Repairing legitimacy through discourses: insights from the Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel scandal

Cristina Florio,Alice Francesca Sproviero

doi:10.1108/medar-08-2019-0547

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to explore how corporate discourses enact legitimation strategies aimed at repairing pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy types (Suchman, 1995) after a scandal involving sustainability, namely, the Volkswagen’s 2015 diesel scandal.Design/methodology/approachBy drawing on the discursive nature of legitimacy, this study conducts a critical discourse analysis to identify how the scandal is depicted and which semantic, grammatical and lexical features characterise discourses. It then relates discourses and their features to legitimation strategies that help repair diverse types of legitimacy.FindingsTo repair pragmatic legitimacy, discourses on a few actors and processes enact strategies of creating monitors and avoiding panic. Such discourses include grammatical features only. Discourses on the event, actors, processes and topics of apology, trust and integrity aim to repair moral legitimacy. Enriched with grammatical and lexical features, they mobilise disassociation, excuse, justify and restructure strategies. Discourses on the event, actors, processes and topics of corporate qualities, history and future strategy help repair cognitive legitimacy by enacting an avoiding panic strategy. Grammatical, lexical and semantic features characterise such discourses.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reveals the potentials of critical discourse analysis to bring out from texts practical modes of communicating, and specifically those discourses and features of discourses that serve legitimacy purposes.Originality/valueThis study offers insights into the connection among discourses, relegitimation strategies and legitimacy types by combining the discursive nature of legitimacy with critical discourse analysis. It also contributes to the growing literature on how organisations face the legitimacy challenges raised by scandals involving sustainability.

Highlights

Legitimacy rests on the idea that companies, as part of a broader social system, do not have an inherent right to exist; rather they must operate in conformance with the audience’s norms, values and beliefs (Suchman, 1995)
Leading scholars posit that legitimacy is repaired through corporate actions per se, but especially through discourses that “leave traces” and communicate these actions to the audience (Suchman, 1995; Deegan, 2002; Phillips et al, 2004; Deegan, 2019). Moving from this premise, the present study aims to explore how corporate discourses enact legitimation strategies aimed at repairing pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy
The findings show that discourses on actors and processes enact strategies of creating monitors and avoiding panic to repair pragmatic legitimacy

Summary

Introduction

Legitimacy rests on the idea that companies, as part of a broader social system, do not have an inherent right to exist; rather they must operate in conformance with the audience’s norms, values and beliefs (Suchman, 1995). Adopting the same perspective and building on the legitimacy types, this study goes beyond the conception of legitimacy as a result of actions to embrace the arguments advanced by Phillips et al (2004) on the discursive nature of legitimacy and bring empirical evidence on it In such vein, this study approaches legitimacy as the result of discourses and investigates how corporate discourses enact strategies aimed at repairing legitimacy in the context of Volkswagen’s diesel scandal, briefly described below. Two main takeaways from the above review of the Volkwagen’s 2015 diesel issue are that it represented a legitimacy-threatening event and that Volkswagen was prompt to react with both actions and communications to overcome the scandal Based on such premise, this study develops an understanding of how Volkswagen’s discourses and their features enact legitimation strategies to repair pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy (Suchman, 1995; Phillips et al, 2004), according to the research design described next. Apr 28, 2016 Frank Witter Speech at the Annual Media Member of the Board 12 and Investor Conference on April 28, 2016 – of Management

Part II responsible for Finance

Discussion and conclusions