Listen while you work? Quasi-experimental relations between personal-stereo headset use and employee work responses.

Using a quasi-experimental design, this study examined relations between stereo headset use and employee work responses. Employees (N = 256 ) worked on 32 jobs in an office of a retail organization. Employees indicated whether they were interested in using stereos at work. From those expressing an interest, a random sample (n = 75) was assigned to a stereo condition. These employees used headsets at work for 4 weeks. The remaining employees (n = 181) were assigned to a control condition and were not allowed to use stereos. Results indicated that employees in the stereo condition exhibited significant improvements in performance, turnover intentions, organization satisfaction, mood states, and other responses. The mood state of relaxation best explained the relation between stereo use and performance. Finally, employees in relatively simple jobs responded most positively to the stereos.