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WA3. Dress Codes and Business Ethics

Statement

Please read the case study entitled “Tucked In, Tucked Out” from chapter 5 of the Business Ethics textbook. Based on what you have learned in this unit, answer the following questions:

  • How do you think clothing choices affect the relationships we form at work or in other business situations?
  • What is your opinion about workplace dress codes, and how far should employers go in setting dress and other behavior standards?
  • Why are these standards important (or not) from an ethical perspective?
  • How do you think clothing might affect an international company’s approach to business ethics?

Answer

Every employee is an ambassador for the organization they represent; it is important that the employees -as well as the organizations- fit into the culture they interact with. Fitting into the culture involves many aspects, like language, customs, and clothing.

Clothing affects the relationships we form at work or in other business situations because it is the first form of communication that people exchange when they see each other before they speak. A well-dressed person is more likely to be taken seriously and respected, due to the human nature of judging by appearance, although people do not talk openly about this. Clothing can also be used to communicate a person’s role in an organization and their level of professionalism. For business-to-business relationships, businesses are represented by their employees who are humans, so dressing well may give you more confidence, self-esteem, and power in negotiations (Angie et al., 2011).

My opinion about workplace dress codes is that they are necessary to maintain a professional environment; dress codes are important as they show unity within teams, reduce differences between individuals, comply with regulations, and maintain the image of the organization. Employers can go as far as necessary in setting dress codes, to the extent that they do not discriminate against any group of people, and keep a certain balance between enforcing and encouraging employees to follow the dress code; there should be exceptions for special circumstances where dress code can not be followed without the need of managerial approval (Richifa, 2023).

These standards are important from an ethical perspective as they enforce safety (e.g. dress code in construction sites), and help people to go to the right person for help (e.g. dress code in hospitals differs between doctors and nurses). dress code may reduce crimes or corruption (e.g. seeing a police uniform in a street may discourage the criminal from doing a crime).

Clothing might affect an international company’s approach to business ethics as international companies have to consider the cultural differences between countries; the dilemma is, should the company adopt a single dress code for all its employees across countries? In this case, which country’s dress code should be adopted? or, should the company adopt different dress codes for different countries? (Byars & Stanberry, 2022) suggests that companies should aim for localization in their approach to business ethics, which means that each branch should follow the dress and ethics code of the country it is in while maintaining a global company manifesto that includes high-level standards that are common across all branches in all countries.

References

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