may lean in preference of the professional identity. The opposite pattern was revealed in a subsequent study (Ben-Hador, Lebel and Ben-Shalom, 2020) where community values took precedence over identity development in comparison to the training expectations. Continued exploration (Lebel and Pollack, 2023) posits that two identities can cohabitate and result in a new, hybrid identity. In a study of Israeli women who profess a sexual liberation discourse while claiming to be non-liberal, Lebel and Pollack (2023) introduce the idea of “liquid authenticity” to describe the coexistence of seemingly contradictory identities. The authors see this form of authenticity as a distinct identity category in which apparently contradictory identities can coexist harmoniously, enabling Israeli women “to preserve their ‘religious capital’ alongside a more ‘permissive capital’ as well as an ‘erotic capital’” (Lebel and Pollack, 2023: 952).

Hence, identity formation in the organization is theorized as the outcome of a dual-sided process, identity work by the individual themselves, and identity regulation carried out by the management of the organization (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002; Peze, 2012).

Religious identity as a part of identity complexity

One’s religion is intrinsically related to culture, and at times, cultural and religious identities are sometimes used interchangeably and seen as a subset of each other (Herce, 2024; Riviş-Tipei, 2023; Scheer, 2022). However, scholars also note that religious identity is often left out of examination of an individual’s multiple identities (Chaudhury and Miller, 2008), informing the complexity of their social identity (Verkuyten and Martinovic, 2012). In an attempt to describe religion, Scheer (2022) outlines two definitions. The first, mostly shared in Europe today, and referred to as “Religion 1,” regards religion as something that people can practice if they so desire. “Religion is viewed as a freely chosen stance and practice that can be switched out, modified, or completely abandoned at will.” (Scheer, 2022). The second definition, “Religion 2”, associates religion to institutions and communities, highlighting how they assign identity. “Religion is the practice that a family and community shares, …a heritage and a tradition that must be passed down.” (Ibid). According to the author, while Religion 1 is understood as modern, Religion 2 is viewed as pre-modern and, from a European point of view, the one “brought in by migrants”. Religion 2 is often used to categorize the Other and their failure to assimilate into secular or modern societies. Its emphasis on communities and identity as well as its tendency to make individual belief a secondary concern brings it closer to, if not confuses, the notion of culture.

Contemporary debates about religion are embedded within identity discourses that have become strategic organizational concerns in today’s organizations. Identity issues may inform perceived legitimacy, corporate culture, relationships with stakeholders, and company reputation (Ashforth and Mael, 1989; Scott and Lane, 2000). As firms operate in increasingly diverse and polarized settings, religion may be both an expression of identity and a source of conflicts among employees, management, or external stakeholders. Over the past decades, religion has played a role in numerous conflicts and quarrels across the globe including in Israel and Palestine, Northern Ireland, Pakistan and India, and the Central African Republic. Such conflicts can substantially disrupt enterprises, as seen in Iraq and Niger, where religious violence threatened to shut down oil production, affecting worldwide business. Religion profoundly shapes the environment in which transnational companies conduct business. These companies are often required to address competing expectations and fail to satisfy individuals and groups whose reactions may question organizational legitimacy.

In short, managing religion is not solely an issue of workplace accommodation, but a broader one affecting legitimacy, stakeholder relationships, organizational identity, and therefore requiring proper management. However, managing religion effectively is a complex task, especially in situations that evoke contrasts of identity, beliefs and practices (Gaillard et al., 2022).

Prominent religious accommodation strategies

Based on existing literature we have identified different approaches by which companies address employees’ requests to express their religion in the workplace. Among these, four strategies emerge as prominent approaches, which we categorize as unfavorable, favorable, hybrid and neutral.

The first, unfavorable approach, referred to as “refusal”, “denial” (Galindo and Zannad, 2012, 2014; Bennani and Barth, 2012), or as the “separation strategy” (Hennekam et al., 2018), or “closed secularism” (Galindo, 2019) rejects religious expression, considering it as part of employees’ private life. Companies that opt for this approach typically discourage or prohibit religious symbols, deny requests for religion-related scheduling, and do not provide prayer spaces. Companies may engage in this approach because of the organization’s wish to preserve its effective functioning and due to management’s perception of the potential repercussions of religious accommodation. Indeed, studies indicate that companies that respond unfavorably to religious requests do so to preserve the neutrality of their organization and avoid proselytism (Galindo and Zannad, 2014), as well as negative financial impacts, since accommodating religion can be costly (Borstorff, 2011; Bribosia et al., 2011; Cash and Gray, 2000; Findley et al., 2014).

In their study, Cash and Gray (2000) insisted that before responding to employee religious requests, employers consider the “purported impact” of their response on employees, safety, customers, and “the corresponding effect on the company’s productivity and process”. Hennekam et al. (2018) found that a company’s external stakeholders strongly informed companies’ decision (not) to accommodate religion, citing a manager who admitted ruling out a veiled Muslim female manager candidate for fear that the company’s clients might resist this expression of religion.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the favorable approach, also known as “tolerance”, “laxity”, “acceptance” (Galindo and Zannad, 2012, 2014; Bennani and Barth, 2012), “flexibility within the rules strategy” (Hennekam et al., 2018) or “inclusive secularism” (Galindo, 2019). A company taking a favorable approach supports and encourages religious expression, implementing measures such as flexible scheduling, voluntary shift changes, lateral transfers or job reassignments, modification of dress code and grooming requirements, time off for prayer and religious observances, food accommodation and holiday swapping (Borstorff, 2011).

