| As casual dress policies were adopted by other businesses during the 1990s, the dress of the flight attendants of one airline was also changed to casual. Flight attendants were allowed to wear khakis and T-shirts. Within a year, however, the airline dropped casual dress and returned to business dress. This led me to the following research questions: What were the flight attendants' perceptions and experiences when wearing a casual verses a formal uniform? Did flight attendants reported experiences vary based on level of self-monitoring?; The research was a qualitative study of flight attendants' perceptions and experiences in a casual versus a formal uniform. Data were gathered by interviewing 37 flight attendants. After the initial interviews, participants completed Snyder's (1974) self-monitoring scale and a demographic questionnaire. I used responses on the Snyder scale to separate the participants into two groups---low and high self-monitors.; Of the participants (N = 37), 32 were female and 5 were male. Participants' ages ranged from 26 to 64 years. All participants were of White, not Hispanic descent, except for three participants who indicated their ethnicity was Asian (Vietnamese), German, and Norwegian, respectively. There were 16 participants who were married, 16 who were single, and the 5 remaining were divorced. For education level, 5 participants indicated they held a high school diploma or the equivalent, 23 indicated they had completed some college, 8 participants had college degrees, and 1 indicated two years of graduate school had been completed.; Data were analyzed using qualitative methods. Data were first analyzed with responses separated by participates' level of self-monitoring (low self-monitors versus high self-monitors). Although there was some variation, the content of the themes and concepts that emerged from the data were the same for both low and high self-monitors. Subsequently, all responses were analyzed together. Participants perceived differences in their experiences when they wore a casual uniform as opposed to when they wore a formal uniform. Flight attendants' own behavior, their self-perceptions, and feelings as well as their treatment by others was altered when wearing a casual uniform as compared to when they appeared in a formal uniform. |
