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Organisational legitimacy and stakeholder information provision

Organisational legitimacy and stakeholder information provision
Organisational legitimacy and stakeholder information provision
One interpretation of the concept of organizational legitimacy is that it stems from the cultural values of society, and suggests that businesses operate under a mandate that may be withdrawn if organizations are seen not to be doing the 'right' things. This suggests there is something in the nature of a principal-agent relationship in existence, and that some form of accountability is then owed by the agent (the organization) to the principal (society). This paper seeks to investigate the nature of this accountability, distinguishing between the accountability which exists towards those elements of society with which an organization has a contractual relationship, and those where it does not. Adopting a pluralist stance, stakeholder theory is then used to illustrate the possible nature of both the form of legitimacy relationship extant, and of the accountability that the principal might expect of the agent.
1045-3172
329-347
Woodward, David G.
897785d2-abda-457d-bd5b-6fb3bbed65cc
Edwards, Pam
b7320665-a429-4254-ba16-74a7acc5ccc7
Birkin, Frank
220efe67-6d17-4c25-b110-dd8392f3ffdb
Woodward, David G.
897785d2-abda-457d-bd5b-6fb3bbed65cc
Edwards, Pam
b7320665-a429-4254-ba16-74a7acc5ccc7
Birkin, Frank
220efe67-6d17-4c25-b110-dd8392f3ffdb

Woodward, David G., Edwards, Pam and Birkin, Frank (1996) Organisational legitimacy and stakeholder information provision. British Journal of Management, 7 (4), 329-347. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00123.x).

Record type: Article

Abstract

One interpretation of the concept of organizational legitimacy is that it stems from the cultural values of society, and suggests that businesses operate under a mandate that may be withdrawn if organizations are seen not to be doing the 'right' things. This suggests there is something in the nature of a principal-agent relationship in existence, and that some form of accountability is then owed by the agent (the organization) to the principal (society). This paper seeks to investigate the nature of this accountability, distinguishing between the accountability which exists towards those elements of society with which an organization has a contractual relationship, and those where it does not. Adopting a pluralist stance, stakeholder theory is then used to illustrate the possible nature of both the form of legitimacy relationship extant, and of the accountability that the principal might expect of the agent.

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Published date: December 1996

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 36666
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/36666
ISSN: 1045-3172
PURE UUID: 8c1a377f-f127-4101-9f3a-4884ebe5b657

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Date deposited: 15 Mar 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 07:57

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Contributors

Author: David G. Woodward
Author: Pam Edwards
Author: Frank Birkin

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