Two weeks ago, I received my admission at the École des hautes études commerciales of Montreal. As I chose to go in business management, I will probably have to deal with employees, hiring and firing some. Thus, I started questioning myself on that. When you have such a short meeting with someone, how can you know if a person is right for the job? Of course, the first impression can influence your choice but then, it would only be based on their appearance not on their competencies. For example, if a women walks in with dirty pink hair and smells bad but has an interesting CV, should it influence my decision in hiring that person? Wouldn’t that be discrimination? Nobody should be discriminated for a job for their global appearance or style. However, having employees that have a particularly marginal look can affect the company 's image. It is better to avoid that because a good corporate image is hard to build and it is related to a lot of different elements. It has a major impact on the business and translates better money entries and higher stock valuation. It is indeed the manager’s job to try to make sure the corporate image takes the right direction by communications, brand selection and promotion, use of symbols in advertising etc. “Corporations trying to shape their image are analogous to individuals who will dress appropriately, cultivate courteous manners, and choose their words carefully in order to come across competent, likeable, and reliable. In the personal as
Employers want their employees to look a certain way to create the appropriate atmosphere, especially when they are directly working and interacting with the population. Employees must
“We all know that appearance matters, but the price of prejudice can be steeper than we often assume” (Washington1.) Published originally in the Washington Post on May 23,2010 by Deborah L. Rhode. Rhode the Professor of law and legal director at Stanford University in her essay “Why Looks Are The Last Bastion Of Discrimination,” argues that an individual's physical appearance is one of the few qualities of their personal identity that other people are legally within their rights to discriminate against. Rhode states her thesis clearly explaining the forthcoming reasons she will offer to uphold her position. Rhode believes that discriminating against individuals based on their appearance is wrong, and is often overlooked in many environments such as the workforce. Many think it is crucial that discrimination on looks is banned in workplaces, schools, and most other organizations.
Cohen is correct in that hiring for image is essential for good business. It must be effective since all businesses pursue to do so. Hiring for image leads to the increased prices of product, increased sales of products, and can give the impression of authenticity which eventually leads to what businesses want, profit. It also is an important aspect in attracting the teenager group which is a large portion of consumers; Teens are well known for wanting to have a good image due to peer pressure and to be popular at school. The claim that businesses are discriminating are unreasonable; they may only be hiring certain types of people , but that is uncontrollable in pursuing to satisfy their customers ' wants and needs. They are only trying to do what they think will generate the most profit. If most people ask themselves, they would rather choose a place with good looking people than without. However, although it is beneficial for companies, the question of whether is
Today’s jobseeker has tough competition. In our text book readings “Judging by the Cover” (657-658), Bonny Gainley begins the argument of the paper by stating that job seekers must be careful when they make personal choices that initially will affect their chances of entering the workplace. People have a need to be accepted by others just the way they are, in the same way people continue to say, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, yet people do based solely on their personal appearances. That goes for businesses as well, “[t]he bottom line is that businesses exist to make money. Whether it seems fair or not, most employers do care about the personal appearances of the people they hire because those people represent the business to its customers”.
The Company image to its customers and the public is very important to most companies and corporation. Larger corporations pride themselves in making sure that their image in unflawed when it comes to their stockholders, the media, or their customers. Most employees have some type
Helen’s is an upmarket fashion boutique store in Sydney’s east. Falling sales have been reflected by surveys that reveal consumers view the business as outdated and no longer relevant to consumers’ needs. Strong competition in the area has placed considerable pressure on pricing. The business’s target market, 50-65 year old females, no longer dominated the now younger demographic character of the area.
While it does not seem right, employers do care about our appearance. Jobs exist to make money and right now there is a tough job market. With a lot of people out there looking for jobs, employers can afford to be picky. This is not about human rights and freedom, but about free enterprise.
The idea of outward appearance has been a debated concept for a long time and both sides of the argument have reasons to believe what they do according to netfortris.com: “These basic steps will go a long way towards presenting the best possible outward appearance for your organization, and will ultimately make your company more successful.” The author of this article associates appearance with success. In this sense the success is that of a company but other sources may say that there is personal success in appearance. Some say that social success is dependent on how the person looks to others. These essays both say the opposite, that nothing is dependent on appearance, not on age, skin color, hobbies, or anything else.
* Image of the company; Organisation with a positive image and diverse workforce will have more chances of attracting, recruiting and retaining the talent. Negative image leads to loss of trust from employees current and potential, as well as all business partners or customers.
Steven Greenhouse, writer for New York Times, states in his article “Going for the Look,but Risking Discrimination”, that companies are hiring people based only on how attractive they look and are risking discrimination because of it. Greenhouse then supports his claim by giving examples, like L’Oreal, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and W Hotel. He next proceeds to show that hiring based off looks can result in lawsuits and discrimination. Finally, he informs that stores have hired good looking people who are incompetent rather than hiring someone who is not that good looking but is experienced. Greenhouse’s purpose is to show that although it is not illegal to only hire attractive people, it might not be morally correct to just hire on looks.
For example, they could be motivated to come to work because there is no bias. However, if he doesn’t hire Dr. Soysa, the staff would feel discouraged to work. Since they are being judged a lot by the way they appear. They would get the message that in order to achieve more in this hospital I would need to look great for the public eyes. In addition, they would feel that there is no measure to judge their performance and credentials. Employees would feel that there is no diverse body of talent in the workplace.
The stores attracted customers with “physical attractiveness” of the store employees and quite clearly there is an argument of unconscious bias in the practice of hiring employees based on physical attractiveness as considered by Shahani-Denning (2003) in the study. Although numerous lawsuits under employment legislation were filed, most of them were based on conscious discrimination and quite interestingly there are no laws governing discriminatory practices under hiring based on “physical attractiveness”. However the brand image of Abercrombie and Fitch is dependent on the outward projection of physical appearance and hence there is a rationale for the argument of hiring physically attractive store staff to attract more
Personally I see this world of salesmanship and such value being put on image everyday in the world of business. Sad but true, that many employers hire first off based on what that candidate looks like as they walk up to the interview room. Image without substance; what ever happened to what that
For Newskool Grooves to be successful, it must be in a position to overcome the challenges that the boundary less organizations face in their day to day operations. Newskool Grooves manager needs to overcome them by focusing on the management of the boundary that is through showing the employees the boundaries that matter most and when they can best enact these boundaries.
Lookism is a more and more pressing problem for companies and corporations, that strive to create an equal opportunities work space. The definition of lookism is “bias or discrimination against individuals on the basis of appearance, often unconscious.” This discrimination refers to both people who are not perceived as attractive and those who have to deal with the stereotypes connected to being exceptionally good-looking.