Companies’ motivation for the unfavorable approach lies in their belief in a link between religion and business (and employee) success. D’Iribarne’s (1998) research on the Casablanca-based Sgs Thomson plant for instance, found that Moroccan employees’ successful adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM), which improved company performance and employee satisfaction, was due to the fact that this tool promoted Islamic-compatible values such as equality, honesty, and transparency. Because TQM principles matched those of the employees’ religion, they enthusiastically adopted it, which resulted in business success.

Adopting a favorable approach to religion may improve employee engagement and personal well-being (Garcia-Yeste et al., 2022; Hambler, 2016; Singh and Babbar, 2021), organizational performance (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Galindo and Zannad, 2014; Giacalone and Jurkiewicz, 2010; Hasan, 2022; Mitroff and Denton, 1999), employee satisfaction and organizational commitment (Singh and Babbar, 2021; Garcia-Yeste et al., 2022). A favorable approach may also lead to social harmony (Kennedy and Lawton, 1998), fewer conflicts (Light et al., 1989), improved organizational reputation (Hasan, 2022), and help attract or retain talent (Beane et al., 2017; Galindo, 2019; Galindo and Zannad, 2014; King and Holmes, 2012).

The other two approaches lie somewhere within the spectrum of the unfavorable and favorable strategies. The third, hybrid approach, referred to as “accommodation/case-by-case integration” (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Galindo and Zannad, 2012, 2014), “promotion” (Bennani and Barth, 2012) or “dismissed secularism” (Galindo, 2019) is context-dependent. It takes each case as it comes with the aim “to reconcile particular interests without sacrificing general ones” (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Galindo and Zannad, 2014). There are no universal rules. Religious benefits, such as flexible scheduling or time off for prayers, may be granted as long as they do not compromise a company’s ability to produce or satisfy customers.

The fourth approach, known as the “common-ground strategy” (Hennekam et al., 2018) can be dubbed neutral as it neither promotes nor deters religious expression. According to Hennekam and colleagues (2018), this position entails implementing a strong company culture that everyone can relate to. Individual similarities are emphasized while differences are given little weight. Employees with diverse beliefs can preserve their identities as they share the company culture and have a ‘common goal’ with fellow employees.

While this literature provides the rationale for corporate responses to religious demands, its primary focus on settings in which the actors - whether managers, employees, or clients - live in the same religious and cultural context limits the theorization of factors that shape religion accommodation strategies. Sparse consideration has been given to companies engaged in cross-national business that are physically, culturally, and religiously separated from those they serve.

Our study seeks to identify the factors that inform company religious accommodation strategies in Tunisia-based call centers that serve Western clients. The study’s respondents provide service activities known as being intangible, heterogenous, and perishable (Flipo, 1991; Lovelock, 1992; Moeller, 2010) and requiring a high level of engagement and trust building between service providers (employees) and service consumers (foreign clients) (Berg and Johansson, 2020; Caiels et al., 2024; Lansing et al., 2023). In other words, Tunisian employees serve people they have never met, from whom they are separated by cultural and national boundaries, but who must have trust in them and believe in their ability to provide services they cannot assess/test beforehand, nor be certain of the outcome. In this situation of uncertainty exacerbated by physical, cultural and geographical distance, it is relevant to investigate the factors that companies consider when designing their religious accommodation strategies.

Our research question is stated as follows: Which factors guide corporate religious accommodation strategies in companies engaged in cross-national business? This study aims to understand what drives these companies to adopt an unfavorable, a favorable, a hybrid, or a neutral approach toward religion.

Research method

As our study examines Tunisian-based call centers serving Western clients, we present the country’s history and religious context, and then describe the call centers’ configurations.

The study’s context

A former French protectorate, Tunisia achieved independence on March 20, 1956, ending 75 years of French domination. During this time, France imposed on Tunisians “its republican values, language, aesthetic visions, and rites with consistency.” (La Barbera 2006: 22). When Habib Bourguiba, the first president of independent Tunisia, took office in 1956, he enacted the Majalla (Vermeren, 2011), a new personal status law aiming at gender equality. This reportedly encouraged women to enjoy public spaces without wearing veils. President Bourguiba was strongly influenced by “the European enlightenment philosophy and the French republican model” (Yousfi, 2014: p. 401). Although the constitution acknowledged Islam as the official religion of the country¹, strongly religious people and those who were attached to Tunisian traditions were regarded as “reactionary forces” (Yousfi, 2014). Under Bourguiba’s presidency, a circular (n° 108 of September 18, 1981) banned the wearing of ostentatious displays of religion in public schools. When Bourguiba’s successor Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali came to office in 1987, he reinforced this policy prohibiting religious symbols in the public sphere and severely punishing women who failed to abide by the new law². In 1987, three new circulars³ prohibited religious displays in primary and secondary schools, university residences, and state-owned companies. In 1991, the ban was extended to private companies (Ben Salem, 2010). Ben Ali’s presidency exposed the vulnerability of individual rights to religion, with supporters and activists of The Movement of Islamic Tendency (which became Ennahda in 1998) being pushed into exile, detained, and tortured, leading to the deaths of some (Hibou, 2006; Vermeren, 2011).

After President Ben Ali’s fall in 2011 in the wake of the Tunisian revolution, an Islamic political party, Ennahda, won the elections. The new government took a very different position from its “French-minded” predecessors, promoting Islamic and Tunisian traditions. The Ennahda administration faced challenges after multiple incidents involving restrictions on people’s freedom of conscience and religion, as well as accusations of Islamizing the country. Following this and the assassinations of two secular politicians, a new constitution was adopted in 2014, forcing Ennahda to step down. In 2022, a new constitution adopted under President Kais Saied, expanded presidential powers while rewriting the country’s relationship with religion. The constitution no longer presents Islam as the country’s religion, but it characterizes Tunisia as “part of the Islamic nation”, explicitly requiring the president to be Muslim (Art.18) and the State to work towards achieving the goals of “pure Islam” (Art.5).

