Chronic Exposure to Noise in Industry

Abstract

A field study ( N = 62) is reported comparing two industries that had comparably high noise levels during the pretest phase; one of the two factories was subsequently moved to a new site with strongly reduced noise levels, whereas the control industry remained in the same building as during pretesting. The main prediction was that the reduction of noise in the experimental organization would lead to greater environmental satisfaction, greater job satisfaction, reduced stress symptoms, reduced difficulty of communication, a more positive company image, and greater attachment to the company. No changes from pretest to posttest were expected in the control industry for any of these variables. The hypotheses were fully confirmed, suggesting that environmental conditions reliably affect not only the worker’s physical and psychological well-being but also organizationally relevant variables such as image of and attachment to the company, which have largely been ignored by previous research.