NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Manila, Philippines

RELIGION AND BEHAVIORAL

NORMS

A Project Case Study

Presented to
The Faculty of College of Business and Accountancy
Accountancy Program
National University

_______________________________

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the course
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IN AN ORGANIZATION

_______________________________

Presented by:
Aban, Jessica
De Villa, Kim Carlo M.
Ellao, Trisha
Roque, Casper Jay
Salut, Mary Rose
ACT 181

Presented to:
Mr. Ireneo R. Aguilan

March 2020

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 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

Table of Contents

Title Page …………………………………………………………………………… 1

Abstract ……………………………………………………………….......………… 3

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………....…. 4

Statement of the Problem …………………………………………………………. 4

Alternatives ………………………………………………………………………..... 4

Proposed Solution …………………………………………………………………. 8

Recommendation ……………………………………………………………....….. 9

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….. 11

Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 12

Curriculum Vitae ……………………………………………………………...……. 13

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

INTRODUCTION

Religion influences a range of phenomena that are relevant to the

workplace, from attitudes toward work in general, to ethical decision making, to

organizational citizenship behaviors, as well as counterproductive behaviors like

prejudice. Religious leaders, religious institutions, and individual religious people

often devote themselves to effecting change in their own lives and the lives of

others. Religion is probably the strongest belief system that has existed for

thousands of years. In many ways, it is a code of conduct, a rule book that allows

believers to function in a non-primitive or cultured manner.

Research supports that religion influences our behavior on how to adapt

and function in an organization. It is important to note here that religion has an

essential causal role in some of the actions, and it plays a vital role in formation

of self-identity and a collective identity of an organization, which then shapes

attitudes, cultural norms and influences individual and group behaviour. Most

religions enforce moral behaviour through positive and negative reinforcement

which might affects the behaviour of a person in the organization.

The objective of this case study is to propose a specific and realistic

solution to the different problems regarding the influences of religion and

individual behavioral norms in an organization. In this paper, the researchers

have discussed about human behaviors and the influences of religion to

behaviors. Researches have established the idea of ethics that are derived from

religions. Not only from religions, but it can also find our guidance to ethics from

other sources and our conscience as human beings.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

RELIGION

Religion is defined as the human being’s relation to that which they regard

as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine or worthy of special reverence. It is

also commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate

concerns about their lives and their fate after death (Augustyn, et al., 2019).

According to Anthony (2019), the Philippines was known for being the only

Christian nation in Asia with more than 80% of the population is Roman Catholic.

This religion was introduced in 1500s when the Philippines was colonized by the

Spaniards. Another 8% belong to Protestant Christian; 5.6% belong to Islam. The

last 2% consists of minor religions which includes Hinduism, Judaism, indigenous

beliefs and atheist.

The presence of variety of religion in the Philippines was due to different

colonization that happened. The cultural adaptation that took place caused this

scenario. The transformation of beliefs from pantheons of Gods, praising the

field, trees and even the mountain to having a formal and sacred place to pray.

Religion sector still faced changes as various Christians groups continue to

spread like the Iglesia ni Kristo, Rizalists, Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh day

Adventist and many more. Moreover, religion has a significant effect in the

workplace and organization, which can bring up some of the most difficult issues

employers have to face. Resolving these issues requires understanding the law

and balancing the business's needs with an employee's desire to practice his or

her religion.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

BEHAVIOR NORMS

According to Biccheri, Muldoon and Sontuoso (2018), social norms are the

informal rules that govern the behavior in groups and societies. It is a result of

unplanned results of individuals’ interaction. It conveys what is acceptable or not

in society. Social norms that are observable, recurrent patterns of of behavior are

behavior norms. It refers to actions over which people have control and are

supported by shared expectations about what should or should not be done in

different types of social situations.

It has been argued that behavior is often closely embedded in a network

of personal relations, and that a theory of norms should not leave the specific

social context out of consideration. Critics of the socialized actor theory have

called for an alternative conception of norms that may account for the often-weak

relation between beliefs and behavior. This alternative approach takes social

relations to be crucial in explaining social action and considers social identity as

a key motivating factor (Biccheri et al., 2018).

Social identity is basically a cognitive mechanism whose adaptive function

is to make “group behavior” possible. Whenever social identification becomes

salient, a cognitive mechanism of categorization is activated in such a way to

produce perceptual and behavioral changes. Such categorization is called a

stereotype, the prototypical description of what members of a given category are.

