Ethical Legitimization Strategy. The effect of industrial ethic load on ethical legitimacy strategies
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2019-10-21
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en
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Ethical legitimacy is a salient issue among organizations, and not every industry has to deal with the same ethical legitimacy concerns raised by society. Through a qualitative media content analysis, ethical legitimacy strategies are researched to see if an industry’s ethical load influences the strategies used by organizations within that industry. Applying a unique approach of multiple industries and organizations, two high ethical load industries and two low ethical load industries, in which organizations represent their industries were researched. 223 data points from sources such as annual reports, press releases, and news articles were found valid and used for analysis. Via qualitative analysis strategies defined by literature in the field of legitimacy (conforming, decoupling, rhetoric, discursive, hybridization, pragmatic), and used by organizations, were linked with ethical issues. It was observed, with respect to the typology of ethical legitimacy, that high ethical load industries engage in a different strategic pattern configuration (conforming, decoupling, rhetoric) than low ethical load industries (conforming, discursive, pragmatic). Contributing to the field of legitimacy by establishing a link between ethical load and specific strategy, further research could measure the effectiveness of strategies in relation to ethical load.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen