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Abstract	This study will examine the effect of music on workers' productivity. The setting is a large call-centre business in the United Kingdom, which has agreed to cooperate with our research team. This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. To reduce possible problems from the multiple-comparisons problem (also known as the multiple-hypothesis testing problem), only one productivity variable will be studied in this project, and only one kind of music will be played. To gain the necessary statistical power, the experiment will take place over approximately 2 weeks. We will also study whether the outside weather mediates the relationship between productivity and music. We hope also, if possible, to collect information on the life satisfaction of workers in the call centre.	This study will examine the effect of music on workers' productivity. The setting is a large call-centre business in the United Kingdom, which has agreed to cooperate with our research team. This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. To reduce possible problems from the multiple-comparisons problem (also known as the multiple-hypothesis testing problem), only one productivity variable will be studied in this project, and only one kind of music will be played. To gain the necessary statistical power, the experiment will take place over approximately 2 weeks.
Last Published	April 01, 2016 08:55 AM	April 08, 2016 02:15 PM
Intervention (Public)	This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. We will also collect data a week before and a week after the intervention. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day, for the entire period between 18th April and 1st of May. The working day is from 7am-11pm (16 hours). The music will be played throughout the day withing interval of 2 hours each. Each two hours-slot will be randomly selected ex-ante using Stata. The music will be selected by the expert of classic FM in a way to induce happiness and avoiding sadness. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. Employees are not informed about the experiment	This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. We will also collect data a week before and a week after the intervention. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day, for the entire period between 18th April and 1st of May. The working day is from 7am-11pm (16 hours). The music will be played throughout the day withing interval of 2 hours each. Each two hours-slot will be randomly selected ex-ante using Stata. The music will be selected by the expert of classic FM in a way to induce happiness and avoiding sadness. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. In total we will get data from 100 employees, not informed about the experiment.
Primary Outcomes (End Points)	The two measure of productivity: 1) "After call work time" 2) "Handling time"	Our main measure of productivity: -ACW (after call work) is the total in seconds within a time slot- the average number of seconds it takes to deal with the query (admin wise etc) post phone call -AHT (average handling time) is in seconds within a time slot- the average number of seconds it takes to deal with the phone call
Planned Number of Observations	about 80 subjects in an unbalanced panel of 112 time slot.	100 subjects in an unbalanced panel of 112 time slot.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms	112 slots, about half are control slot. With 80 employees in total. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities.	112 slots, about half are control slot. With 100 employees in total. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities.
Intervention (Hidden)	This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. We will also collect data a week before and a week after the intervention. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day, for the entire period between 18th April and 1st of May. The working day is from 7am-11pm (16 hours). The music will be played throughout the day withing interval of 2 hours each. Each two hours-slot will be randomly selected ex-ante using Stata. The music will be selected by the expert of classic FM in a way to induce happiness and avoiding sadness. With Mode: Major, Tempo: preferably fast, sometime slow (never medium) Pitch: Medium or High; Rhythm : preferably Uneven, but sometime flowing or firm; Harmony : Cons, but sometime Diss; Loudness: Preferably Medium, but sometime soft or Loud. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. Employees are not informed about the experiment, and if they ask they will be told "We are exploring the possibility to introduce music in the room". There will be around 80 employees in total alternating during the period, the room the music is played is a large room 10m x45 m; they work around 4 large round tables by answering the phone. There have two measures of productivity normally recorded: "After call work time" and "Handling time", they are usually measured in interval of 15 minutes each.	This study will use a randomized trial to find out whether, in a real workplace, productivity is higher when workers hear background classical music. The control condition will be hearing no music. We will also collect data a week before and a week after the intervention. Music will be played at randomly assigned times during the day, for the entire period between 18th April and 1st of May. The working day is from 7am-11pm (16 hours). The music will be played throughout the day withing interval of 2 hours each. Each two hours-slot will be randomly selected ex-ante using Stata. The music will be selected by the expert of classic FM in a way to induce happiness and avoiding sadness. With Mode: Major, Tempo: preferably fast, sometime slow (never medium) Pitch: Medium or High; Rhythm : preferably Uneven, but sometime flowing or firm; Harmony : Cons, but sometime Diss; Loudness: Preferably Medium, but sometime soft or Loud. The identities of the employees will change through time, but the playing of the music will be orthogonal to those identities. Employees are not informed about the experiment, and if they ask they will be told "We are exploring the possibility to introduce music in the room". There will be 100 employees in total alternating during the period, the room the music is played is a large room 10m x45 m; they work around 4 large round tables by answering the phone. There have two measures of productivity normally recorded: "After call work time" and "Handling time", they are usually measured in interval of 15 minutes each.