Acquiring Organizational Legitimacy Through Illegitimate Actions: A Marriage of Institutional and Impression Management Theories

This article links institutional and impression management perspectives in a process model of how controversial and possibly unlawful actions of members of organizations can lead to endorsement and support from key constituencies. This model is grounded in interview, archival, and observational data concerning eight illegitimate actions attributed to members of two social movement organizations. We found that institutional conformity and decoupling illegitimate activities from legitimate structures facilitated spokespersons’ efforts to use impression management tactics that shifted attention away from the controversial actions and toward the socially desirable goals endorsed by broader constituencies. As a result, these organizations used publicity generated by illegitimate actions to obtain endorsement and support from those constituencies. We discuss the implications of the model for other kinds of organizations and derive testable propositions. We also consider implications for institutional and impres...

[1]  J. Dutton,et al.  Keeping An Eye on the Mirror: Image and Identity In Organizational Adaptation , 1991 .

[2]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  The Double-Edge of Organizational Legitimation , 1990 .

[3]  M. Covaleski,et al.  An Institutional Perspective on the Rise, Social Transformation, and Fall of a University Budget Category. , 1988 .

[4]  H. Haines,et al.  Black Radicals and the Civil Rights Mainstream, 1954-1970 , 1988 .

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

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

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

[8]  L. J. Snyder.  An anniversary review and critique: The tylenol crisis , 1983 .

[9]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Explaining Organization Behavior , 1983 .

[10]  Donald L. Mills,et al.  Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems , 1983 .

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

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

[13]  John Cowley,et al.  Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail , 1978 .

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

[15]  William A. Gamson,et al.  The strategy of social protest , 1975 .

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

[17]  R. Turner.  The public perception of protest. , 1969, American sociological review.

[18]  M. Lipsky,et al.  Protest as a Political Resource , 1968, American Political Science Review.

[19]  C. Brodsky.  The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research , 1968 .

[20]  David Foreman,et al.  Confessions of an Eco-Warrior , 1991 .

[21]  Christopher Manes,et al.  Green rage: Radical environmentalism and the unmaking of civilization , 1990 .

[22]  Robert A. Giacalone,et al.  Impression management in the organization. , 1989 .

[23]  Paul DiMaggio.  Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory , 1988 .

[24]  James T. Tedeschi,et al.  1 – Identities, the Phenomenal Self, and Laboratory Research , 1981 .

[25]  Anthony Oberschall,et al.  Social conflict and social movements , 1974 .

[26]  M. Olsen.  Perceived Legitimacy of Social Protest Actions , 1968 .