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The Effectiveness and Trustworthiness of Faith‐Based and Other Service Organizations: A Study of Recipients' Perceptions
Author(s) -
Wuthnow Robert,
Hackett Conrad,
Hsu Becky Yang
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2004.00214.x
Subject(s) - faith , trustworthiness , public relations , government (linguistics) , service (business) , perception , welfare , portfolio , business , scope (computer science) , service provider , marketing , political science , psychology , social psychology , finance , law , philosophy , linguistics , theology , neuroscience , computer science , programming language
Drawing on a new community study of more than 2,000 residents of low‐income neighborhoods, we examine information about the kinds of service organizations respondents have contacted for assistance and the perceptions of these respondents about the effectiveness and trustworthiness of those organizations. We compare contact with and perceptions of faith‐based organizations, nonsectarian organizations, government agencies, hospitals, and churches and employ a method that takes account of respondents' varying portfolios of service providers. The results indicate that the recipients of faith‐based organizations resemble those of the public welfare department in the extent of financial need and scope of family problems, and differ significantly from recipients of help from congregations. The results also indicate that recipients' evaluations of the effectiveness and trustworthiness of their portfolio of service organizations are lower when they have sought assistance from public welfare agencies and higher when they have sought assistance from congregations, but are not significantly affected by having contacted faith‐based or nonsectarian organizations.