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This project examines appearance management at work—the behaviors and expectations surrounding how employees present themselves through clothing, grooming, and other visible appearance cues—and how these demands shape employees’ experiences and career outcomes. In many workplaces, appearance is not merely a matter of personal preference; it can serve as an implicit or explicit job requirement that signals professionalism, competence, and fit. Yet, management and organizational research lacks an integrated framework for understanding when and why appearance standards intensify, how employees navigate these expectations, and who benefits or is penalized.
The project has two connected streams. The first stream develops a conceptual review and theory framework that synthesizes multidisciplinary research on aesthetic labor and work-related appearance management. We will map key drivers (e.g., industry norms, customer-facing roles, organizational image management), core processes (e.g., time and monetary investments, monitoring and compliance), and consequences (e.g., hiring and promotion outcomes, interpersonal treatment, well-being, and work–life boundary spillover). The second stream focuses on clothing characteristics and norm violations, examining how deviations from appearance norms (e.g., formality, fit/exposure, etc) affect employees in career-relevant evaluations and workplace treatment. This stream will support the development of an empirical study using surveys and experiments.
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