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Abstract
Employees are actually picketing their employers in London to get casual dress day policies implemented. In America, over 90% of all organizations have now gone casual for at least one day a week. These recent trends indicate that employees prefer casual to suits. However, no study has examined bottom-line indicators, such as productivity or performance. This study examines the effects of casual dress days in one organization on absenteeism rates. Data were collected across a three year period during which casual dress days were phased in. The results showed that the effects were highly statistically significant for women but not for men, who already exhibited low absenteeism rates. While casual clothing may seem "superficial," it has implications for organizational development and is a step toward humanizing the workplace.
Introduction
Casual dress days in organizations are rapidly becoming the norm in most U. S. organizations. In 1995, a poll by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) showed that over 90% of U. S. office workers were going casual at least once a week, which represented an increase of 43% over the past three years. Casual dress days are considered an American concept, but have spread to organizations in other countries such as Japan (Fukushima, 1995) and Britain (Anonymous, 1995). Some U. S. employees prefer dressing casually to work so much that they are willing to pay for it. BankAmerica raised $1.25 million for charity by charging their employees $2 to $5 for coming to work casual on days other than Fridays (Kazakoff, 1996). While casual dress may prima facie simply seem like the hottest craze in office fashion, there are many underlying implications for Organizational
Development practitioners.
Offering casual dress days fit with the values underlying OD. For example, Bentley (1995) notes that there is a humanizing effect in offices that allow individuals to choose their dress. "People appear as equals rather than as servants of the organization" (p. 20). An organization's dress code is a symbol of the values of the organization, and allowing employees to choose their work clothes shows a value for individuality, diversity, and creativity. It also conveys a participative organizational structure when all levels of the hierarchy are dressing similarly. "Abandoning formal attire literally gets rid of the...