IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v522y2019icp339-349.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modeling the impact of organization structure and whistle-blowers on intra-organizational corruption contagion

Author

Listed:
  • Nekovee, Maziar
  • Pinto, Jonathan

Abstract

We complement the rich conceptual work on organizational corruption by quantitatively modeling the spread of corruption within organizations. We systematically vary four organizational culture-related parameters, i.e., organization structure, location of bad apples, employees’ propensity to become corrupted (“corruption probability”), and number of whistle-blowers. Our simulation studies find that in organizations with flatter structures, corruption permeates the organization at a lower threshold value of corruption probability compared to those with taller structures. However, the final proportion of corrupted individuals is higher in the latter as compared to the former. Also, we find that for a 1,000-strong organization, 5% of the workforce is a critical threshold in terms of the number of whistle-blowers needed to constrain the spread of corruption, and if this number is around 25%, the corruption contagion is negligible. Implications of our results are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Nekovee, Maziar & Pinto, Jonathan, 2019. "Modeling the impact of organization structure and whistle-blowers on intra-organizational corruption contagion," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 522(C), pages 339-349.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:522:y:2019:i:c:p:339-349
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2019.01.140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437119301475
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2019.01.140?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ranjay Gulati & Phanish Puranam, 2009. "Renewal Through Reorganization: The Value of Inconsistencies Between Formal and Informal Organization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 422-440, April.
    2. Ross, William T. & Robertson, Diana C., 2000. "Lying: The Impact of Decision Context," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 409-440, April.
    3. Bicchieri, Cristina & Fukui, Yoshitaka, 1999. "The Great Illusion: Ignorance, Informational Cascades, and the Persistence of Unpopular Norms," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(1), pages 127-155, January.
    4. Zhao, Laijun & Wang, Jiajia & Huang, Rongbing & Cui, Hongxin & Qiu, Xiaoyan & Wang, Xiaoli, 2014. "Sentiment contagion in complex networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 394(C), pages 17-23.
    5. Goel, Rajeev K. & Nelson, Michael A., 2007. "Are corrupt acts contagious?: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 839-850.
    6. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    7. Eric Abrahamson & Lori Rosenkopf, 1997. "Social Network Effects on the Extent of Innovation Diffusion: A Computer Simulation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(3), pages 289-309, June.
    8. Juin‐jen Chang & Ching‐chong Lai, 2002. "Is the Efficiency Wage Efficient? The Social Norm and Organizational Corruption," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(1), pages 27-47, March.
    9. Peter V. Marsden & Noah E. Friedkin, 1993. "Network Studies of Social Influence," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 22(1), pages 127-151, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dong, Bin & Dulleck, Uwe & Torgler, Benno, 2012. "Conditional corruption," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 609-627.
    2. Xiong, Hang & Payne, Diane & Kinsella, Stephen, 2016. "Peer effects in the diffusion of innovations: Theory and simulation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Dunia López-Pintado & Duncan J. Watts, 2008. "Social Influence, Binary Decisions and Collective Dynamics," Rationality and Society, , vol. 20(4), pages 399-443, November.
    4. Grazia Cecere & Nicoletta Corrocher & Cédric Gossart & Muge Ozman, 2014. "Lock-in and path dependence: an evolutionary approach to eco-innovations," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 1037-1065, November.
    5. Klarita Gërxhani & Jeroen Bruggeman, 2015. "Time Lag and Communication in Changing Unpopular Norms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Wasim ul Rehman & Omur Saltik & Faryal Jalil & Suleyman Degirmen, 2024. "Viral decisions: unmasking the impact of COVID-19 info and behavioral quirks on investment choices," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    7. Ray M. Chang & Wonseok Oh & Alain Pinsonneault & Dowan Kwon, 2010. "A Network Perspective of Digital Competition in Online Advertising Industries: A Simulation-Based Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 571-593, September.
    8. den Hartigh, E. & Langerak, F. & Commandeur, H.R., 2002. "The Effects of Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms on Firm Performance," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2002-46-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    9. Tommy Pan Fang & Andy Wu & David R. Clough, 2021. "Platform diffusion at temporary gatherings: Social coordination and ecosystem emergence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 233-272, February.
    10. Rui Leite & Aurora Teixeira, 2012. "Innovation diffusion with heterogeneous networked agents: a computational model," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(2), pages 125-144, October.
    11. Patrick Groeber & Heiko Rauhut, 2010. "Does ignorance promote norm compliance?," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-28, March.
    12. Freek Vermeulen, 2018. "A basic theory of inheritance: How bad practice prevails," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1603-1629, June.
    13. Alva Taylor, 2010. "The Next Generation: Technology Adoption and Integration Through Internal Competition in New Product Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 23-41, February.
    14. Carrillo-Hermosilla, Javier, 2006. "A policy approach to the environmental impacts of technological lock-in," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 717-742, July.
    15. Cecilia Wiedeck & Andreas Engelen, 2018. "The copycat CMO: firms’ imitative behavior as an explanation for CMO presence," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 632-651, July.
    16. Param Vir Singh & Corey Phelps, 2013. "Networks, Social Influence, and the Choice Among Competing Innovations: Insights from Open Source Software Licenses," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 539-560, September.
    17. Chang, Eric C. & Cheng, Joseph W. & Khorana, Ajay, 2000. "An examination of herd behavior in equity markets: An international perspective," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(10), pages 1651-1679, October.
    18. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    19. Ruomeng Cui & Dennis J. Zhang & Achal Bassamboo, 2019. "Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1216-1235, March.
    20. Stéphan Marette, 2017. "Jill E. Hobbs, Stavroula Malla, Eric K. Sogah and May T. Yeung, 2014, Regulating Health Foods. Policy Challenges and Consumer Conundrums," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 93-94, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:522:y:2019:i:c:p:339-349. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.