Ditzenberger 1

Lydia Ditzenberger

Style Definition: Comment Reference: Font: 9 pt

Style Definition: Comment Text: Font: 12 pt

Professor Padgett

Style Definition: Comment Subject

Style Definition: Balloon Text: Font: (Default) Lucida
Grande

English 102
19 October, 2016
Debating Productivity in the Work Place:
An Annotated Bibliography
Inquiry: Does having a casual dress code within a company positively affect productivity?
Proposed Thesis: I am one to generally argue that productivity is largely affected by what you

Commented [AP1]: I assume youll define more

specifically what casual means in this context?
Commented [ES2]: Great new inquiry!

are wearing it changes ones mindset on how they perceive themselves and others which has a

Intro

Commented [AP3]: I think this is true as well. I like your

clear thesis here. however, i think you could maybe be more
specific here. in other words, maybe mention that you mean
relaxed or casual dress codes.

Business attire has been around for centuries, never disappearing just changing with the times

Commented [ES4]: Intro does a great job of explaining

and giving sufficient background information on the
proposed topic.

strong effect on the environment.

and their fashion tastes. Business attire follows the guidelines of projecting a professional image

Commented [AP5]: How do you mean?

for the company while focusing on the clients/customers and gaining their trust. Currently, this is
often interpreted into men wearing a matching or non-matching suit, an optional tie, black or
brown belt, dress socks, and polished dress shoes. For women it is interpreted as a dress pant or
skirt, non-matching jacket, collared blouse or professional top, optional pantyhose, simple
jewelry, polished shoes, and natural looking makeup. However, lately there has been a shift in
the attitude of companies and their requirements for employee dress. It has shifted to a casual
look often consisting of jean and a collared shirt or t-shirt with few to no restrictions on
accessorizing. One of the biggest arguments for this is that it will increase the productivity of

Formatted: Highlight

Ditzenberger 2

employees by allowing them to be comfortable. Which leads me to my question does relaxing

the dress code positively affect productivity? If it increases productivity, why have we had
business attire for such a long time? Has there been a push for this change before? If so, what
were the statistics back then?
Cardon, Peter W, and Ephraim A Okoro. PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Commented [ES6]: This is a great question. It would be

interesting to see if this trend has been brought up before.
Commented [AP7]: Good questions all.

COMMUNICATED BY FORMAL VERSUS CASUAL WORKPLACE ATTIRE.

Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, vol. 72, no. 3, 11 Aug. 2009, pp.

Formatted: Font: Italic

355360. doi:10.1177/1080569909340682.

Commented [AP8]: Not sure what this is, but im fairly

sure you dont need it.

Cardon and Ephraim are the first source I found who noted a difference in ethnicity
within their sampling. They then went to analyze the difference, or lack thereof, in
horizontal bar chart to lay it out clearly for the reader. The data collected showed that
ethnicity doesnt tend to strongly affect ones opinion on business attire in the workplace.
They also show skewed data on word association and attire. It is the same skew that I am
finding commonplace within other research articles.
Cracking the Dress Code Dilemma. Salary.com Business, Salary.com,
http://business.salary.com/cracking-the-dress-code-dilemma/.
The article goes through several survey questions proposed to 4,600 people and providing
context for each data chart. The simplicity of the charts makes the data itself easy to
understand and compare. The context easily helps with understand the point of collecting
the data. The first couple of questions pertain to the perception of dress codes of the
peoples employers. Surprisingly, the data shows that 138 people dont know whether or
know their company had a dress code. The next couple are on the perception of

Commented [AP9]: Can you elaborate more here?

Deleted: end up showing
Deleted: ing

Ditzenberger 3

coworkers based off of their attire. They summarize these two with the fact that people
are judging based off of appearances and it affects the office atmosphere. They also

Commented [ES10]: Good point and analysis.

address Casual Fridays and job hunting. The article does a nice point of showing the
tendencies of the sample and provides solid statistics for a reader to deduce information
from and form an educated opinion.
Franz, Timothy M, and Steven D Norton. Investigating Business Casual Dress Policies:
Questionnaire Development and Exploratory Research. Applied HRM Research, vol. 6,
2001, pp. 7994. http://www.xavier.edu/appliedhrmresearch/2001-winter/franz.pdf.

Commented [AP11]: Just quote the source directly. It

seem like you pulled from another clases

The main sections of information from the article, composed by Franz and Norton, are in
the second and third table where the appropriateness of attire is surveyed. The
information presented initially is a large amount of random numbers, but the data is
immediately broken down an explained for a useable context. All of the sources for the
data were thoroughly explained in the initial introduction piece so it is noted that the data
comes from a relatively small and convenient sample size which must be taken into
account while using the data as a source.
Jensen, Andrew. How Does Workplace Attire Affect Productivity? Andrew Jensen, Andrew
Jensen, 21 June 2016, http://www.andrewjensen.net/how-does-workplace-attire-affectproductivity/.
Jensen reinforces the opinion that dress attire is a case by case scenario. He quotes a
study by The Masters College in California where they could not explicitly say
productivity affects a worker one way or another. While offering solutions to the

Commented [ES12]: This is a great example of giving the

article credibility.

Ditzenberger 4

dilemma he reinforces the listening of employers to employees, exercising informed

judgement.
Karl, Katherine A et al. City Employee Perceptions of the Impact of Dress and Appearance:
You Are What You Wear. vol. 42, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 452470.
doi:10.1177/0091026013495772.
The authors of this article created a through and descriptive piece on their sample
demographic. It provides a strong context for the reader to understand the bias and errors

Commented [AP13]: Can you offer that description or a

summary of that description?

that could occur during the data collection. The result analysis provides a strong amount
of useable data to analyze and use to argue a point from multiple angles. One of the data
points collected, that I thought was interesting, was as formality decreases
trustworthiness increases and then there is a quick drop. The limitations section on the

Commented [AP14]: So i feel like im getting a lot of

evaluation as far as how good of a job you felt the source
did, which isnt quite what we want. Really get into some of
the details. What is the source talking about? How is it
relevant to your paper?

paper brought up keen observations in the flaws of the study and I feel as though it was
interesting that they perceived these flaws and stated how these can greatly affect the data
collected and possibly change the outcome.
Tulshyan, Ruchika. Is Casual Dress Killing Your Productivity At Work? Forbes, Forbes
Magazine, 17 Oct. 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ruchikatulshyan/2013/10/17/iscasual-dress-killing-your-productivity-at-work/#12ce9bd22ed0.
Tulshyan addresses the point that clothes often change our mindset by quoting Dr. Karen
Pine, A lot of clothing has symbolic meaning for us, whether its professional work
attire or relaxing weekend wear, so when we put it on we prime the brain to behave in
ways consistent with that meaning. Essentially what we wear affects our mindset. She
then leads into examples of this scenario and how they also affect the alertness of the

Commented [ES15]: This is a good analysis of the quote

you previously mentioned.

Ditzenberger 5

wearer. She then quotes Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner about the fact that results of the study
are all subjective. I think that she brings up valid points, by quoting these doctors, about
how much what we wear affects not only others perceptions of us, but also how we view
ourselves.

Commented [AP16]: Again, i want to see some of these

quotes or learn a little more about what is being
said/argued.
Deleted: perceptions
Commented [ES17]: Overall good job! I would many try
and add a little more detail when you are summarizing your
articles. Some of them I was a little confused on what you
were trying to explain what the data was actually showing,
but otherwise it looks great!
Commented [ES18]: This is an important point as I feel
this is very relatable to many in todays society. This would
be a great line to include directly into your paper.
Deleted: .