OVERVIEW

This Handbook examines how religious identity shapes organizational life, explaining workplace behaviour, influencing interactions, practices, and governance across diverse contexts. It invites contributions that analyse the expressions, experiences, impacts, and regulation of religion at work, drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives and innovative conceptual or empirical approaches. By bringing together global insights, the volume aims to advance understanding of a complex and often overlooked dimension of contemporary workplaces.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Abstracts of 500 words must be submitted by 15 February 2026 (for contributors participating in the optional workshop organized on the 9 March 2026) to 15 March 2026 (final deadline).

Please ensure that your abstract includes:

• Authors’ names and affiliations
• Title of your book chapter
• Description of your chapter’s contribution to the objectives of the book
• Purpose: main objective, research question, relevance to religion at work
• Theoretical background: key concepts or frameworks
• Methodology (for empirical chapters): data, field, methods
• Expected contributions: academic and, where relevant, practical implications
• Clear indication of the relevant theme from the call (see above)
• List of five keywords

Next, each chapter must be between 6,000 and 8,000 words and present unpublished work. All chapters will be peer-reviewed and included in the Thomson Reuters’ Book Citation Index and Scopus. We encourage chapters with one or two authors; contributions with more than two authors will not be considered.

CONTRIBUTIONS

This Handbook seeks contributions across six key areas:

1. Conceptualizing religious expression in organizations: Clarifying forms, boundaries, and dimensions of religious expression – visible or invisible, individual or collective – and offering new conceptual frameworks.
2. Methodological innovations: Developing innovative or mixed methods to study sensitive expressions, complex dynamics, and identity processes, including longitudinal, comparative, or ethnographic approaches.
3. Organizational and managerial rationales: Analyzing how organizations design, communicate, regulate, or negotiate religious expression within cultural, legal, or strategic frameworks.
4. Impact analysis: Investigating effects of religious identity on work processes, team dynamics, decision-making, conflict, performance, and organizational change.
5. Worker experience: Exploring lived experiences of religious expression, including visibility, stigma, accommodation, and identity management across religious and organizational contexts.
6. Regulatory perspectives: Examining legal frameworks, union dynamics, policy debates, and governance challenges that shape organizational responses to religious expression.

We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions from management and organization studies, sociology, anthropology, psychology, communication studies, economics, and law. We are committed to ensuring that the Handbook reflects the full geographical diversity of organizational contexts across the world. To this end, we explicitly encourage potential contributors from all regions to submit chapters that highlight contextually grounded perspectives and experiences.

EDITORS

Hugo Gaillard is Associate Professor at Le Mans Université (France). His research explores the intersection of organizational practices, identity dynamics, and the management of religious expression in contemporary workplaces.

Lionel Honoré is Professor at Université de Tours (France) and Director of the Observatory of Religious Behaviours in the Workplace (OFRE). His research focuses on religion at work, organizational regulation, and managerial practices in plural environments. He has authored and edited multiple books and articles on religion in organizations.

YingFei Gao Héliot is Associate Professor at the University of Surrey (United Kingdom). Her research examines identity, diversity, religion, leadership, and inclusion in organizations. She has published widely in international journals in management and organizational psychology and leads several international projects on religious identity, inclusion and wellbeing at work.

PROVISIONAL CALENDAR

– Deadline for submission of 500-word abstracts

15 FEBRUARY 2026 (for workshop participants)

15 MARCH 2026 (final deadline)

– Hybrid Workshop (Le Mans / Online): 9 MARCH 2026 (optional)

– Editorial follow-up and decision on submissions: 15 APRIL 2026

– Full chapters (between 6,000 and 8,000 words) due: 1 SEPTEMBER 2026

– Reviewed chapters returned to contributors: 1 NOVEMBER 2026

– Chapter revisions due: 1 JANUARY 2027

– Final minor revisions due: 1 FEBRUARY 2027

– Final revised chapters due: 1 APRIL 2027

– Publication date: 1 JANUARY 2028