How Music Can Affect the Worker's Productivity? (Case Study Sample)

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10th April 2016
How Music can affect the worker’s productivity?
Music is basically an art form which has its medium as Sound. It is referred by commoners as harmonies, melodies and so on. Right from the operation theaters to a normal office, right from the cine malls to our very own homes, music is omnipresent. Different genres of music will suit different types of people. For instance, some people like Reggae, some like R&B, some like country music, etc., but here, from an overall perspective, we are going to look in detail how music can affect the workers’ productivity and whether it has a positive or a negative influence in the everyday work life of an individual.
Music and its effects
Music always has vast and profound effects in a human’s life. Music, as a concept largely depends on the circumstances. For instance, a smooth flowing slow music may be apt for a yoga studio, whereas for an aerobic dance center, it doesn’t. Hence, Music largely influences our mood and behavior and there are certain companies which make huge profit by providing custom-made music CD’s for different businesses’ in order to boost their productivity. For instance, consider the company Muzak which makes a huge profit in this type of business. Like the external circumstances, even the demographic parameter plays a vital role in determining the type of music, which is to be played. Music is also an ever-evolving concept. What our forefathers listened in their eras, simply don’t exist anymore. What is in trend now will certainly cease to exist in the forthcoming generations. Now-a-days, Music therapy has evolved as a famous concept wherein, music, especially soothing ones by expert professionals is used to create a therapeutic effect upon an individual in order to create positive effects on the individual’s life and thereby solve his/her problems. This therapy incorporates many techniques, right from clinical therapy to reflexology, to create the positive approach in one’s life and right now, this concept has been employed in various work strata and is one of the rapidly developing concepts to eliminate both work related and personal stress. In today’s world, it had become an unwritten norm that headphones should be allowed in the workspace. For most of the working people, bringing headphones to the office and listening to music, while working, has become a daily habit. Skimming through the playlists anywhere and at anytime, right from country music to pop has become everyone’s personal habit, literally. With the introduction of open desk environments and computer based disc jockeys and palm sized ipods’ the whole workplace norm had been rewritten. So, the ultimate question we have now is, does playing music leave a positive or a negative effect (i.e.) whether it boosts and compliments a worker’s productivity or does it contrarily inhibit one’s work based performance, is something we are going to look into via this paper.
Recent researches and studies conducted in this sector have proved that music indeed reduces the work based stress and it makes doing the repetitive tasks easier, by lifting our mood and eradicating the somberness we usually experience in work environments. So, ultimately being happy makes one to perform better, paving way for the enhancement. Out of a study, conducted in a Canadian software company, 73% of the population considered for the research reported that playing music in the background enhances the productivity whereas the remaining population reported otherwise. Also, the overall productivity and the positive factor, dipped down a bit, when the music was stopped playing in the background. When tasks with longer duration were given, music was considered as an inevitable means to reduce the existing stress. The next point of consideration is that people complete their allotted tasks more quickly, when they are in a music related environment. Apparently, those who work in a silent, stoic environment take longer time to complete. The reason behind this change can be explained as follows. Next, according to the study conducted by the journal of Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology, a person immaterial of the age, finds repetitive patterns, shapes and images quicker when some music was played in the background, whereas the absence of music, makes the same person to recognize a little bit later. So, we can confidently say that, irrespective of the type of music that is played, it always creates positive impact on the minds of the workers and makes a person to enjoy the repetitive and mundane tasks (Padnani 2012).
Basically, the part of our brain, which responds to the music played, belongs to the sector of creative domain (i.e.) the ventral tegmental area and hence listening to a soft music makes us to get synchronized with the work done and with the colleagues in a positive way. Hence, this aspect will strongly create a group identity and a positive and healthy relationship with the colleagues. This area is known as ‘the reward system’ and the Dopamine is strongly associated with this system. The feeling of happiness and pleasure we get out of listening is also associated with Dopamine only. So, in this aspect, Music is bound to keep the creative spark alive.
(Cho 2013)
Scientifically, it has been reported that an enjoyable and soothing music, releases Dopamine, which is usually aided by doing something delightful and wonderful, thereby making a person feel happy. There is also another viewpoint that if we listen to music via our headphones, it blocks the unnecessary external noises and disturbances, thereby making us concentrate on our task better. This will be more apt in those places, where the work environment will be noisier. So, in those places, staying in the right mood becomes critical. Plugging the headphones in will prevent the constant yapping that is created by these type of environments. Also, these headphones will prevent us from hearing the loud chatters that are inevitable in a work place.
In today’s work life, most of the people are bound to do repetitive tasks on a regular basis and Music comes handy. Even when boring tasks are ahead, playing music will help to combat the boredom that will exist with these type of mundane works. But, like individual choices, Music also depends on one’s interest. What may suit one doesn’t really suit for another. Hence, it is best to listen to music via headphones rather than making it blare at a common place in the office, for everyone to hear it. Also, to a certain extent Music with lyrics and newly played music can distract people. While Music with lyrics also activates the language center of the brain and makes us to mouth those lyrics, the music which is getting played for the first time can captivate the curiosity of the listener and it can make the listener to lose their focus on work. Soothing music without lyrics played at a low volume at the background level is bound to have positive effects on oneself and it may even result inducing some creative ideas. Alongside reducing the work stress, music plays an integral part in reducing the boredom that one experiences in the office, as most of the jobs today are confined entirely to the computers. Ultimately, to the listener it gives a feeling of control over his/her aural environment (Taylor 2014).
Let us imagine ourselves wherein we are standing in a queue for long hours. The stress and the impatience that will be created in our minds will be reduced if any music, even if it is inconsequential, is played. The reason is simple: It distracts us. It helps us ease out the tension that exists in a queue. Here, momentary distraction is the key and music does th...