Offshore call centers, the study’s focus

Our study focuses on offshore call centers, defined as centers that provide services from a nation other than the one where the end user is situated (Hatem, 2004). Tunisian offshore call centers proved to be an interesting and appropriate choice for our study because of their cross-national configuration. Tunisia has been a destination of choice for Western-oriented call centers for over two decades due to its geostrategic position, the quality of its workforce and its attractive social and tax framework. In 2023, the majority of call centers in Tunisia catered to clients in the West and employed 50,000 workers (Tunisian Call Center Association) generating 800 million dinars in income, according to the Tunisian daily La Presse.

Call centers perform service activities. A service activity’s main characteristics are intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability (Gallouj and Toivonen, 2011; Parasuraman et al., 1988).

Successful service creation and delivery requires trust building (Berg and Johansson, 2020; Caiels et al., 2024; Lansing et al., 2023). Indeed, because they cannot see or assess the service beforehand, service recipients must have trust in the ability of service providers to deliver the service efficiently. However, cultural and religious differences make this task more difficult and impose greater requirements on teleoperators. Indeed, studies have shown that people tend to negatively judge products or individuals they perceive as being from a different country, ethnicity or religion. (Del Castillo, Armas and Taño, 2024; Heitmann and Reichardt, 2024; Verlegh, 2007).

Research strategy: A multiple and comparative study design

Our study was conducted in 2012, then updated in 2024. The first study features three offshore call centers in Northern Tunisia, which will be referred to as NISIA1, NISIA2, and NISIA3, due to their employees’ and managements’ desire for anonymity. We selected companies that had cross-national activities, specifically those serving Western based clients. They were chosen for their many similarities. Although different in terms of size, they all provided service activities through inbound and/or outbound calling. Their other similarities include their location (Tunisia), nationality of their leaders and founders (French), cultural and religious demographics of their workforce (Arab-Muslim Tunisians), and location of their end-clients and ordering customers (West).

Our research strategy consisted of comparing these companies’ practices to identify the factors that guide their religious accommodation strategies. We investigated each company as a single unit of analysis. According to Yin (2003), this strategy corresponds to a holistic and multiple case study design, since it analyzes each company as a whole.

The study’s sample

We selected informants knowledgeable of the study’s topic, that is, actors involved in religion-related issues (management, founders/managing directors) and employees governed by the religious policies of the studied companies (lower-level employees such as teleoperators) (see Table 1).

Table 1.

Sample characteristics.

Sample characteristics	NISIA1	NISIA2	NISIA3
Number of respondents	10	28	30
Gender	7 women, 3 men	17 women, 11 men	13 women, 17 men
Average age	31,8	30,33	29,8
Positions	6 are teleoperators; 2 are managers 2 are HR professionals	17 are teleoperators; 6 are managers 2 are consultants in cross-cultural management; 2 are HR professionals, including the company’s co-founder; 1 is CEO and co-founder of the company	22 are teleoperators; 5 are managers; 3 are product or quality experts
Degree	9 hold a college degree; 1 has no college degree	23 hold a college degree; 5 have no college degree	24 hold a college degree; 6 have no college degree
Family situation	5 are unmarried with no children; 4 are married (including 1 with children); 1 is divorced with children	18 are unmarried (including 3 with children); 9 are married (including 6 with children); 1 is divorced with no children	24 are unmarried with no children; 6 are married (including 2 with children)

Our sample consists of 68 people in the first study including 64 Tunisians and 4 French; all but one of the 64 Tunisians considered themselves Muslim. The remaining one defined himself as Tunisian Jew. The sample size was limited to 68 people because adding more respondents would not have brought additional information to our study since theoretical saturation was reached (Glaser and Strauss, 2017). Our respondents’ profiles closely fit the literature’s description of call center employees at the time of the study, indicating that these employees are young, primarily female, unmarried, and university graduates (Gharbi, 2012; Holman et al., 2007; Magnaudeix, 2011; Taktak Kallel, 2006).

Data collection

During the 2012 study, we conducted semi-structured interviews of 30 to 90 minutes with each of the 68 actors. The interview protocol was divided into four parts. The first part addressed the respondents’ background prior to joining their company. The second part was about the company’s mission, activities, ordering customers’ and end users’ requirements. The third part addressed respondents’ religion (e.g.: How would you describe your involvements with religion? Do you have any specific religion-related needs/constraints?). The last part was about the company’s handling of religious issues (e.g.: Are there facilities in your company enabling the practice of religion? Does your current schedule seem compatible to you with the practice of religion?).

According to Cuervo-Cazurra and colleagues (2016), to strengthen the trustworthiness of empirical analysis, at least one person of the research team needs to be familiar with the cultural environment of the research and master the respondents’ language. As the respondents speak French, the interviews were conducted by one of the authors, a native French speaker of African heritage. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and translated into English, and then carefully reviewed by the authors, who are all fluent.

An analysis of documents provided by both the companies and staff members was performed. These documents included companies’ archives, memoranda, staff registers, and employees’ employment contracts. We also looked at the companies’ public websites and social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn) and read local newspapers. The data were supplemented by 600 pages of notes.

In July 2012, we completed a non-participatory observation (Arborio and Fournier, 2005; Journé, 2008; Yin, 2003) ranging from 3 days at NISIA3 to 10 days at NISIA2. We observed managers’ and teleoperators’ day-to-day life onsite and offsite, such as their phone conversations with European clients, meetings on company premises, and extracurricular activities organized by their managers (soccer games, dinners at local restaurants). We also observed workers during their breaks on-site and outside, as well as new hires during their onboarding process. We believed that off-site observation was relevant since we were studying a sensitive issue that might be expressed more freely outside of the workplace.

