Effect of variation in speech propagation in open-plan office: a field study with a cross-over design

摘要

Noise in offices have been studied frequently often in controlled environments, with this study we wanted to investigate real office conditions and by only isolating the sound environment in the manipulation that occurred we could the test our five hypothesis. The aim of the present study was to investigate if enhanced or less ceiling absorption, which will influence speech propagation, in open-plan offices is reflected in the employees' ratings of disturbances, health, and performance. For one of the floors, the manipulations were from better to worse to better acoustical conditions, while for the other the manipulations were worse to better to worse. The acoustical effects of these manipulations were assessed according to the new ISO-standard 3382-3: 2012 for open-plan room acoustics. In addition, the employees responded to questionnaires after each change. Our analyses showed that within each floor enhanced acoustical conditions were associated with lower perceived disturbances and cognitive stress. There were no effects on personal efficiency. The results furthermore suggest that even a small deterioration in acoustical room properties measured according to the new ISO-standard for open-plan office acoustics has a negative impact on self-rated health and disturbances.