Occurrence of Religiosity in the Malawi Public Sector: An Analysis of Perceptions of Key Stakeholders

Abstract

This study analyses the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the occurrence of religiosity in the public sector in Malawi. It comes on the backdrop of mounting interest in workplace religiosity and spirituality globally, which is attributable to such touted benefits as improved employee performance. However, the study and practice of religiosity, a concept which in this study subsumes the concept of spirituality, has been limited to private organizations due to the western ideals of church–state separation. Within Malawi though, which in this matter is a microcosm of the African context, such principles are not entertained. This offers an opportunity to explore and leverage religion's purported potential, to address performance deficiencies and other challenges in this region's government sector. As such, the perception of key stakeholders regarding the occurrence of religiosity in the public workplace may be of critical importance as it may influence the acceptance, retention, and even exploitation of the concept to the benefit of the sector. However, there appear to be no such studies to determine how the existence of religion therein is regarded by relevant key stakeholders. Mixed methods have, therefore, been applied to collect and analyze data from stakeholders at multiple levels within the religious and public sectors, and from other pertinent bodies. The study finds that sentiments regarding the occurrence of religiosity in the public sector workplace have been categorized thus: those that are positive and accommodative, those that are neutral, and the utterly negative. The majority perceived workplace religion positively, albeit advocating caution due to religion's propensity for disruption in the workplace. Those that were utterly unaccommodating were so very few, and so insignificant. This study, therefore, concludes that unlike in other cultural contexts, religiosity is welcome in the African public sector. These findings essentially denote that the management of the public sector need not be uniform globally, but rather contingent on cultural contexts, among other factors. This paper, therefore, recommends that Malawi and countries in similar cultural settings should deliberately integrate religiosity into general public sector administration and particularly, for performance.