| dc.description.abstract | Mandatory employees' uniforms generally constitute an important component of
hospitality or a business establishment's brand identity. Not only do uniforms create a
specific impression of a property, but they are an integral part of the atmosphere created
by a business enterprise.
This study sought to investigate the impact of mandatory employees' uniforms policy and
employee job satisfaction in retail business outlets in the case of Safaricom Ltd in Kenya.
This provided insights into designing of employees uniforms and improved on employee
job satisfaction in addition to influencing employment policy issues.
The population of study was 22 retail outlets with 600 uniformed employees. A
uniformed employee working before and after the introduction of the uniform was used
as the unit of analysis. This was a case of a single firm participating in the
telecommunications industry. The sample size was two retail outlets with a total of 60
uniformed employees, one outlet in Nairobi province (30 interview respondents and 1
retail manager) at Sarit Centre and one in Eldoret (30 interview respondents and 1 retail
manager).
The study commenced on October 30th 2009 and data collection undertaken for a period
of two weeks ending on November 10th 2009. Secondary data collection included perusal
of documents (document analysis). Primary data collection involved key informant
interviews with uniformed employees and retail outlets managers. Methods for data
collection used were surveys and observation while the tools were face to face interviews,
administration of mail questionnaires, context analysis document analysis and participant
observation. The processing of data results begun shortly after the field data collection
commenced. Completed data collection instruments were edited and data fed into
computer. The data was entered and analyzed by simple descriptive analysis using
statistical package for social scientists (SPSS Version 12) computer software.
The study found out that the uniform policy had little negative effect on employee job
satisfaction, it was also clear from the findings that introduction of uniform affected the
employee job satisfaction negatively, and the attitude towards uniform was found to
impact negatively on employee job satisfaction.
From the findings, the researcher recommended the there should be staff consultations on
new decisions that affect company operations and staff, Companies should embrace
change management practices prior to introduction of new policies, procedures and
operational system for participatory and all inclusive decision process. The situations that
demand staff to wear company attire to take into account staff needs and requirements. | en |
