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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Copyright © 2014 American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science Letters
All rights reserved Vol. 000, 00–00, 2014
Printed in the United States of America
Uniforms and Perception of Professionalism
Lidya Wati Evelina1, Mia Angeline 2, Vini Mariani3
1,2 Marketing Communication Department (Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, 11530, Indonesia),
levelina@binus.edu, f.angeline@gmail.com
3 Information System Department (Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, 11530, Indonesia), vmariani@binus.edu
Abstract: All Corporate identity mix plays an important role in achieving the organizational objectives, which
also affects consumer perceptions of organization products and services. One of the dimensions of corporate
identity is the visual identity, which includes names, slogans, logos, colors, staff appearance, and others that can
be seen visually and as sociated with the organization. This study focused on staff appearance using uniforms in
banking industry. Uniforms show a critical image to guests, customers, other departments and the general public.
The selected bank is one of private bank in cooperation with Binus University. Research objectives are (1) to
determine attributes that describe professionalism in banking industry; (2) Binusian’s perception of
professionalism through uniforms worn by banking staff. This study used quantitative method with convenience
sampling of Binusian (including students, lecturers, and staffs). Results of this study is respondentshave the
perception of professional bank employee in the term of service but do not necessarily have the integrity and
good business ethics. The color preference which reflect professionalism is blue, while the selected bank uses
yellow as one of primary color in front office’s uniforms.
Keywords: corporate identity, professionalism,uniforms.
1. INTRODUCTION
The concept of corporate identity and its role in the
organization has developed into an interesting research area,
although more researches were focused in the field of graphic
design and health care industries. Mdletye, Coetzee, & Ukpere
stated that corporate identity indicates people’s view of the
organisation in relation to the external organisational
environment [7]. It is concerned with the external image that
the organization portrays in terms of marketing through
branding and messages. According to [10] corporate identity
mix plays an important role in achieving the organizational
objectives. In addition, the corporate identity mix also affects
consumer perceptions of organization products and services.
The management of corporate identity in the banking
sector is important due to times of financial crisis, since banks
and saving banks are facing problems associated with a lack of
credibility and trust towards them. It is necessary to recover
stakeholder confidence by having a positive image that is
consistent with the organization’s culture [3]. One of the
dimensions of corporate identity is the visual identity, which
includes names, slogans, logos, colors, staff appearance, and
others that can be seen visually and associated with the
organization [10]. Visual identity also known as corporate
symbol. In this study, the components that will be emphasized
is the corporate symbol, the uniforms worn by front office
employees, and how consumers' perceptions of the uniform.
Similar studies are often found in the field of health care,
namely the effect of nurse uniforms on perceptions of
professionalism in the eyes of patients and visitors. According
to [15], uniforms worn by nurses are powerful symbol of
professionalism. According to research from [12], white nurse
uniforms hows attributes confidence, reliability, competence,
and professionalism.While uniform tops that have a small print
designs hows attributes caring, attentiveness, cooperation, and
approachable.
However, research on corporate symbol is not widely
practiced within the company, including the banking industry.
Today many savings banks that are under going the process of
reorganization, including mergers and acquisitions, so many
new emerging banking brand identity unknown to stakeholders.
In addition, the corporate identity of a company is also seen as
an important criterion for merger decisions [3].
Thus the importance of corporate identity in banking
1 Adv. Sci. Lett. 00, 00–00, 2014 0000-0000/2014/0/0000/000 doi:00.0000/asl.2014.0000
Adv. Sci. Lett. 00, 00–00, 2014 RESEARCH ARTICLE
industry and the scarcity of studies are the main reasons for
current research. This study aims to examine Binusian’s
perception of professionalism on uniforms worn by front office
staffs. Article is focused on the research objectives as follows:
1. To determine attributes that describe professionalism in
banking industry.
2. Binusian’s perception of professionalism through uniforms
worn by banking staff.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Corporate Identity and Visual Identity
There are several definitions of corporate identity, one of
which according to the Melewar corporate identity refers to
“what the company is or expects to be”, “what the company
does”, or “what the company represents in society” [3].
Understanding corporate identity has been more closely with
the world of graphic design, including logo, color selection, and
others, because these thing scan be seenand easier tolearn.
Another definition from [3] corporate identity exceeds visual
identity of the organization, and includes factors such as the
company's internal culture and characteristics of companies that
generate relationships and routines performed by employees of
the organisation. Broader than that, corporate identity also
include external factors, namely the projection of identity, or
how the corporate identity is communicated to external
stakeholders.
According to [10], corporate identity mix consists of four
elements as follows, (1) behavior of organization members,
which make it possible for the stakeholders to judge the
corporate performances; (2) symbolism including corporate
logo, which is an important symbol for introducing the
organization; (3) relationships that can transfer corporate
messages towards their stakeholders (4) corporate
characteristics, which means the corporate understanding of its
own.
While according to several studies, corporate identity has
six dimensions namely, (1) visual identity, including visual
identity system and aesthetics; (2) communication, including
internal and external communication; (3) behavior, including
corporate, staff, and management behavior; (4) culture,
including corporate culture and subcultures; (5) strategy,
including portfolio strategies, segmentation and positioning; (6)
structure, including organizational structure and brand structure
[3].
Study of visual cues or visual semiotics is defined as a sign
which is constructed with a visual marker that can be seen as a
uniform [4]. Fashion, clothing, makeup and jewelry are seen as
a communicative function [3].
This study focused on the first dimension, visual identity or
corporate symbol represents the set of visual elements through
which the public is able to recognize the company and
distinguish it from others. According to Melewar, the main
elements that shape the visual identity system are name, slogan,
logo, typography and color, which are often included in
promotional campaigns [3]. Furthermore, visual identity also
consists of the aesthetics of the organisation including
architecture, office design, staff appearance, etc.
Visual identity has become one of the key messages that
organisation will have to get across to the stakeholder.
Reference [12] defined four potential objectives of visual
identity, which are (1) visual identity will allow organisations to
obtain visibility and recognition in the market; (2) a symbol for
stakeholders that will positively influence image and corporate
reputation; (3) visual identity projects the organisation’s
structure externally in an integrated way; and (4) visual identity
has an internal function in terms of leading employees to
identify themselves with the company.
Uniforms and Professionalism
Costumes are seen as having a communicative function.
Costumes, clothing, costume and makeup is a form of
artifactual communication [6]. Based on the discussion above,
one of the components of the visual identity is the staff
appearance including how to wear the uniform. Uniforms
convey a critical image to guests, customers, other departments
and the general public. An employee’s look is a key component
of an organization’s ability to forge a bond with its customer
base and cultivate a strong brand identity in the customer’s
mind that equates great products or services [5].
In communications, the message was given different
meanings by different people while words do not have meaning.
Reference [11] stated that process of meaning through the
following steps (1) Sensation, which mean sex perience related
to the senses, it does not require decomposition of verbal,
symbolic, orconceptual; (2) Perception, namely the experience
of objects, events, or relationships obtained by inferring
information and interpret the message; (3) Memory, which is
the process of recording, storage, and memory recalling; (4)
Think, is a stage in the under standing of reality that is used to
draw conclusions or solutions to problems.
Some of the benefits gained by providing uniforms to
employees as follows (1) enhances company professionalism;
(2) encourages equality; (3) represents team spirit; (4) helps
employees stand out; (5) saves employees money; and (6) free
advertising [1]. Uniforms help to establish a good impression
about the organization; it represents the culture of a company
and its professionalism. It offers the added benefit of allowing
employees to stand out from competitors, exhibiting proficient
business ethics and develop a sense of trust [1]. Furthermore, it
also ensures that employees conduct them selves in a
conservative and appropriate manner.
Unfavorable research carried out regarding the influence of
nurses uniforms on perceptions of professionalism, resulting in
the preferences of patients and visitors to the nurse’s uniforms
are not related to their perceptions of nurse professionalism
[15].
Each company has its ownvalues, as well as the banking
industry. The value of professionalism in this study adapted to
one of the private banks that cooperate with Binus University.
Professionalism values taken to illustrate the professionalism in
this study were (1) Customer Focus, namely to understand,
explore, and meet customer needs in the best way; (2) Integrity,
the customers have a trusted bank, where trust is built through
actions that reflect integrity and high business ethics; (3)
Teamwork, team is a set of people who have a distinctive
affinity, commitment, and synergy procedures to achieve the
goal; (4) Pursuit of Excellence, which is always doing the best
with the best quality and best process (source: Tata Kelola
Bank 2014).
3. METHODS
This study used quantitative method with convenience
sampling of Binusian (including students, lecturers, and staffs).
2
*email address of author to whom correspondence should be addressed
RESEARCH ARTICLE Adv. Sci. Lett. 00, 00–00, 2014
The research methodology selected was chosen to overcome
limitations and broaden the understanding of banking uniform,
color, and style. Participants viewed photographs of the same
front office’s uniform in three different colors (light blue, dark
blue and yellow) and rated the picture using the selected bank
corporate values. This uniform is the original uniforms used by
the front office staff of aprivate bankin cooperation with Binus
University and was selected in this research.
A total of 300 questionnaires distributed to Binusian who
are customers of the selected bank, and only 288 questionnaires
were elligible in further calculations, the rest was considered
not feasible because there were statements that were not filled.
Selection of respondents wear non-probability sampling
techniques, namely convenience sampling, types of sampling
was selected with areas on for urgent research.
Data analysis for demographic characteristics were
summarized by frequency and percentage. Color preference
were summarized by frequency and percentage.
Professionalism score were summarized by median ranges.
After the quantitave analysis were done, triangulation by
method were conducted by interview with a member of
Binusian with an extensive experience as a professional image
consultant for companies.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
From two-hundred and eighty-eight respondents, mean
gender was male 46% and female 54%. Years of respondent as
customer, 23% stated under 3 years and 77% stated over 3
years. The term three years were selected because it was viewed
as a suitable amount of time for customers to get to know a
company and really feel their services.
Table 1 Respondent Characteristics
Parameter Level n (%)
Gender Male % 133 (46%)
Female % 155 (54%)
Years as customer Under 3 years % 67 (23%)
Over 3 years % 221 (77%)
Colors preference
described as
professional
Dark blue % 120 (42%)
Light blue % 82 (28%)
Yellow % 16 (6%)
Others % 70 (24%)
Respondents were shown a photograph of front office
employee’s uniforms without the bank attributes (only models
and colors only), then asked to fill out their perceptions whether
the uniformed employees bring professional values. The results
of the questionnaire can be seen below.
Figure 1. Perception of Professionalism Value in Front Office’s
Uniform
Biggest result is with the value of the pursuit of excellence,
which is always doing the best with the best methods and
quality. It can be concluded, when looking at the front office
staffs who wear the uniform, appropriate image that is
perceived by Binusian is that the staff will search for the best
way to help them and improve their quality of service. This is
consistent with the results of the second highest value of great
service, where the perception of the respondent is employee
will provide good service to them. Lowest value is integrity,
which is the front office staff that reflects the bank that has
integrity and high business ethics. Of uniform used,
respondents have the perception of professional bank employee
in the term of service but do not necessarily have the integrity
and good business ethics.
In addition, respondents were also asked to fill in the
perception of color that describe professionalism, given four
options which three are options in accordance with the uniform
color of selected bank and one other color options beyond the
three colors. Color that gets the highest percentage is dark blue
with 42% and light blue with 28%. The dark blue color is the
corporate identity color of the bank selected in this study, so it
is natural if the respondents associate the color with the value of
professionalism. The concern is that the bank now uses yellow
as a uniform color of their front office staffs, while the
respondent's perception of the professionalism of the employees
who wear yellow are very low.
Having analyzed the quantitative data, triangulation by
method was done with an interview to one of the Binusian.
Interviews were conducted with Dr. Ulani Yunus as Chairman
of the Department of Marketing Communication at Binus
University and had extensive experiences as a consultant in the
field of professional image of several organizations. The results
of the interview stated the uniform is the identity of a company,
every employee who uses a uniform should keep their attitude.
In addition, the uniform also has a function to communicate the
brand image of a company. In some companies each employee
required to wear a uniform because it is a message from the
organization to its audiences. Attributes of the company to
make it look professional include:
1. Color, which has a different meaning, such as (a) white is
endearing, (b) blue is professional, (c) brown is tenacious,
(d) yellow is splendor, intelligence, dynamic, etc. The
results of this interview in accordance with the quantitative
data, where respondents answer that the color blue
symbolizes professionalism as much as70%.
3 Adv. Sci. Lett. Vol. 4, No. 2, 2011 1936-6612/2011/4/400/008 doi:10.1166/asl.2011.1261
Adv. Sci. Lett. 00, 00–00, 2014 RESEARCH ARTICLE
2. Composition of company’s uniform attributes, logo and
company name should be placed on the left chest and the
name of the employee in the right chest. If necessary to
give a greeting then employee should put their right hand
toward the left chest to show the company is willing to
help. The reason for using the right hand is because to
eastern culture it is considered clean.
3. Accessories, every employee should use accessories not
more than thirteen items. Accessories used must not
interfere with the activities of employees in serving
customers. Accessories may include glasses, earrings,
necklaces, hair accessories, and more.
4. Uniform, which is should not be too tigh tor too loose ,
should be fit according to the body size and comfortable to
wear. For customer service or front office at the bank
should use a skirt, it shows a trust worthy company to
holds customer funds.
5. Hairdo, where the hair should be tied up neatly so as not to
inter fere with the activity in serving the customer.
6. Make up, which used according to the standard and there
should be special training, preferably for front office
employees to have beauty allowance.
Appearance is a way to shape social perceptions and related
cultural. Semantics rely on signs and symbols of fashion,
namely the line, color, form and shape by finding analogical
elements [14].
5. CONCLUSION
The bank which were the focus in this study has
communicated its company culture to all employees through
new employee induction program, internal monthly magazine,
screen-savers, internal training, hand books, games, and many
more. So that every employee should have a good
understanding of the meaning of uniform as visual identity for
the company. Uniforms should only be used during working
hours, because an employee represents the company and each
employee is deemed appropriate to that uniform they wore. In
addition, banks also have to consider the uniform design
symbolizing the value of integrity in order to demonstrate trust
to the public eye. Good uniform should be able to bring the
professionalism of the company.
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Received: 10 July 2014. Accepted: 10 August 2014
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