The effect of background music on performance of tailoring workers at the export processing zone in Kenya

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to determine the role of background music in employee performance of tailoring workers at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Kenya. The study adopted the positivist approach and was conducted in a natural setting comprising garment tailoring factories. The study design adopted was field experiment. The study population was the 22 garment factories at the EPZ from which three were selected as the study sample using systematic sampling. Each of the 3 factories had 1500 tailors, thus 357 estimated sample size was used for the study from the 4500 tailors, with 119 tailors from each factory, selected through a systematic sampling procedure. In factory one, music was played throughout the day, while in the second factory music was played on and off and in the third factory music was not played at all. The study found that background music, had a positive and significant effect on employee performance of tailoring workers at the EPZ and contributed up to 20.6% of changes in employee performance. This was indicated by a coefficient of correlation of 0.454, coefficient of determination of 0.203, adjusted coefficient of determination of 0.203 and p-value<0.05.