Call center presentations

NISIA1 was founded in Tunis in 2008 by two Frenchmen, each owning 50% of the company. Its services cover both outbound calls (appointment setting, telemarketing) and inbound calls (telesales, technical assistance, etc.). In 2012, NISIA 1’s 60 employees were solely serving end-clients and ordering customers in France through outbound calling.

NISIA2 was founded in Tunis in 2003 by a French entrepreneur. The company is majority owned by Tunisians, and minority owned by the French founder and the HR director, also French. NISIA 2 carries out telemarketing, surveys and polls, appointment setting, and debt collections through inbound and outbound calls. Its ordering customers and end clients are located in Western Europe (Belgium, France, Switzerland) and Southern Europe (Spain, Portugal). In 2012, NISIA2 had 82 employees.

NISIA3 is a French multinational that, as of July 2012, employed over 135,000 people across 50 countries. NISIA3 provides appointment setting, customer loyalty, win-back and survey programs, debt collection, and customer account management via inbound and outbound calls. NISIA3’s Tunisian subsidiary was founded in 2000, and by 2012 had 5,000 employees dispersed over six facilities. The facility we investigated opened in Tunis in 2004 and employed approximately 850 people (17% of the company’s national workforce and 0.63% globally). At the time of the study, NISIA’s ordering customers and end-clients lived in Canada, France, and Belgium.

The three firms’ religious positions

The studied companies allow religious expression to a greater or lesser extent. We categorized their religious strategies based on their discourse and to a lesser extent, their official documents (rules of procedure, etc.). NISIA1 is a rather favorable position, NISIA2 in an unfavorable position and NISIA3 in a hybrid position with regard to religion, as summarized in Table 2. None of the companies exhibited the “common-ground” or neutral strategy. This is likely because they are located in a nation with little religious diversity. The common-ground strategy is portrayed as an inclusive approach with the goal of engaging every employee, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. We believe this primarily holds true in environments where there is greater religious diversity, like France, where this strategy was discovered by Hennekam et al. (2018). The “common ground” approach is unlikely in companies based in a country where the vast majority of the population and the company’s workforce identifies with the same religion.

Table 2.

The three companies’ religious policies.

	NISIA1 favorable	NISIA2 unfavorable	NISIA3 hybrid
Activities performed	All types of activities, whether or not they are compatible with Islam	All types of activities, whether or not they are compatible with Islam	All types of activities, whether or not they are compatible with Islam
Ideal candidate and employee profile	Hiring of all types of candidates including ‘religious candidates’ except niqab and beard wearers	Recruitment of ‘non-religious’ candidates only	Hiring of all types of candidates, including ‘religious candidates’. Religion as a strategy to attract talents
Support throughout Ramadan	No “Eid El Fitr bonus” No Ramadan meals	“Eid El Fitr bonus” 200 TND granted with no conditions Ramadan meals offered and taken outside the company	“Eid El Fitr bonus” 100 TND granted under conditions (seniority, attendance, performance) Ramadan meals offered and eaten on company premises
Religious symbols	Hijab wearers tolerated Niqab and beard wearers rejected	All religious symbols prohibited	All religious symbols are welcome
Work scheduling	Work schedule adapted to religious needs	Work schedule not adapted to religious needs	Work schedule may be adapted to religious needs on conditions of attendance, seniority, and performance.
Prayer room	Prayer room available	No prayer rooms. Prayers prohibited on business premises	Prayer rooms available

Data analysis

Throughout the research process, our data collection and analysis were carried out simultaneously. In accordance with Eisenhardt's (1989) recommendations, we looked “at the data in many divergent ways” (p. 538) to report on the dynamics taking place in the companies regarding our topic. For the analysis, we opted for a manual approach (Gavard-Perret, 2008) analyzing the data by source (interviews/field notes/documentation) (Eisenhardt, 1989). In keeping with Miles and Huberman's (2003) guidance, we made this step progressively as the study advanced. We carefully reviewed every piece of data to identify potentially consistent subtleties and complexities. This led us to use thematic coding (Miles and Huberman, 2003), to constitute “explanatory or differential codes that identify an emerging theme, pattern or explanation” (Miles and Huberman, 2003: p. 133) suggested by the cases under study. Thematic coding enabled us to summarize segments of data that we reduced to a limited number of themes.

2024 study: Data update

In an effort to update our 2012 data and learn about potential changes that may have occurred in call centers in Tunisia, we conducted new empirical research between September and December 2024, interviewing three call center managers (See Table 3). All three have held strategic positions since joining the industry, actively participating in making religion-related decisions in their respective companies. We believe this, along with their expertise and seniority in the industry (up to 21 years) make them relevant to update us on recent trends that might have occurred in the industry regarding religion.

Table 3.

Sample characteristics of the 2024 study.

2024 Sample characteristics	Respondent 1 (M.)	Respondent 2 (H.)	Respondent 3 (A.)
Call centers	NAB	NAC	NAD
Call center description and activity	Tunisian subsidiary of a French-based firm specializing in remote fortune telling.	Tunisia-based call center performing collections, appointment scheduling, surveys, and telemarketing.	Tunisian subsidiary of a French based telecommunication operator providing technical assistance to clients facing difficulties with the use of their internet, TV, and telephone subscriptions
End clients’ location	United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Europe	Europe	France
Gender	Male	Male	Female
Age	41	46	44
Current positions	Psychic manager	Production and customer relationship director	Supervisor
Seniority and experience in call centers	20 years, including 5 at NAB	21 years at NAD. Works occasionally at other call centers when called to do so, due to his strong experience.	13 years, including 2 at NAC
Family situation	Married with children	Divorced with children	Divorced with no children
Education	Master of business administration	2-year college degree in communication techniques	Master’s degree in computer science

We used our 2012 interview script to interview these three respondents, updating it to include a few questions relating to potential changes that have occurred in the industry, such as: “has your industry’s approach to religion management evolved over the past decade? If so, how have businesses and employees adjusted to these changes?”

While the 2012 study was conducted in person in Tunisia, the 2024 one was performed remotely through communication tools like Zoom and WhatsApp. One interview was video recorded, then transcribed into Microsoft Word; the other two were subject to intensive note-taking, as the respondents did not wish to be recorded. Each manager was interviewed three times between September and December 2024, with interviews lasting between 30 and 90 minutes each. To capture the main themes and key information from the three interviews, we opted for Miles and Huberman's (2003) thematic coding method as in the first study, using NVIVO 15 as our data analysis software.

In addition, we looked into the following French-speaking Tunisian dailies and newspapers to learn about call center trends and potential changes regarding religion management: Le Quotidien, La Presse, Le Temps, Challenges, Entreprises, L'Economiste Maghrebin, La Presse Magazine, Leaders, Nawatt, Réalités. In line with Cuervo-Cazurra and colleagues’ (2016) recommendations, to ensure that we did not miss any important information on our topic, we requested one of our friends, a native Tunisian Arabic speaker who speaks French fluently, to review the following Arabic-language Tunisian newspapers for us: ACharaa الشروق, Al Chourouk الشروق, Assabah الصباح, Al Sahafa الصحافة, Le Maghreb المغرب.

Religion management in the three cross-national call centers

In this section, we briefly outline the three firms’ religious accommodation strategies and factors that guide these strategies.

All three companies offer accommodations with varying degrees of restrictions. Even the “unfavorable” company, NISIA2, supports employees during Ramadan with free meals and Eid El Fitr bonuses. Alternatively, the most “favorable” company, NISIA1, imposes restrictions on religious expression by excluding candidates and employees who wear beards and the niqab. NISIA3 that fully welcomes such expression of religion does so on condition of seniority, attendance, and performance (hybrid strategy). However, after taking a closer look at our field notes and interviews, we found an unprecedented situation.

Dual accommodation strategies

Two of the three companies – NISIA1 and NISIA2-adopted a dual strategy: one part aimed at employees, the other part aimed at Western end clients. NISIA1 adopted a rather favorable policy toward employees’ religious expression; NISIA2 adopted an unfavorable position. But both companies rigorously forbid their staff from expressing their faith to their Western end clients. We did not find that NISIA3, the “hybrid” organization, employed a dual strategy since its employees were not formally prohibited from expressing their religion to clients.

NISIA1 is presented as a rather favorable company, since it welcomes religious expression and symbols, with the exception of the beard and niqab (see Table 2). Yet, a NISIA1 manager admitted that when Western ordering customers were scheduled to visit the company premises to meet with managers and employees, some veiled women were given a day off. Our study suggests that this may be because of concern that the company might lose business with ordering customers, who would believe veiled staff are not able to meet end client expectations, as evidenced by the following statement from the human resources manager of NISIA2, the unfavorable company.

When (ordering) customers visit us, we ask some veiled women not to show up. We make sure there aren't too many veiled women on the site. (A NISIA1 manager).

If they (ordering customers) come across veiled women when visiting our site, they will certainly assume that these women won’t be able to understand nor to meet end users’ expectations. (NISIA2’s HR manager).

In order to effectively disguise their religious identity and prevent Western end clients from uncovering their Muslim background, employees chose to also conceal their cultural and ethnic identities. This, as evidenced in the following extract of our field notes, translated into them hiding their North African location through using sophisticated technological tools, and adopting western sounding names, such as Sarah Roche, Charlotte Simoni, Julia Dumas, Marco Lambert, Sandra Lafarge, or Jonathan Cartier.

While calling from Tunisia, Tunisian teleoperators tell clients that they are calling them from Europe. Those of operation D (NISIA2) claim to be calling from Nanterre (France). Those from NISIA1 claim to be in Belgium or France, depending on the location of their end clients. All three companies also use “deduplicated equipment”, which are sophisticated technological tools to disguise the Tunisian origin of their calls. This equipment enables French telephone numbers to be displayed on the telephone screens of clients in France, for example, giving these clients the illusion of being contacted by individuals residing in France (while these individuals actually live in Tunisia). (Extracts from our field notes taken in July 2012).

What factors led NISIA1 and NISIA2 to forbid employees from openly expressing their religion to Western clients, while also adopting different, sometimes contradictory strategies toward religious expression in the workplace? And why, unlike NISIA1 and NISIA2, does NISIA3, the hybrid company, choose not to impose an “unfavorable” strategy toward Western clients?

The nature of the activity as a major factor guiding companies’ accommodation strategies

First, we examine the factors leading to the three firms’ internal strategies, those directed to employees. As stated previously, NISIA1 adopted a rather favorable position toward workplace religious expression, NISIA2 adopted an unfavorable position, and NISIA3 adopted a hybrid position. When digging into reasons why these companies adopted these different strategies despite having similar attributes, including nationality, location, and end-users’ location, we found that their accommodation strategies were mostly contingent on the type of activity they performed.

All three call centers performed service activities. However, when taking a closer look at NISIA1 and NISIA2 activities, we found out that unlike NISIA3, the two firms carried out operations that may be considered sensitive, since they involve dealing with privacy, money and information that is confidential or legally protected. Our data indicate that handling such activities necessitates the personal involvement of both Tunisian employees and Western clients, as well as the formation of a much more personalized interaction between the two types of actors.

