Organizational Effects On Mentally Retarded Adults

Abstract

Normalization has gained wide acceptance as a goal that residential institutions for the mentally retarded should strive to achieve, but many organizations have been shown to have difficulty achieving the goal. Theo ries developed from the organizational contingency perspective suggest that or ganizations with bureaucratic structures will have particular difficulty accomplish ing the nonroutine tasks associated with normalization Our major purpose was to test the usefulness of such theories for the evaluation of mental retardation facilities by ascertaining whether a less bureaucratic organization for the mentally retarded would achieve greater success than a more bureaucratic organization. The closing of a large public hospital and the subsequent transfer of most of its residents to two new facilities (one of which was more bureau cratic than the other) allowed us to exam ine bureaucracy's effect on treatment A s predicted, the analysis showed that the less bureaucratic organization produced a greater average positive change in behavior than did the more bureaucratic organi zation A number of clinical and demo graphic characteristics of the residents which could have influenced the observed changes in behavioral level were identified and controlled. They were not found to ex plain the differences between facilities Other factors, which could not be con trolled in this study, provide suggestions for future research.