ROLE OF WORKPLACE ATTIRE IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTING AND EMPLOYEE SELF-PERCEPTION

master's thesis

• Title: ROLE OF WORKPLACE ATTIRE IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTING AND EMPLOYEE SELF-PERCEPTION : Master thesis
• Title (croatian): ULOGA POSLOVNE ODJEĆE U ORGANIZACIJSKOM OKRUŽENJU I SAMOPERCEPCIJI ZAPOSLENIKA : Diplomski rad
• Author: Barbara Bradvica
• Mentor: Ana Aleksić (mentor)
• Committee member: Ivana Načinović Braje (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Domagoj Hruška (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Economics and Business; (Department of Organization and Management); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2020-09-29, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Economics; Organization and Management

Abstract

Throughout history, attire has been used as a symbol of authority. By wearing certain clothes, specific messages are transmitted and often it is about the wearer itself. Clothes reveal more details about the person even prior when they try to verbally communicate with others. Business attire is a sign of respect for the institution where employees work and its goal is to suggest a successful company image with clothing. Therefore several organizations started to see a demand for applying written policies because employees didn't dress like they were going to the job, they were more dressed as if they were headed to the playground. The attention that an employee pays to his/her appearance shows his/her attitude towards both, the company and the work he/she does. Lately, several organizations have returned to a traditional standard of dress and some of them are embracing uniforms or clothing with logos of the company and use “casual dress days”.

The goals of this paper were to analyze the role of workplace attire in organizational settings and employee preferences for various styles of workplace attire and how wearing different styles of attire influenced their self-perceptions.
For the empirical part, data were collected by a questionnaire, on a sample of 179 employees from two large organizations in Croatia.
The research determined that business casual attire is favourite attire among employees, by more than half of respondents prefer that style. If combined with responses of employees who like casual attire, the inclination for more informal workplace attire is supported by 80% of respondents.

Abstract (croatian)

Kroz povijest, odjeća se koristila kao simbol autoriteta. Nošenjem određene odjeće prenose se određene poruke, a vrlo često suptilne, o njezinom nositelju. Odjeća odaje više informacija o osobi i prije nego što su ljudi otvore usta prilikom komunikacije s drugima. Poslovna odjeća je znak poštovanja prema instituciji u kojoj zaposlenici rade, a cilj joj je predstaviti uspješnu sliku poduzeća. Stoga su mnoge organizacije počele uviđati potrebu za primjenom pisanih pravila odijevanja jer su se zaposlenici počeli oblačiti kao da su krenuli na igralište, a ne na posao. Pažnja koju zaposlenik daje svom izgledu pokazuje njegov odnos prema tvrtki i poslu kojim se bavi. U posljednje vrijeme mnoge su se organizacije vratile na konvencionalni ili profesionalniji standard odijevanja, a neke čak koriste uniforme ili odjeću s logotipima tvrtki, te koriste "dane ležernog odijevanja".

Ciljevi ovog rada bili su analizirati ulogu odjeće na radnom mjestu u organizacijskom okruženju i sklonosti zaposlenika za različite stilove odijevanja na radnom mjestu te kako nošenje različitih stilova odjeće utječe na samopercepciju zaposlenika.
Za empirijski dio podaci su prikupljeni upitnikom, na uzorku od 179 zaposlenika iz dvije velike organizacije u Hrvatskoj.
Istraživanje je utvrdilo da je poslovna ležerna odjeća omiljena odjeća među zaposlenicima, jer više od polovice ispitanika preferira taj stil. U kombinaciji s odgovorima zaposlenika koji vole ležernu odjeću, sklonost neformalnoj odjeći na radnom mjestu podržava 80% ispitanika.

• Keywords: work attire; workplace; dress code; self-perception
• Keywords (croatian): radna odjeća; radno mjesto; dress code; samopercepcija
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:148:440193
• Study programme: Title: Business economics - management; specializations in: Management; Course: Management; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra ekonomije (magistar/magistra ekonomije)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Access restricted to students and staff of home institution
• Created on: 2020-10-02 07:34:24