Managing Organizational Legitimacy: Communication Strategies for Organizations in Crisis

TLDR

Crisis situations can cause stakeholders to question organizational legitimacy, prompting organizations to strategically communicate to manage it. The study investigates how crisis-response strategies influence perceptions of organizational legitimacy. Using a quasi-experimental 2×2×4 design, the authors test whether consistent crisis responses and generalist niche width enhance legitimacy, while inconsistent responses and specialist niche width reduce it. The findings confirm that consistent crisis responses and generalist niche width increase legitimacy, whereas inconsistent responses and specialist niche width decrease it.

Abstract

Crisis situations can cause internal and external stakeholders to question the legit imacy of organizations. When faced with a crisis, organizations are compelled to communicate strategically with stakeholders to manage legitimacy. This study syn thesizes literature on organizational legitimacy, crisis management, and niche-width theory to provide an investigation of the effects of crisis-response strategies on per ceptions of organizational legitimacy. Using a quasi-experimental, 2 X 2 X 4 design, the study tests the hypotheses that (a) organizations that produce consis tent crisis responses across stakeholders will enhance their legitimacy, while organ izations that produce inconsistent crisis responses will reduce theirs; (b) generalist organizations are perceived as being more legitimate than specialist organizations; and (c) when combined, niche-width and crisis-response consistency will produce differing effects on organizational legitimacy. Conclusions drawn from the investi gation support these hypotheses.