Navigating By Attire: The Use Of Dress By Female Administrative Employees

We conducted an inductive study of the everyday decisions about dress at work of female administrative employees in a university business school. Our findings reveal that dress is an attribute embedded in a variety of cognitive schemata that govern individuals' comprehension of and behavior at work. In acquiring and executing these schemata, employees make efforts that enhance their emotional preparedness for jobs and improve interpersonal relations. The study offers implications for theory and research on organizational symbolism, role taking, and the current practical trend toward relaxed dress.

[1]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[2]  J. Walsh.  Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Notes from a Trip Down Memory Lane , 1995 .

[3]  M. Schultz.  On Studying Organizational Cultures , 1994 .

[4]  Celia V. Harquail,et al.  Organizational images and member identification. , 1994 .

[5]  Soyeon Shim,et al.  Benefit Segments of the Female Apparel Market: Psychographics, Shopping Orientations, and Demographics , 1994 .

[6]  James A. Davis,et al.  Constructing social research , 1994 .

[7]  David G. Myers,et al.  Exploring Social Psychology , 1993 .

[8]  M. Pratt,et al.  Tailored Meanings: On the Meaning and Impact of Organizational Dress , 1993 .

[9]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity , 1993 .

[10]  J. Dutton,et al.  The Cultures of Work Organizations. , 1992 .

[11]  Jean M. Bartunek,et al.  Insider/Outsider Research Teams , 1992 .

[12]  R. I. Sutton,et al.  Isomorphism and external support in conflicting institutional environments: a study of drug abuse treatment units. , 1991, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[13]  F. Davis.  Fashion, culture, and identity , 1991 .

[14]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. , 1993 .

[15]  C. Gersick,et al.  Habitual routines in task-performing groups. , 1990, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[16]  Lynn A. Isabella.  Evolving Interpretations as a Change Unfolds: How Managers Construe Key Organizational Events , 1990 .

[17]  Naomi Wolf.  The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women , 1990 .

[18]  M. Hogg,et al.  Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. , 1989 .

[19]  Anat Rafaeli,et al.  When Cashiers Meet Customers: An Analysis of the Role of Supermarket Cashiers , 1989 .

[20]  Fred A. Mael,et al.  Social identity theory and the organization , 1989 .

[21]  L. Zucker.  Institutional patterns and organizations : culture and environment , 1989 .

[22]  John W. Meyer,et al.  CENTRALIZATION, FRAGMENTATION, AND SCHOOL DISTRICT COMPLEXITY , 1987 .

[23]  G. Graen,et al.  Toward a psychology of dyadic organizing. , 1987 .

[24]  Anat Rafaeli,et al.  Expression of Emotion as Part of the Work Role , 1987 .

[25]  D. C. Feldman,et al.  The Development and Enforcement of Group Norms , 1984 .

[26]  Henri Broms,et al.  Communication to Self in Organizations and Cultures. , 1983 .

[27]  A. Hochschild.  The Managed Heart , 1983 .

[28]  Murray S. Davis.  Smut: Erotic Reality/Obscene Ideology , 1983 .

[29]  J. Pfeffer.  Management as symbolic action: the creation and maintenance of organizational paradigms , 1981 .

[30]  A. Lurie,et al.  language of clothes , 1981 .

[31]  K. Rosengren.  Advances in Content Analysis , 1981 .

[32]  P. Wright.  The Social Psychology of Organizations, (2nd Ed): Daniel Katz and Robert L. Kahn New York: Wiley, 1978, 838 pp. , 1979 .

[33]  Allen C. Bluedorn,et al.  Men and Women of the Corporation , 1978 .

[34]  John T. Molloy,et al.  The woman's dress for success book , 1977 .

[35]  G. Graen.  Role-making processes within complex organizations , 1976 .

[36]  R. Firth.  Symbols: public and private , 1974 .

[37]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[38]  E. Goffman.  Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-To-Face Behavior , 1967 .

[39]  R. Kahn,et al.  Organizational Stress: Studies in Role Conflict and Ambiguity. , 1965 .

[40]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School. , 1962 .

[41]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .