Music in the Workplace?
Music moves us in a number of ways – it moves us to dance, to sing to clean; it can cheer us up when we’re feeling sad, or flood us with waves of nostalgic feelings. The mechanisms explaining exactly how this works is universally acknowledge, but not fully scientifically understood. What is generally acknowledge though, is the fact that music can be used to influence our moods, behaviors, and motivations.
In a 2005 study, for example, workers were asked to measure their moods before and after listening to music (over the course of a five week period). After five weeks, participants in the experiment group were found to have more good (positive) feelings after listening to music when compared to the control group, who did not listen to any form of music over that time – effectively illustrating music’s mood altering effects. [1]
In addition to its ability to alter moods, music has also been shown to have considerable effects on behavior. In a popular review of the effects of music on supermarket shoppers, three conditions were observed in (1) slow tempo music, (2) high tempo music, and (3) no music. During the high tempo music conditions, shoppers were observed rushing through the supermarket at a much quicker pace when compared to the slow and no music conditions – effectively spending less time in the market and significantly less money in the process. In the slow tempo conditions, shoppers spent much more time in the store, effectively spending 38% more money in the process (in comparison to the high tempo condition). [2]
Here we can see how powerful music is in its ability to influence the unconscious behavior of supermarket shoppers – but what can research tell us about music's ability to motivate?
Research on the effects that music has on exercise and fitness provide some pretty telling insight here. In two interesting studies, participants were found to be easily influenced to exercise with more (or less) effort depending on the tempo of the music they were provided while exercising; they were also shown to be influenced to exercise with more effort when subjected to a music tempo that was synchronized with their movement (i.e., they were diggin' the dancing queen). [3] [4]
From here we get a more complete picture of how music moves us to do all of the things it does – it can cheer us up when we’re feeling sad, subconsciously dictate our pace when walking through stores, and motivate us to endure and power through discomforts.
Like caffeine and motivational pep-talks, music has an immediate effect on both behaviors and motivations, making it an effective tool to entice greater workplace performance – and possibly even workplace productivity. Despite these findings, many people and organizations still have reservations about the practice of listening to music in the workplace. These reservations stem in large part from research that hints at music as being less conducive to productivity (when compared to what studies like to call no-music conditions). [5]
These studies can be traced back to Daniel Kahneman’s model of attention capacity which states that attention is limited, and that only a finite amount can be utilized at any given time. In this model we can think of our minds as processing units (CPUs) with bandwidth limitations that limit us to only so much processing power at any one time. According to Kahneman, it could prove detrimental to optimal performance to task a portion of our mind (CPU) to listening to music, despite its mood or motivation enticing properties. [6]
The problem I have with applying Kahneman’s model to workplace is, it's theoretical in nature and isn’t empirically backed with workplace-based research – meaning the model has very limited applicability to the large variety of work done in the workplace. Additionally, research even goes as far to suggest the contrary – in Lesiuk’s (2005) previously mentioned study, computer engineers were found to have increased quality-of-work when exposed to music, and an increased time-on-task immediately after music was removed (i.e. lower productivity). [1:1]
When listening to music in the workplace, the biggest downside is the fact that it typically requires headphones - potentially cutting music-going workers off from the rest of the audible world around them. I think that we all can agree (or at least most of us, unfortunately) that listening to music over one's speakers can be nearly as unsavory as heating up seafood (or popcorn) in the office microwave. This is because it is very unlikely to work in an organization where everyone has the same musical preferences, especially in this day and age (with all the different various types of music and work that's available today). With all this said, it's kind of interesting to think about music in the workplace; if music is beneficial to productivity and morale, but detrimental to communication - what steps could organizations take to maximize the benefits of music, while also mitigating its hindrances?