The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation

Organizations require legitimacy to attract constituents' support Legitimacy, however, is always problematic. Thus, organizations frequently pursue legitimacy through a variety of substantive and symbolic practices. But legitimacy is a social judgment that is ultimately accorded the organization by its constituents. Organizations that pursue this judgement run the risk of “protesting too much”–of being perceived as precisely the opposite, manipulative and illegitimate. Such organizations include (1) the clumsy actor, perceived as unethical, heavy-handed, or insensitive, (2) the nervous actor, perceived as dogmatic, intolerant, or evasive, and (3) the overacting actor, perceived to overstate claims to legitimacy or overreact to faults. The analysis suggests that attempts to increase legitimacy may trigger a series of vicious circles which ultimately decrease legitimacy.

[1]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Self-defeating behavior patterns among normal individuals: review and analysis of common self-destructive tendencies. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[2]  Jerald Greenberg,et al.  Cultivating an Image of Justice: Looking Fair on the Job , 1988 .

[3]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  The Mindlessness of Organizational Behaviors , 1988 .

[4]  Donald C. Hambrick,et al.  Large Corporate Failures as Downward Spirals , 1988 .

[5]  R. I. Sutton,et al.  The Stigma of Bankruptcy: Spoiled Organizational Image and Its Management , 1987 .

[6]  Eric H. Neilsen,et al.  The Strategy-Legitimacy Nexus: A Thick Description , 1987 .

[7]  Rob Lucas.  Organizational Diagnostics: Translating the Political into the Technical , 1987 .

[8]  Alfred A. Marcus,et al.  Bhopal: Anatomy of a Crisis , 1987 .

[9]  H. Simon,et al.  Making Management Decisions: the Role of Intuition and Emotion , 1987 .

[10]  F. Balderston.  Facade and Self-Deception in the Deteriorating Financial Firm , 1987 .

[11]  L. Zucker.  Institutional Theories of Organization , 1987 .

[12]  Jitendra V. Singh,et al.  Organizational Legitimacy and the Liability of Newness , 1986 .

[13]  Paul M. Hirsch,et al.  From Ambushes to Golden Parachutes: Corporate Takeovers as an Instance of Cultural Framing and Institutional Integration , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  Michael Masuch,et al.  Vicious circles in organizations. , 1985 .

[15]  A. Richardson,et al.  Symbolic and Substantive Legitimation in Professional Practice , 1985 .

[16]  William Novak,et al.  Iacocca: An Autobiography , 1984 .

[17]  J. Meindl,et al.  Corporate attributions as strategic illusions of management control. , 1984 .

[18]  B. D. Baysinger,et al.  Domain Maintenance as an Objective of Business Political Activity: An Expanded Typology , 1984 .

[19]  M. Hannan,et al.  Structural Inertia and Organizational Change , 1984 .

[20]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality , 1984 .

[21]  K. D. Vries,et al.  The Neurotic organization: diagnosing and changing counterproductive styles of management , 1984 .

[22]  Ian I. Mitroff,et al.  Corporate Tragedies: Product Tampering, Sabotage, and Other Catastrophes , 1984 .

[23]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  The Justification of Organizational Performance. , 1983 .

[24]  Patricia Riley,et al.  A Structurationist Account of Political Culture , 1983 .

[25]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  Attributions in the Board Room: Causal Reasoning in Corporate Annual Reports , 1983 .

[26]  Neal Shover,et al.  The Organization and Impact of Inspector Discretion in a Regulatory Bureaucracy , 1983 .

[27]  G. Bonazzi.  Scapegoating in Complex Organizations: The Results of a Comparative Study of Symbolic Blame-Giving in Italian and French Public Administration , 1983 .

[28]  R. Strand,et al.  A systems paradigm of organizational adaptations to the social environment. , 1983, Academy of management review. Academy of Management.

[29]  G. A. Miller,et al.  Book Review Nisbett, R. , & Ross, L.Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment.Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980. , 1982 .

[30]  K. Cameron,et al.  Coffin nails and corporate strategies , 1982 .

[31]  R. Baumeister.  A SELF-PRESENTATIONAL VIEW OF SOCIAL PHENOMENA , 1982 .

[32]  Marshall W. Meyer,et al.  Power in Organizations. , 1982 .

[33]  Dieter Frey,et al.  Reversible and Irreversible Decisions , 1981 .

[34]  Barry M. Staw,et al.  Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. , 1981 .

[35]  Archie B. Carroll,et al.  The anatomy of corporate social response: The rely, firestone 500, and pinto cases , 1981 .

[36]  J. Pfeffer.  Management as symbolic action: the creation and maintenance of organizational paradigms , 1981 .

[37]  L. Ross,et al.  Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. , 1981 .

[38]  M. Ermann,et al.  Organizational Responses to Imputations of Deviance , 1980 .

[39]  B. R. Schlenker.  Impression Management: The Self-Concept, Social Identity, and Interpersonal Relations , 1980 .

[40]  Walter R. Nord,et al.  The Study of Organizations through a Resource—Exchange Paradigm , 1980 .

[41]  R. Bogdan,et al.  Defending illusions: the institution's struggle for survival. , 1980, Human organization.

[42]  P. Goldman,et al.  Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century , 1980 .

[43]  Marshall W. Meyer.  Organizational Structure as Signaling , 1979 .

[44]  D. Snow.  A Dramaturgical Analysis Of Movement Accommodation: Building Idiosyncrasy Credit As A Movement Mobilization Strategy* , 1979 .

[45]  Robert N. Stern,et al.  The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. , 1979 .

[46]  M. Zald,et al.  On the social control of industries. , 1978, Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation.

[47]  E. E. Jones,et al.  When Self-Presentation is Constrained by the Target's Knowledge: Consistency and Compensation. , 1978 .

[48]  C. Daniel Batson,et al.  Accountability and Helping: When Needs Exceed Resources. , 1978 .

[49]  Edwin M. Epstein,et al.  Rationality, legitimacy, responsibility: Search for new directions in business and society , 1978 .

[50]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[51]  R. Richard Ritti,et al.  The Production of Cynical Knowledge in Organizations , 1977 .

[52]  Rodney M. Kueneman,et al.  Legitimacy and Public Organizations: A Case Study , 1977 .

[53]  C. Wortman,et al.  Interpersonal attraction and techniques of ingratiation in organizational settings , 1977 .

[54]  A. Bandura.  Social learning theory , 1977 .

[55]  E. H. Bowman,et al.  Social impact disclosure and corporate annual reports , 1976 .

[56]  R. Wallis.  The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology , 1976 .

[57]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  Organizational Legitimacy , 1975 .

[58]  Rory O'Day.  Intimidation Rituals: Reactions to Reform , 1974 .

[59]  S. P. Sethi,et al.  Up against the corporate wall;: Modern corporations and social issues of the seventies , 1971 .

[60]  C. Perrow.  Organizational Analysis: A Sociological View , 1970 .

[61]  S. P. Sethi,et al.  Do We Need a New Corporate Response to a Changing Social Environment? , 1969 .

[62]  J. Roth.  The public hospital: refuge for damaged humans , 1966 .

[63]  Edwin P. Hollander,et al.  Leaders, groups, and influence. , 1965 .

[64]  E. F. Cheit.  Why Managers Cultivate Social Responsibility , 1964 .

[65]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .