A Study on the Relation between Organizational Characteristics of a Residential Nursery and Development of Infants

Abstract

Intensive fieldwork was carried out in two residential nurseries, where infants under 2 years old who cannot be cared by their parents by some reason are nurtured on 24-hour basis. The two nurseries, nursery A and B, are in good contrast, namely, nursery A is large enough to have 80 infants, is located on the second floor of a tall building, and has strong medical facilities and specialists while nursery B is much smaller but maintains more natural environment and informal human relations although it is less equipped with medical services. Differences between the two residential nurseries were investigated from two perspectives, i. e., (1) observable organizational or group behavior shown by a group consisted of nurses and infants and an organization consisted of nurses and their supervisors and (2) communication processes in which meaningful distinction is developed. As a result, distinction between efficiency-inefficiency was dominant in nursery A and distinction between privatization and non-privatization of infant by a nurse was dominant in nursery B. At the same time, it was suggested that meaning world in nursery A (or B) was sometimes given turbulence by the distinct like the one dominant in nursery B (or A).