#📓 #📚 #🟡 # Communication and Organizational Legitimacy ![[calendar-plus.svg]] <small>Dec 05, 2021</small> | ![[calendar-clock.svg]] <small>Jan 03, 2023</small> **Authors:** M. W. Seeger **Citation:** Seeger, M. W. (n.d.). Communication and Organizational Legitimacy. In _Ethics and organizational communication_ (pp. 103–115). Hampton Press. --- # Summary Focuses on ways in which organizations communicate about their value to establish organizational legitimacy. Expectations of society are always changing, so organizations must continually communicate the basis for their social legitimacy. Examines challenges organizations face in maintaining legitimacy for multiple audiences and constituencies. # Notes #### p. 104 - [[Max Weber]] was first to argue that organizations must have social value beyond the ability to produce products, services, and profits. Larger social purpose could be in form of legal mandate, social consensus, or logical/rational base for operation. [[organizational legitimacy|Legitimacy]] is necessary for organization's long-term survival in competition for limited resources. ([note on p.104](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=2)) #### p. 105 - Organizational theorists have identified three sets of processes for how organizations establish and maintain legitimacy. ([note on p.105](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=3)) - [[normative legitimacy]] - [[legitimacy through secondary outcomes]] - [[legitimizing links]] #### p. 108 - [[organizational legitimacy|Legitimacy]] is a generalized perception and evaluation of an organization based on a lot of outputs. - Matters of interpretation - Legitimacy lost in one arena may be offset by values offered in another ([note on p.108](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=6)) #### p. 108 - Several [[characteristics of legitimacy]] help clarify the way it functions in making judgements about organizations. Demonstrates that legitimacy is subject to multiple interpretations and can change at any time. ([note on p.108](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=6)) #### p. 114 - Organizations must continually engage in [[dialogue]] with their stakeholders to establish and maintain their legitimacy. Ongoing process of legitimacy requires organizations to consider and publicly communicate their social value, which may cause them to take larger social values into account when making operational decisions. - Enhances organizations accountability to society ([note on p.114](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=12)) > Organizations today are expected to be profitable, efficient, technologically sophisticated, provide meaningful work, good wages, and maintain a good social and environmental record. ([Seeger :110](zotero://open-pdf/library/items/SVPGS22V?page=8)) ## My Questions & Thoughts --- # Other References ## Tags [[ethics]]