At the time of the study, NISIA2 employees were performing outbound calls to accountants of publicly listed French companies in an attempt to recover large sums of money, which could amount to as much as 200,000 euros. As the following quote by a NISIA2 supervisor demonstrates, employees understood that a Western client (in this case, the accountant of a CAC 40 company) would be reluctant to send such a significant sum of money to a ‘stranger’ residing more than 6,000 km away and with whom they have no apparent ties.

When you call the accountant of a CAC 40 company to claim 100,000 euros, your name can’t be Mohamed. (…). You can’t have any accent. (…) A (Western) alias is less frightening for clients, especially when teleoperators have a strong accent … (L., NISIA2’s supervisor).

During our 10-day visit to NISIA2, we witnessed the efforts employees were making to foster cross-cultural interaction with their remote end clients. Extracts from our field notes recounting our observation of NISIA2 employees carrying out debt collection indicate that:

The TO (teleoperator) calls a client, introducing herself as S. (Western nickname). The client seems busy (probably driving or walking?). The client informs the TO that she will send her check shortly as planned and apologizes for the delay. The TO thanks her and takes note of this information while looking at the supervisor, as if to get confirmation that the information requested from the client complies with protocol. Before hanging up, the client tells the TO that she hopes “the weather is nice at your place”. The TO replies that it is, while simultaneously searching the Internet for information on the weather in the French city from which she pretends to be calling (where the ordering firm is actually located). Then the TO confirms to the client, in a more confident tone of voice, that it's not raining “here” and that the weather is quite fine. (Extracts from our field notes taken in July 2012)

Not only did this teleoperator present herself as French, but she also implied that she was in France and went out of her way to learn French weather conditions in an attempt to reassure the client and ensure consistency between her words and reality. This apparent cultural and geographical proximity that the teleoperator created with the end client may have enabled NISIA2 to successfully collect the sum of money that the end client owed to NISIA2’s French ordering customer. Indeed, just a few days after the call, NISIA2’s French ordering firm received the check promised by the end client, while we were still visiting the company.

At NISIA1 too, some employees told us how almost impossible it is to gain clients’ confidence without being part of their national/cultural community. B., a NISIA1 teleoperator told us that:

It’s complicated to tell clients we are Tunisians. We use (Western) aliases to give clients confidence.

At the time of the study in 2012, NISIA1 was acquiring end clients on behalf of a French telecommunications operator listed on the Paris stock exchange (CAC 40). Employees had to call people based in France who were not expecting their calls in order to sell them telephone and internet subscriptions.

Our observation revealed that this activity is sensitive, as it involves end clients sharing sensitive information such as their banking information and personal addresses. To obtain this information from clients and facilitate the sale of packages, NISIA1 adopted an unfavorable strategy directed to clients, in contrast to its rather favorable strategy directed to employees.

NISIA3’s specific case

NISIA3 did not have a client-specific accommodation strategy, unlike NISIA1 and NISIA2. Our data suggest that this could be attributable to its activities and the skills employees used to fulfill their duties. NISIA3 provided technical assistance to Europe-based clients. This activity does not involve protected or intimate information such as clients’ bank information, sexual or family lives. As a result, employees do not feel compelled to create deep bonds with clients by claiming membership in their culture, in order to gain the trust needed to satisfy them.

Also, our study suggests that Western clients needed NISIA3 employees more than these employees needed them. NISIA3 teleoperators assisted Belgian end clients by fixing technical issues they encountered when using their TV, telephone, and internet subscriptions. Technical assistance requires specific and expert skills, such as mastery of specific software and technical languages. As NISIA3’s end clients do not hold such skills, they need Tunisian teleoperators’ expertise, which places employees in the powerful position of sought-after experts. Our observations of teleoperators’ deployment of technical expertise suggests that NISIA3 did not compel employees to keep their Tunisian Arab-Muslim identity hidden from European end clients because of this power differential. Clients needed the employees more than the employees needed them, which was not the case with NISIA1 and NISIA2 clients, who did not expect or need the calls they received from employees.

Findings from the 2024 study

Our 2012 study is supported by our 2024 study, which comprises three senior managers from three call centers in Tunisia—NAB, NAC, and NAD. Indeed, we found that when offering sensitive activities to a foreign clientele, companies may use a dual accommodation approach with regard to religion to satisfy the needs of both their local staff and their foreign clients. According to the managers we spoke with at NAB and NAC, both organizations implemented a dual strategy. NAC adopted an unfavorable stance toward employees, while NAB adopted a favorable one. Both call centers took an unfavorable stance toward their Western clients.

Our interview with M., a top manager at NAB, the French-based company’s Tunisian subsidiary, is particularly notable for its dual religious accommodation strategy. The manager presented NAB as being a favorable company, since it allows leaves for religion-related absences and encourages employees to openly express their beliefs at work. Alternatively, NAB claims to embrace diversity in its official communication (website, company documents), urging Tunisian managers to hire profiles such as LGBTQA + people, that may conflict with a conservative vision of Islam, as well as national laws⁴. During our interview with M., we learned that:

The company asks managers to recruit LGBTQA + profiles. Sometimes during interviews, there are candidates who display their membership of the LGBTQA + community because they feel the company is open to this type of profile. I think it's for diversity, to attract more… to broaden their customer base. I have a transgender person on my team right now. Of the company's 75 English-speaking fortune-tellers, there are currently 5 or 6 LGBTQA + people. They are mostly bisexual. In the latest wave of recruitment, I think there are 2 or 3 more. On the French speaking plateau, I know there are more.

At the same time, however, this apparently diversity- and religion-friendly company ensures that Western clients neither see nor hear about employees’ religion, by removing for example, the Islamic headscarf from its website and hiding it from clients.

