What is it about?
We use detailed data on violations of standards of care in Nursing Homes to examine whether Religiously Affiliated organizations have more, or less, “bad behavior” (wrongdoing). We find that although religiously affiliated homes appear to have more severe violations, this difference is driven entirely by the fact that residents in these homes rarely file formal complaints, allowing violations to escalate before they are stopped.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that the true rates of wrongdoing in organizations can be influenced by religious affiliation in a surprising way: instead of treating offenders directly, religious affiliation reduces complaints, which increases the time organizations are not monitored by outsiders, allowing behaviors to escalate before they are detected.
Perspectives
This paper is close to my heart for two points we make: one about care homes, where the elderly can be exposed to neglect and abuse (which is what we study). The other is because we examine how religious affiliation impacts behaviors - directly or indirectly. What we found was surprising; First, elderly Nursing Homes have more severe violations of standards of care than secular homes. This is an important fact we document. Second, we find that this increase in the number and severity of violations is not because caretakers behave more poorly in religiously affiliated homes. Instead, residents are much less likely to complain. This increases the time between outside inspections - allowing bad behavior to remain unmonitored and escalate. Together, these two findings mean that Religiously Affiliated nursing homes can perform just as well as secular homes, but they need to be inspected at least as frequently.
Dr Aharon Mohliver
London Business School
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Religious Affiliation and Wrongdoing: Evidence from U.S. Nursing Homes, Management Science, March 2022, INFORMS,
DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.4350.
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