Organized Dissonance and Emotionality

Abstract

This article investigates the organizational form of kindergarten through a particular case study. The article seeks to answer the question: how does kindergarten reconcile emotionality with formal rules and regulations, and how does this affect the structure of kindergarten as an organization? The features of bureaucratic and feminist organizations that form the basis of kindergarten are analyzed using the organizational concept of “organized dissonance” proposed by Karen Ashcraft. The bureaucratic organization and form of organized dissonance are compared across such properties as the organization’s primary goal, power structure, functional rules, division of labor, status of/qualifications for hiring and promotion, as well as ideal member relations. In order to answer the question of what the relationship between formal rules and emotionality in kindergarten is, we used participant observation data from a kindergarten in Moscow between April 2 and May 12, 2012 as part of a teaching internship. Field diary entries and official documents from the kindergarten were analyzed as part of the study. The obtained data were analyzed using open and axial coding. The author concludes on the basis of the results of the study that the emotional and formal components that characterize the functioning of kindergarten as an organization are intertwined at a very deep level. They impose restrictions on each other, thereby modifying existing work practices in kindergarten and relations between members.