A Study on Music Listening
Practices in workplaces: Office Vs
Graduate Student Environment
Project Critique:2
Divya K Nair, Mahsa Emamitaba
Outline
• Research Questions
• Hypothesis
• Snapshots for Interview, Diary
Questionnaire, Post-Questionnaire
• Current status of qualitative work
• Preliminary Results from the interview
• Issues & Suggestions ?
Projected Research Questions
1. What are the music listening practices in workplaces?
2. How does music listening help to improve the well-being
and work performance of people in a workplace
environment?
3. Does the discussion of music and music listening itself,
have any impacts on social interactions in work
environment?
4. Does listening to music produce different impacts in
different work environments, like, in a grad student Vs
office environments (different divisions like
management, technical)
5. What are the various music listening technologies
incorporated in workplaces and design implications for
making the workplace listening easier.
Propositions
P1: The most common activities/least preferred activities
performed concurrently
P2: Differences in locations/environments while listening to music
P3: Frequency of using different music devices while working
P4: Preferred Listening styles (sonic qualities preferred) for
different types of music
P5: Music Listening enhances work performance, regulating mood
quality
P6: Impression management at grad environment Vs office
environment
P7: Does it improves social interaction and expand personal music
experiences
P8: Controlling the environment (using headphones to appear
engaged, avoid distractions etc.)
P9: Motivations for self – selected music Vs open means (radio)
P10: Habit of repeated listening for preferred songs and interest in
purchasing songs so as to listen to them while working
P11: Demographical differences like gender, age etc.
Interview Questionnaire
1. Since when did you start using listening to music while working? Can you specify your age and
education at the time?
2. What is the current status, highest degree of education (student or working)
3. How often do you listen to music in a day, can you recall an approximate number of times you listened
the last day and how long?
4. Can you walk me through some of the situations when you decide to listen to music at work (concurrent
engagements)?
5. What situations you avoid listening to music?
6. In what other situation than working you like to listen to music?
7. Does the loud volume of your colleague’s music bother you?
8. Do you feel close to people who would like to listen to music while working?
9. Do you feel comfortable (privacy) amidst of your colleagues when you listen to music
10. Do you think it is useful to reduce your stress?
11. Do you think it makes you sleepier or fresher?
12. What time of the day mostly you like to listen? At which days mostly
13. What kind of music you usually listen?
14. In what situations you stop your music? Would you please walk me through the last time?
15. Do you prefer to create an impression to others by listening to music as well as when you try to select
music genre in front of others?
16. Do you prefer to listen to self selected songs or non-selective music means like radio (just having music
is enough) , if so what is your music preference (channel, music type)
17. How often a day you listen to music while working? For how long each time?
18. How many music file you have in your folder?
19. What device you use in order to listening to music?
20. Do you prefer to use head set or speaker? Why?
21. You prefer loud or low volume?
22. Do you like to share your music with your colleagues?
23. Do you like to listen to random files or repeat a special album or song?
24. Does listening to music cost you? If so, how much?
25. Are the songs that you listen while working different than the songs that you listen in other situations?
Diary Recording format
Diary Questionnaire - Music Listening practices in workplaces
[Directions: You can complete this questionnaire at your convenience; the time limit is 1 week. Please return your recordings by email
(dknair@cs.uwaterloo.ca) or in person (DC 2551D.)
Please specify:
your age, gender, education, occupation
the number of music listening devices you own
the number of music listening devices you use
Day 1:
Section1
Each time you listen to music while working, please record:
1. time you listen to music
2. the reason
3. the duration until you stopped (the reason for stopping)
4. the type of music
5. volume (please indicate when you changed volume and why)
6. describe the location and environment
7. the music device (if internet, indicate the player like WinAmp)
8. the type of task you were involved while listening
9. medium of listening (playlists, streaming, open source like radio etc.) and how you decided on
the medium and the device as best suiting your current situation
10. if you shared your music, if so, with who, for what purpose you shared
11. did use headphones or speakers or any other (the reason for using it)
12. any particular songs you listened repeatedly and the reason for it
13. your mood before listening and after you started listening
14. did the music distract you from work or helped you work better
Section 2
1. For the whole time duration of diary study please record the following music events while
working(at home or office or any other environment):
2. The number of times you listened / day
3. Any social conversations with colleagues relating to music
4. Any music exchanges with your friends or colleagues
5. Any new practices
6. Any particular situation where you felt your productivity was improved/reduced while
listening…………………….
Post-Questionnaire
Section 3
Post Questionnaire (to be completed before the final submission)
[Please record your answers in a scale of 1-5, 1-strongly disagree, 5-strongly agree, put a circle on the number that apply]
listening to music improved your mood while working
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music helps you relax
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music makes you happier
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music makes you less bored
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music create a suitable atmosphere
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music improves your focus
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music blocks out surrounding noise
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music inspires/stimulates you
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music helps your creative flow
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music distracts you from unwanted thoughts
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music makes you less tired
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music provides a different perspective
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music helps you pace your work
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music helps you control the environment (appear engaged to others, avoid distractions etc)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
listening to music while working from home and workplaces makes a difference on selection of songs
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
……………………………………………………
Current status
6 participants in Graduate Environment (6 grad
students) & 6 participants from Office
Environment (3 from each different division)
All participants listen to music while working
Current status: First Interview completed for all
participants
Preliminary Results from the
interview (Findings and Comparisons)
Identified 40 factors that contributed to commonalities and distinctions
10/12 participants listen to music at work very frequently, an average of
(5/8 working hours)
All the participants decided to listen to music at work due to one or
combination of these factors : Boring work, tired of work, less conc.
Works like browsing, checking emails etc., to avoid distractions
All the student and technical participants preferred not to listen to music
when they are involved with work that required concentration, thinking,
problem solving etc whereas the management participants did not prefer
to listen to music when they had stressful work to be completed fast
before the deadline or when someone approaches their desk or during
phone calls.
None of the office participants did not use music as a factor to appear
engaged to others while working whereas 4/6 of the student participants
used music a lot to appear engaged to others and to get away from them
4/6 student participants preferred to listen to music all the time of day
while working except when involved with concentrated work whereas all
the 4/6 office participants preferred to listen to music in the late
afternoon when they are tired and less number of people approaches
them.
Preliminary Results from the
interview (Findings and Comparisons)
contd..
9/12 participants feel that music helped them to control their environment (like
getting away from distractions, appear engaged etc.)
All the student participants used only headphones except G5 whereas 4/6 office
participants used speakers all the time except M3 and T6
All Participants except G1 and M3 changed (increased) volume of songs due to
a common element “to get away from distractions” and due to any one of the
following reasons: 1. depending on tasks, depending on songs; G1 used the
same volume because of the problem with headphones and M3 used same
volume because she considered music only as a background for work
7/12 participants did not find music as a reason for distraction at work and the
rest of the participants mentioned that although they stray a bit form work it
never reduces their productivity and makes them more fresh and relaxed
4/6 office participants preferred open media (radio, free sites) for listening to
music except M3 who used shuffle and T2 who maintained his own playlists,
whereas 5/6 student participants used self selected music except for G2 who
subscribed to Napster
All participants reported that they used soothing, soft music while working and
certain kinds of music degrades work performance and gives more stress. M1
reported that although she likes heavy metal loud music, she avoids that during
work since she felt that it degrades her concentration and distracting for her
colleagues
Preliminary Results from the
interview (Findings and Comparisons)
contd..
All the participants except M1, M2, T1 and T6, occasionally or never updated
their playlists since they had not much time or because they had a different
collection of songs at home they could listen to when they are alone; the
exceptions used free media like radio.
9/12 participants felt that music will enhance social relations with colleagues, of
which 5 of them stated that”Not until now because of tight schedule, but prefer
to come closer in future if there are enough opportunities and work ethics allows
and other colleagues also like to involve through music like talking about music
or sharing” and it helped 4 of them to bring closer by talking about their music
interests. The exceptions were from technical office environments and felt that it
is not healthy to mingle more with work friends.
11/12 participants believed that music listening at workplace did not create
impression of others or give impression of you to others
Except for the participants who used free media (M1, M2, T1 and T6), they
either bought CDS or music from sites or subscribed to sites like Napster (just
because they like to have their own CD collections to display or did not have
time searching for free music)
9/12 participants were using WMP, Real player or Vlc for listening to music; the
exceptions were G2 who used Napster player, G5 who had a common CD
player in lab and M3 who used shuffle
Preliminary Results from the
interview (Findings and Comparisons)
contd..
10/12 participants preferred to use computer for listening to music while working
since they were familiar with the interface and due to easy accessibility of free
players; The exceptions G5 used CD player as she was not used much with
computers and M3 who preferred her shuffle since she did not prefer to load her
collections to computer and was happy to display her shuffle which was a gift
from her friend.
10/12 participants used the same selection of songs at workplace and home
while working; the exceptions were G5 who used a common CD player at work
and M3 who used shuffle(she listens to her CDs at home) .
All the participants suggested that music improves their mood and creates a
good ambience to work; 10/12 participants suggested that it helps to relax.
7/12 participants felt that it improved their focus to work
10/12 participants reported that music enhances their productivity especially
during distractions.
All the student participants reported that they repeat certain songs if they like it,
but 4/6 office participants reported that they do not repeatedly listen to songs
and that listening to music works mostly like a background for them, please note
that the 2 office participants(T1 and T3) had a high interest in music unlike other
office participants.
Exceptions
One of the participants(G2) listens to music all the time while he is
working although he did not have a good liking for music, he uses music
with the objectives of either one of these: to appear engaged to others,
to avoid distractions, to have a social ambience (get the feeling of not
being alone)
G2 uses headphone very rarely when someone important other than his
friends is around, this is one of the reasons he is the most music
listening participant among all the participants
G1 and M2 were the only participants who listened to music less
because G1 used headphones which he hated and M2 were dealing
with clients most of the time
G1 preferred to listen to music in the late afternoon when he is tired from
work (remember that he listens at most for 0.5 hr due to his dislike for
headphone), G4 preferred to listen to music at the start of the day so
that it makes him fresh.
M3 preferred to buy CDs to listen while doing office work at home
because she like albums of her own interests and she liked to have a
“neat” shelf for displaying her CD collections to friends and colleagues
Conclusions and Design
Implications
In contradiction to our proposition, individual interest in music did not
affect participants’ frequent listening; on the other hand, the ethical
constraints imposed the listening restrictions (e.g 1. Forced participants
to use headphones after a while, they had to switch it off due to listening
inconvenience caused by earphones 2. To get away from distractions
(as the case with G2) 3. To appear engaged to others
The student participants except G5 used headphones since their office
is organised as an open cubicle and G2 and G4 used speakers
occasionally when no one was around and it was the end of the day. G5
had a common speaker on in her work environment (lab) most of the
time where the student took turns to play their CDs. The office
participants used speakers all the time except M3 and T6 because their
environment was either a closed cubicle or office. M3 used headphone
since she used shuffle and her office was near her boss’s office and T6
used headphones because she was listening to her country’s music
which she felt embarrassed to publicly play in her office.
Since most of the office participants used speakers and had ethical
constraints, they preferred to use open media like radio which is publicly
conforming unlike the student participants who had more flexibility in
their work environment.
Conclusions and Design
Implications contd..
Music did not have a role in impression management for 11/12
participants since they did not have any kind of sharing
mechanisms, if they had access to such a mechanism, we feel
that it may sometimes change their perspectives
The participants who reported that listening to music helps to
improve their focus and help pace their work were the participants
who had a high individual interest in music; Also the 2 high interest
office participants were the only participants who used repeated
listening for certain songs among all the office participants
Although 2 participants reported that music does not affect
productivity, it is contradicted in their interviews when they
suggested that they use music to get away from distractions
Most of the participants had some sort of complaints about the
player they were using and this compelled us to recommend a few
design suggestions like:
1. Recently played songs, auto song play when author is clicked
2.Task pane flexibility so as to adjust windows
3. Better search mechanism
4. Better options for repeated listening etc