It is a cluster of physical, mental and psychological characteristics attributed to a

“typical” member of a given group. Stereotyping, like any other categorization

process, activates scripts or schemata, and what we call group behavior is

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Manila, Philippines

nothing but scripted behavior. For example, the category “Asian student” is

associated with a cluster of behaviors, personality traits, and values: we often

think of Asian students as respectful, diligent, disciplined, and especially good

with technical subjects. When thinking of an Asian student solely in terms of

group membership, we attribute her the stereotypical characteristics associated

with her group, so she becomes interchangeable with other group-members.

When we perceive people in terms of stereotypes, we depersonalize them and

see them as “typical” members of their group. The same process is at work when

we perceive ourselves as group-members: self-stereotyping is a cognitive shift

from “perceiving oneself as unique” to “perceiving oneself in terms of the

attributes that characterize the group”. It is this cognitive shift that mediates

group behavior.

Group behavior (as opposed to individual behavior) is characterized by

features such as a perceived similarity between group-members, cohesiveness,

a tendency to cooperate to achieve common goals, shared attitudes or beliefs,

and conformity to group norms. Once an individual self-categorizes as member

of a group, she will perceive herself as “depersonalized” and like other group-

members in the relevant stereotypical dimensions. Insofar as group-members

perceive their interests and goals as identical—because such interests and goals

are stereotypical attributes of the group—self-stereotyping will induce a group-

member to embrace such interests and goals as her own. It is thus predicted that

pro-social behavior will be enhanced by group membership, and diluted when

people act in an individualistic mode 

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

RELIGION IN RELATION TO BEHAVIOR NORMS

Religion is where the one of the central standpoints of an individual’s is

religion and faith. Stereotypically, religiosity is defined in terms of intellect on

religious knowledge and beliefs; in addition to its affect which is associated with

emotional attachment or feelings regarding religion. Subsequently, the behavior

expressed, such as church affiliation and attendance, Bible reading, and praying.

The inclination towards religious beliefs ought to denote one’s correspondence

towards a set of principles which provide some extent of social controls for

individuals.

According to Ling, et al. (2016), religion will act as a medium in motivating

people to work harder and perform better in the organizations. They revealed

religiosity moderate the relationship between job stressors and job motivation,

job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Commitment in religious

contributes in positive effect on performance. Religious assist one in making the

right decision which guides them towards success path. They verified the

existence of relationship between religiosity and helping others; exhibit high level

of OCB, moreover the tendency to work longer as compared to those who were

less pious. Religious does not focus mainly on attaining success nevertheless

the ability to learn, respect, appreciate and value other people’s religion and

belief. Having a positive belief in religious will contribute towards positive effect in

relationship within the workplace or organization. According to the study of

Research Institute for Theology and Religion University of South Africa which

explored on organizational behavior (OB) among Christianity, Islam and

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Manila, Philippines

Traditional African Religion workers, they found that religion have positive

relationship towards the OB. However, Christianity appears to be more active in

organizational behavior compared to Islam and Traditional African Religion. They

revealed Muslim workers have positive relationship towards organization

behavior (OB). Nonetheless, employee will have to balance up between their

personal need and organization duties effectively if they intended to preserve the

Islamic work ethic in the organization. From this study, it denotes that the Muslim

employees are aware with their limitation issue where bad ethical work behavior

would not be tolerated.

Organizational behavior (OB) studies have become more significant in

previous years as companies need to adapt to the speedily changing business

cultures in this competitive and fast-paced civilization. In nowadays business

world, managers are concentrated to how employees react to circumstances

rather than if they respond. Employees start to look organizational behavior as an

intricate piece of training and development of the workforce. The corporations

need to expand their information about attitude and behavior of individuals,

groups in organization in order to manage a new workforce and cope with the

obstacles of new environment as the environment of business is always shifting.

In fact, organizational behavior is an essential tool for managing effectual teams

in business globe today. Successful organizations have employees who go

ahead of their formal job requirements and willing to sacrifice their time and

energy to be thriving on the job tasks. It is vital to continuously explore ways of

instilling OB among employees in any organizations given the importance of OB

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 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Manila, Philippines

in enhancing individual, organizational as well as team performance. Crucial

component of effective organizational performance denoted how eager the

employees put forth effort beyond the proper responsibilities of their positions

(Katz & Kahn, 1978). Generally, OB enhance performance because these

behaviors allow effective ways of managing the association among employees of

different work units and ultimately improve the accomplishment of the

organizational or departmental final goals (Organ, 1988; Smith, Organ & Near,

1983).

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