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16 Feb 2009 * Questions I regularly get
e-mails from students, business managers and journalists, and occasionally also employees. The most common questions I get
are related to music listening and productivity: "Can you tell me what type of music is best for increasing productivity?"
"How much can productivity increase through listening to music while working?" "What are the top 10 artists/composers
that one should listen to in order to work better?" I wish there were simple answers to these straight forward questions,
but unfortunately there aren't, as far as I know. There are a number of issues that one has to consider when talking about
music listening at work, and its potential impact on productivity. Firstly, what do we mean by productivity? Can we measure
productivity? Do we mean how many goods are produced (i.e., speed of production) within a certain time frame? Or do we mean
the quality of goods? Or quality of services? Or the time that it takes to do the work? Of course it depends on what type
of job someone is doing. Much of previous studies into music listening and productivity have focused on factory work where
employees worked with typical assembly line work, where productivity (i.e., output) is fairly easy to measure. But much work
today is not quite like that, which makes productivity difficult to define. Another issue is the music. As we know, music
taste is highly individual, which makes it hard to name any artists or composers that "works" for everyone. Control
over the music source also seems to be important (everyone has probably felt the irritation over having to listen to something
they don't like), which makes so called "piped music" in offices difficult. Research on music listening in offices is still in
its infancy, but future research might be able to say a little bit more about what music suits what individual in what job
role in what situation. My own research touches upon this, but also on all the other experiences of music in offices. Productivity,
or work performance, is only one aspect of 'being in an office'. For example, one thing that seems to emerge in my
data is the importance of being able to control the auditory environment in the office, and people sometimes use music for
this purpose.
* Reading I sometimes also get e-mails from students asking about further reading on the
topic of music at work. So I have added a new page to my website where I list a couple of sources that I have found very useful.
*
Current
state of affairs I can finally see the end of the analysis
of my interview study. I hope to complete the analysis within the next month. It has been a long, winding and challenging
road, but I am very excited about the results, which I hope to share here on the website at a later stage. As often with research,
you start off focusing on something but then discover so many other things on the way - and this has certainly been the case
with my interview study. My goal now is to spend the rest of the spring analysing my data from the two other studies, and
I hope to begin write up of the whole thesis during the summer months. I have also submitted two abstracts for the ESCOM 2009 conference in Finland in August, so fingers crossed
they'll accept them!
/Anneli
** 7 July 2008
The Guardian has
just published an interesting piece on music listening in offices, that acknowledges some of the complexities surrounding
music listening at work: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jul/07/workandcareers
However, I was mis-quoted, saying that some people found thrash metal helpful for motivation. This is not correct,
as most of my results point to the fact that there are no trends in terms of music genres. Instead, people seem to listen
to whatever they usually listen to, outside of the work context. So it appears to be down to individual taste, rather than
particular genres.
** 3 January 2008 Back to reality after a much needed
break in Sweden. I submitted a full-length article of my survey study to Musicae Scientiae just before Christmas. I am in
the process of modifying this article to a chapter in my thesis. After that, I will move on to complete my analysis of the
interview study, and potentially carry out some more interviews if needed. This seems to turn into the core of my thesis.
The field study I did last year was puzzling, and has made
me think a lot about how important choice seems to be. It has also highlighted some issues with researching experiences
of music "in the real world". I aim to use these results as a starting point for a methodological discussion, which
I think will be both interesting and challenging. Conference
news: My paper has been accepted to the Emiprial Musicology Conference in London, 2-3 April! See more under "presentations"
and "CV". /Anneli ** 12 Sept 2007 After a busy summer, both analysing data
and working on the side of my PhD, I am now on my way to the CHARM conference in London, to present my research. I am analysing my interview data at the moment, and have taken a break from stats
and all quantitative data. Looks like the qualitative data might become the core of the thesis! I am keeping an open mind
though, and am trying to let the data take me where it wants to. Challenging, but very interesting! /Anneli ** 27 May 2007 I am currently in the process of analysing results from a field study carried out this year. The
study was designed to examine the effects of introducing individual music listening into an office environment. The study
aims to investigate the effects of self-selected individual music listening on work performance and well-being in a computer-based
office environment, and also to provide information on the effects of self-selected individual music listening on other work
responses, including job satisfaction, organizational satisfaction, co-worker satisfaction and turnover intentions. In addition,
this study aims to indicate how music can be implemented into office environments in a way that minimizes potentially negative
effects of individual music listening (distraction from tasks, feelings of social exclusion) and enhance the positive effects
(relaxation, mood management, feelings of well-being, feelings of energy concentration etc). I will during the summer write up both the whole survey study (see under current research)
and an interview study conducted just before Christmas. The survey study will also form an article to be submitted to Musicae
Scientiae http://musicweb.hmt-hannover.de/escom/english/MusicScE/MSstart.htm, as I have been invited to submit as part of the ESCOM Young
Researcher Award 2006 http://musicweb.hmt-hannover.de/escom/english/awards2006.htm Keep posted for results later this summer! /Anneli
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