We can openly express our religion at work, as long as there's no infringement of the law or personal freedom. There are one or two veiled people here. To show the image of these people on our website, we use photos processed with Photoshop. This means that we remove the veil using Photoshop and replace it with a wig. We don't discuss religion with (Western) clients. We can't make religious or political comments, we have to remain neutral with clients.

Like in our 2012 study, our 2024 study suggests that the reason for this company’s adoption of a client-specific strategy is due to the nature of its activity. NAB employees’ activity involves the exchange of intimate, private information with end clients who call from Europe, Australia, the USA, Canada, or New Zealand, as evidenced in the following statement.

(Western) clients call to get answers to questions about their love life, or professional matters. Some call to unload their bags. Some use the service like a junk box, to get rid of the pressure, to talk about their day. There are bonds forged between fortune-tellers and clients. Some clients call to talk about their day. There's a certain trust that develops between fortune-tellers and their clients (…). Fortune-tellers listen to people's problems. They know people's personal lives. Clients don't actually call because life is rosy.

Typical private conversations between NAB staff and their overseas clients include discussions about the clients’ ongoing marriage troubles, their sex lives, professional problems, and conflicts with colleagues or management. Our data suggest that when end clients call to complain about intimate issues such as a secret affair they are hiding from their partner, money problems or how they dislike their job or manager, they expect a sympathetic ear and an advisor on the other end of the line - someone they can trust, as they would a friend or family member. However, the physical, national, cultural, and religious boundaries between Tunisian personnel and clients would make it nearly impossible to develop such a deep and customized relationship. As a result, NAB sought to lower these boundaries by requiring employees to keep their faith disguised from clients in order to build trust and increase client satisfaction. This led to the company’s employees successfully establishing trust with Western clients.

Our interview with our second respondent, H., NAC’s Production and Customer Relations Director, reveals that both the nature of the activity (referred to in his jargon as “campaign”) and the culture of the countries where end clients are located play a significant role in how NAC handles employees’ expression of their overall identity (and not only their religious identity). H. explained why NAC discouraged religious expression both within and outside the organization and encouraged staff members to refrain from using their native tongue and culture when speaking to end clients.

As part of our activities as an international call center, some of our agents may use an adapted identity - surname, first name, accent - that differs from their original identity. This practice is generally adopted for specific reasons linked to end-client expectations and campaign objectives (…). When we work with ordering customers from countries where cultural proximity plays an important role in the customer relationship, such as France or Germany, it is sometimes easier for agents to use a more common or familiar name for end clients. This creates an immediate bond of trust and fosters a smoother interaction. (…) A first name or local accent can simplify communication. (…) A Tunisian agent with a typically French or German first name can reduce any blockages or misunderstandings due to cultural or linguistic differences…, especially during initial interactions.

A., a NAD manager and our third interviewee, describes her company as being a favorable firm. Unlike NAB and NAC, NAD does not have a client-specific accommodation strategy. As in our 2012 study, our 2024 data indicate that this is due to NAD’s activity, technical assistance, which does not necessitate the exchange of intimate and personal information, explaining why employees do not feel compelled to form deep bonds with clients by claiming membership in their culture in order to gain the trust required to satisfy them.

Discussion

This study attempted to address the following question: Which factors guide corporate religious accommodation strategies in companies engaged in cross-cultural business? The data suggests that religious accommodation strategies are guided by whether company activities are sensitive. A company that serves a foreign customer base is likely to reject or impose restrictions on religious expression if it carries out sensitive activities.

Theoretical contribution

Dual strategy, an unprecedented approach

Existing studies suggest that companies usually adopt a single religious accommodation approach – unfavorable, favorable, hybrid or neutral - toward their employees (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Cash and Gray, 2000; Galindo and Zannad, 2012, 2014; Hennekam et al., 2018). Our study found that firms may adopt a dual approach, one directed to accommodating employees’ religious demands, and a second directed to accommodating the expectations of the clientele they serve.

Studies had already acknowledged the power of a company’s external clients in shaping religious accommodation strategies. Cash and Gray (2000) for instance, asserted that management should consider client concerns when responding to employees’ religion-related requests. Hennekam and co-authors (2018) also found that external clients strongly shape corporate religious strategies. However, these authors have not found a dual approach in their studies. In finding that a firm may concurrently implement client-specific and employee-specific approaches that may sometimes conflict with each other (e.g., a favorable vs and unfavorable approach), our study adds to the literature on religion and cross-cultural management. This finding extends Lebel and Pollack (2023)’s concept of “liquid authenticity” by showing that firms may enact seemingly contrasting yet coexisting identity management practices in response to competing stakeholder expectations, creating a form of ‘organizational authenticity’ that accommodates potentially conflicting identities in the same organization.

An update of factors guiding religious policies

The nature of the activity is an addition brought to the literature by our study. Call centers perform service activities that distinguish themselves by their intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability (Gallouj and Toivonen, 2011; Parasuraman et al., 1988) and that require full and active engagement of both service provider and service consumer in service creation and delivery. However, our study suggests that there are service activities that require a deeper sense of engagement between teleoperators and end-clients. Activities that involve privacy, intimacy, money, and protected information force service providers to build a more personalized relationship with service consumers based on shared culture/identity in order to achieve client satisfaction, especially when both actors are separated by physical, national, cultural, and religious boundaries. In other words, to meet the needs of foreign consumers of sensitive service activities, service providers need to claim or “flaunt” their membership of the customer’s cultural community. At NAB, the fact that end clients believe the company’s employees are a part of their (Western) community (due to their western-sounding names and accents, as well as their efforts to conceal their religion) helps build strong bonds and confidence with these clients, leading many NAB clients to purchase long-term subscriptions that include weekly, if not twice-weekly, conversations with NAB employees. In finding this, our study highlights the power of the nature of the activity, which to the best of our knowledge, has not been given special attention in the literature.

