Legitimacy and Strategic Communication in Globalization: The Cartoon Crisis and Other Legitimacy Conflicts

Abstract

In global corporate practice, a focus on the micro- or mesodimension does not suffice. Analyses are required that see corporate legitimacy also in relation to society's constitution. Legitimating notions regulate the interrelation between organization and society, and set the premises for strategic communication. As globalizing organizations increasingly face conflicting perceptions of legitimacy, new challenges to strategic communication arise. Different types of societal constitution breed different legitimating corporate settings. Taking as the empirical example the transnational Scandinavian dairy group Arla Foods, three fundamentally different legitimacy conflicts and their interplay with strategic communication are analyzed: between Western and Middle-East values; between former and present ideals as society changes from solid to fluid modernity; and between the neighboring Scandinavian welfare states of Sweden and Denmark. By relating legitimating notions to society's constitution and forms of social coordination generic patterns are identified in the multitudinous diversity of legitimacy conflicts within which global organizations are embedded.