In Sync or Out of Tune? The Effects of Workplace Music Misfit on Employees

Employees, especially in the service sector, often work long hours exposed to background music that they have little control over because it is usually selected to enhance customer experience. How does this affect employees' daily work experience? This research focuses on how a misfit between the type of music employees need and the background music played in their workplace impacts their psychological states and behaviors. Integrating stimulus-organism-response theory with the research on self-regulation of attention in the workplace, we theorize that workplace music misfit can lower employees' positive affect and increase cognitive depletion, further impacting their organizationally directed citizenship and counterproductive work behaviors. We also theorize that these adverse effects of workplace music misfit are stronger for employees who have lower stimulus screening ability. The test of our hypotheses across two studies-an online experimental study and a 3-week experience sampling methodology field study-broadly supported our theory. Our research offers a novel and dynamic account of workplace background music and its effects on employees' psychological states and workplace behavior.