BANGALORE: In November 2005,
former IPS officer DK Panda
became well-known throughout India as the cop with a cross-dressing
problem. Panda, then inspector-general of police, Lucknow, claimed he
saw himself as Krishna's consort, Radha, and started dressing to reflect
this belief. He went to work dressed in saris, vermilion in his hair
and make-up, in clear breach of the police dress code and service rules.
Panda, who famously labeled himself the 'Doosri Radha', was hauled up
by the director-general of police, and subsequently quit the service to
continue his chosen way of life.
While nothing quite as dramatic has taken place in Karnataka, the
recent flip-flop by the state government on imposing dress codes on its
employees by the department of personnel and administrative reforms
has put the spotlight on whether and how dress codes impact
productivity. Surprisingly, in these more liberal times, there is no
unanimous denouncement of dress codes.
"The ayatollahs of formal dressing and the ayatollahs of informality are both wrong," says
Manish Sabharwal,
chairman, TeamLease Services. "How you dress must depend on what
industry you are in, what role you serve, your position in the hierarchy
of the organization... one size does not fit all," says Sabharwal. He
points out that even in Silicon Valley, where the desire to not be seen
as one of the 'suits' (a pejorative term for lawyers, HR managers and
the like) led to an extreme informality of dress, there has been a
pulling back in recent years. More people there are now adopting a
middle-ground by teaming well-tailored jackets with T-shirts and blazers
without ties. Personally, Sabharwal admits that dressing up in a sharp
suit makes him feel more "decisive and confident."
"I don't believe there is a link between dress codes and productivity,
but I do believe there is a direct correlation between employees'
comfort and their productivity," says Mukund Mohan, director, Microsoft
Ventures India. "Having a standard dress code is counter-productive,
whether the rules bend towards the formal or the informal. It's a
tricky thing - someone could feel most 'comfortable' and positive in a
suit," says Mohan, a Silicon Valley-returnee, who feels most
comfortable in T-shirts teamed with casual trousers, and has been
dressing that way since the late '90s. It has never come in the way of
his productivity or of people's perception of him as an efficient
manager, he says.
A July 2012 study by researchers at Northwestern University in the US
introduced the term "enclothed cognition" to describe the systematic
influence that clothes have on the wearer's psychological processes. The
study found that dressing in a certain way, such as in a doctor's lab
coat, improved subjects' performance on parameters related to certain
skills. Sangeeth Varghese, founder and chairman of LeadCap Trust, one of
the world's largest youth leadership organizations, believes in "broad
advisories" when it comes to workplace attire. Varghese, who has
recently written to the Karnataka department of personnel and
administrative reforms in support of the decision, quotes several
studies that indicate smart and slightly formal attire improve
productivity.
Certain businesses are very clear about where they stand on dress
codes. "Some companies have rules and regulations and dress codes.
Here, the only dress code is 'wear something'," writes Vivaik
Bharadwaj, policy & quality operations director, Google India, on
the company's website.
Quote hanger
* Imposing uniforms on government employees in no way improves the
quality of service. Instead of imposing dress codes, it is necessary to
change their attitude towards the public with whom they interact
regularly. The employees should make the public feel confident that
their grievances are being attended to. For this, the employees should
look and appear neat and smart, but that's about it.
I M Vittala Murthy | former bureaucrat
* When you're in a responsible position and are addressing
stakeholders, such as in a government job, it's important to project
efficiency in order to be taken seriously. I wrote to the secretary of
the department, Shalini Rajneesh, because I believe in the Sakaala
campaign, which aims to improve delivery of government service, and I
think a smart dress code is a part of that delivery.
Sangeeth Varghese | founder, LeadCap Trust
* While I do not support dress codes for college students because I
feel that's the time for them to figure out their tastes and preferences
without restrictions, I do believe that at the workplace, dress codes
or at least a certain imposed uniformity works. It can enhance
workplace unity and a certain similarity of dressing often does away
with petty and negative comparisons. It can also, under certain
circumstances, save time and make life easier for employe
