Investigating the Effects of Mandatory Corporate Uniforms on Employee Attitude and Morale: The Case Study of Trust Me Security Company.

Abstract

Corporate uniforms generally constitute an important component of private security business establishment’s brand identity. Corporate uniforms create a particular impression of a property and also plays an integral part of atmosphere created by a business enterprise. The study sought to investigate the effects of mandatory corporate uniforms on employee’s attitude and morale in the case study of Trust Me Security Company. The study focused on Harare employees only. This objective of the study was to provide an insight on why employees who were mainly security guards did not want to be seen in their corporate uniforms away from their workplaces. Simple random sampling was used in determining sample size from a population of 600 where 50 employees were used as a sample. Probability sampling was also used. Data collection methods used were surveys and observations while the tools were hand delivered questionnaires, face to face interviews, document analysis and observations. Hence a total of 50 questionnaires were administered to the staff of Trust Me Security Company. Out of which 40 were recovered and fully answered and used for the study. The collected data was analysed with use of statistical tools and by simple descriptive analysis. A computer software package SPSS was also used to analyse the data. The study found out that the majority of employees were not aware of the existence of organisational uniform policy, management of the organisation did not take into consideration employee’s concerns regarding uniforms, the majority of employees did wear their corporate uniforms to and from workplaces with main reasons being uniform elements and comments from people, the corporate uniform affected employee’s attitude at workplace and also that there was a relationship that existed between corporate uniforms and employee morale. From the findings the researcher recommended that the organisation must have a buy-in from the employees as well as considering stakeholders views when selecting or coming up with elements of the uniform.