On the other hand, our findings do not fully support the literature’s contention that firms’ religious policies are guided by their desire to comply with the legislation, align with social and cultural norms, or benefit from diversity (Bennani and Barth, 2012; Cintas, Héliot and Sprimont, 2014, 2020; Galindo and Zannad, 2012; Hennekam et al., 2018). The studied companies operate in an effectively legislation-free environment in regard to religious expression. While Tunisian employment law prohibits workplace discrimination, it does not oblige privately-owned companies to accommodate religious needs, leaving them free to enact their own policies. Therefore, the need to comply with the legislation is not relevant in our case.

Reason for engaging with religion

One of the most frequently claimed reasons in the literature for corporate religious engagement is business success, namely to enhance performance (D’Iribarne, 1998; Garcia-Yeste et al., 2022; Hasan, 2022; Heubeck, 2024; Singh and Babbar, 2021; Novak, 1996; Weber, 1905). Our findings do not appear to fully support this viewpoint. On the contrary, we argue that religion is an impediment to providers of sensitive activities successfully addressing end-client expectations, which explains why some call centers restrict or even prohibit religious expression. The study suggests that the presumed link between acceptance of religion and business success may only hold true in companies that do not handle sensitive, private information.

Religion and culture inseparable

This study fully supports the literature’s understanding that religion and culture are strongly related and sometimes used interchangeably (Herce, 2024; Riviş-Tipei, 2023; Scheer, 2022). Our findings imply that being Tunisian is understood as being Muslim. The “dual-strategy” companies of our study that chose to conceal their employees’ religion from end clients mainly concealed or modified their employees’ culture, most likely because they understood being Tunisian (national/cultural identity) as equivalent to being Muslim (religious identity), or because they assumed that Western end clients might think likewise. Employees intentionally concealed their cultural and ethnic backgrounds from Western clientele in order to hide their religious identity, which is not visible over the phone. Because of the physical and geographical distance between Western clients and Tunisian employees, clients could not directly discern employees’ religious affiliations. Employees, therefore, adopted Western-sounding names and accents to conceal their ethnic and cultural heritage, believing that this method effectively hides their (invisible) religious identity. In other words, they assume that if customers identify them as North African or Tunisian, they will automatically believe they are Muslim.

Our study implies that Scheer’s (2022) definition of “Religion1”, which associates religion to individual freedom, is only shared by NISIA2, the company that discourages religious expression both on and off its premises, considering it as a private matter. The other firms have an employee-specific strategy that is rather accommodative of religious expression, either with or without conditions. These companies’ efforts to offer accommodation imply that they understood the need for employees to abide by the principles and practices of the identity they have been assigned by their group/community, supporting Sheer’s “Religion2” definition.

Directions for future studies

Our study supports the idea that providers of sensitive activities must share a social identity with their foreign clients in order to build trust and achieve client satisfaction. Drawing on Social Identity Theory that relates individuals to groups based on perceived similarities or common interests, future studies (that could be conducted in other industries and countries) could further investigate whether and how this theory affects service creation and foreign client satisfaction.

Studies could investigate whether the development of a common social identity is also necessary for end client satisfaction when the provider and recipient of sensitive activities live in the same national, cultural, and religious contexts. This would allow one to ascertain whether the necessity of creating a shared social identity is triggered by national and cultural boundaries between provider and recipient or by the nature of the activity.

Research could also delve into the ethical issues associated with the need to develop a shared social identity. Our study revealed that our respondents felt compelled to demonstrate to their end clients that they belonged to their (Western) group in order to meet their needs. This raises concerns about authenticity and transparency, as clients share intimate information with individuals who are not who they claim to be. Studies could investigate how/if social identity can be developed while maintaining the need to serve clients with authentic and quality service.

Finally, given the tense past and current geopolitical context that has forced millions of citizens to migrate to places with cultural and religious expectations different from their own, one could expect an intensification of religious/identity tensions in the future. Our study invites ongoing exploration to understand how cross-national firms handle such tensions. We posit that varying pressures of the business exchange demanding heighted trust may require employees to ‘stage’ their authenticity by performing “cultural mimicry” (Das and Dharwadkar, 2009) as our data suggested that some of our respondents did engage with foreign clients successfully when presenting their true identity. As managers continue to navigate cross-cultural dynamics in organizations, more research is needed to understand how successful religious accommodation that requires employees to be “religiously-neutral’ is reconciled with the acknowledgment of religion as a fundamental right (Honoré, 2022). Such clarity would assist managers of cross-national firms to foster organizational settings that welcome or produce divergent yet harmoniously coexistent identities of “liquid authenticity” (Lebel and Pollack, 2023).

Conclusion

Our study found that corporate religious policies of call centers engaged in cross-national business are informed by whether they carry out sensitive activities that require a heightened level of trust between foreign end-clients and employees. The original study was conducted in 2012. Our effort to update this study in 2024 indicates no significant changes in religion management in the industry over the past 12 years, making our 2012 data still relevant today. However, societal changes, particularly a rise in the workplace of LGBTQA + persons, may alter Tunisian firms’ religious initiatives. Because these profiles do not typically match a traditional view of Islam, and despite the fact that such profiles are prohibited by national regulations, their rise may force Tunisian firms to reconsider their relationship with religion.

By identifying the nature of the activity as a determining factor in shaping religious accommodation strategies, the study uncovers the underlying factors that guide corporate religious policies, enriching the cross-cultural management literature as well as the literature on the management of religion. By finding that companies simultaneously adopt a dual strategy to satisfy both foreign clients and local employees, our study suggests that cross-national firms develop unique religious accommodation policies that differ from those of companies operating solely in national contexts.

Footnotes

ORCID iD

Sara Nyobe

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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