Body Adornment: A Comparison of the Attitudes of Businesspeople and Students in Three States

Abstract

INTRODUCTION In the 1970s and 1980s, many changes took place in the typical office, but at least one thing was easy: when people went for job interviews prepared for careers in business, they felt comfortable in their conservative business attire. Then came the 1990s, and corporate dress codes began to relax (Zielinski, 2005). Before long, this trend toward dress in business offices spread across the country. Originally, companies instituted casual Fridays on which employees could dress down. Over the next decade, business attire became more every day of the week. Interestingly, one of the things that had increased during this time is the number of people with body adornment (e.g., and/or piercings) (Smith, 2003, Zielinski, 2005). Ironically, as the use of body adornment has increased, the return to a more conservative dress code, particularly with employees required to meet the public, has occurred (Drew 2000). Employers want potential employees to ... look professional on interview (Needleman, 2007). Employees had become too casual. What began as a day that meant slacks and a blazer rather than a suit had too often morphed into employees who wore jeans with holes, sandals, and t-shirts. Unfortunately, the younger employees had never known anything but a work environment. What would these young people--and other employees--think about the newer, more formal business atmosphere? While changing their manner of dress is one thing, how will they feel about covering their if they have them or getting if they don't yet have them? More important is what do employers think about such body adornment? Is there a generation gap with respect to attire? What other factors determine attitudes toward body adornment and dress between students and employers? For example, will attitudes vary among traditionally liberal California, largely rural Arkansas, and Ohio, home of the largest university in the United States? We wished to explore all of these issues and more in this research in order to help us understand if there is a difference in attitude to help our students find work in an ever-tightening job market. PURPOSE The primary purpose of this study is to determine the attitudes or perceptions of students and businesspeople regarding visible and body piercings relative to employment. For the purposes of this study, body adornment includes visible and body piercings defined as tattoos and body piercings--other than one earring per ear for women--that are visible when dressed for work. Another purpose of the study is to develop recommendations for faculty and students regarding and body piercings in the workplace. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODOLOGY Students in selected but varied classes at nine universities in Ohio, California and Arkansas, a well as business people from those same states, were asked to anonymously complete a survey pertaining to visible and piercings. Of these nine schools, seven were accredited by AACSB and two were not. A total of 1,412 surveys were completed. Schools participating in the survey ranged from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, with slightly over 3,000 undergraduate students, to Ohio State University, which boasts the highest enrollment in the United States at almost 52,000 students. In Arkansas, the two schools included Arkansas State University-Jonesboro, with 187 respondents, and Henderson State University, with 155 respondents, which yielded a total of 342 students from 12 different classes. The four California schools were Allan Hancock Community College (with 216 respondents), Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (223 respondents), Cal Poly-Pomona (221 respondents), and UCLA (157 respondents); these schools yielded a total of 817 student responders from 33 different classes. The three schools in Ohio were Ohio State (79 respondents), The Ohio State University-Athens (43 respondents), and the University of Akron (177 respondents); these schools yielded a total of 253 students from 7 different classes. …