Development of Listening Skills and its Outcome: A Field Experiment

Effective listening in the workplace is linked to numerous benefits, as established by theories and meta-analyses, making it desirable to enhance listening skills within organizations. While existing research shows that listening can be improved through training, most studies focus on limited skills, involve a single trainer, use narrow outcome measures, and rarely assess effects on those connected to trainees. To address these gaps, we trained Serbian trainers in a comprehensive 50-hour Holistic Listening program and assessed their skills before and after training (Study 1; quasi-experiment). Subsequently, 10 trainers taught the same program to social workers in 10 of 20 randomly selected municipalities (Study 2; true-field experiment). We evaluated both trainees and their service beneficiaries before (N = 327 and 170) and after (N = 305 and 158) the intervention. Our theoretical model proposed that increased listening-induced togetherness would enhance cognitive complexity and ultimately well-being, operationalized via 23 measures. Results supported our hypotheses on about half the measures and provided evidence for the proposed mediations, though no significant effects were found among beneficiaries. These findings highlight the need for further psychometric refinement in assessing listening effectiveness and support the implementation of organizational policies to foster listening skills.