Research Design Connections: Office Noise
Ayoko and teammates reviewed how office noise influences employee mood (affect), which is particularly important because more positive moods enhance cognitive performance, getting along with other people, wellbeing, and health. The research team reports that data collected in an open office showed that higher levels of perceived office noise were linked to more negative moods, and those more negative moods could in turn be tied to greater employee withdrawal and task conflict as well as to people trying to mark their physical territories: “Specifically, we found that, as perceived open-plan office noise increases, the relative experience of negative affect also increases. These findings . . . suggest that adoption of open-plan offices may indeed hinder productivity, especially if office noise (and the resulting employee perceptions of noise) is not controlled. . . . managers need to think about how to create privacy in an open plan office to maintain individual …
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