Visualizing Organizational Culture in Old People’s Homes and Hospitals in Japan: Human Interaction in the IoT Era

Abstract

In Japan, which has the highest aging rate in the world, demand for long-term care (LTC) is rapidly increasing. However, the labor force is decreasing nationwide, and in particular the shortage of staff for LTC services is a serious problem. Japanese government aims to reduce the burden on staff at old people’s homes and improve the quality of LTC services by introducing ICT/IoT. The organizational culture in old people’s homes is the basis of the quality of LTC services; hence, we aimed to visualize it. For the purposes of this research, organizational culture is divided into the following eight domains: “teamwork,” “information sharing,” “morale,” “professional growth,” “common values,” “resource allocation prioritization,” “responsibility and authority,” and “improvement orientation.” A questionnaire survey on organizational culture was administered to 366 staffs in 23 old people’s homes and 4053 staffs in 4 hospitals. The response rates were 71.9% and 82.0%, respectively. The results revealed that old people’s homes have higher scores compared to hospitals on teamwork, information sharing, and organizational values, and that old people’s homes have problems in securing and fostering middle managers. It was suggested that effectively introducing ICT/IoT could enhance the organizational culture and increase the job satisfaction.