Legitimacy Loss Research Articles

Organizational Responses after a Field-wide Legitimacy Threatening event

This paper revolves around an extraordinary event that shocked the Dutch childcare sector in December 2010. The sexual abuse of children in a daycare centre in Amsterdam challenged the institutional beliefs and expectations that children are safe in childcare and as a result damaged the whole field as media scrutiny diffused broadly. To explain how a field-wide legitimacy threatening event triggers different responses among individual organizations, we take an institutional perspective and explore the role of several micro variables that influence key decision makers (in our case the childcare managers) in generating a response. Our survey results demonstrate how geographical proximity and managers’ field identification positively influence organizational responsiveness. This relationship is partially mediated by managers’ negative emotions and their legitimacy loss perceptions. Our results underscore that external shocks by itself are not sufficient to trigger institutional change. Whether and how field-wide legitimacy threatening events raise actors’ reflexivity and possibilities for institutional change is partially answered at the micro level of analysis.

Undeserved Loss: The Spread of Legitimacy Loss to Innocent Organizations in Response to Reported Corporate Deviance

This paper theorizes about why discoveries of corporate deviance that damage the legitimacy of the responsible organization may also have consequences for other organizations. We propose that audiences generalize from deviance by one organization to others that are similar. The result is a withdrawal from transactions even from non-culpable organizations as audiences seek to avoid organizations that they associate with a deviant act. We show that two scandals involving Skandia AB, a Swedish insurance firm that had a subsidiary offering mutual funds, affected mutual fund providers owned by other insurance firms in 2000–2004, as well as mutual fund subsidiaries of other firms with similar characteristics. The effect was greatest for firms more similar to Skandia and firms owning real estate, which was the context for one of the scandals. Thus audience members' categorization rules lead to spread of legitimacy loss in response to an isolated act of organizational deviance.

Patients' complaint procedures, in a Scandinavian perspective.

A description of the problems regarding patients alleged physicians mis-conduct is given, focusing on conditions in Denmark, and to some extent on the other Scandinavian countries. The survey interprets the disciplinary, as well as the compensation, complaint procedures. The Parliamentary Ombudsman and patients ombudsmen functions are included also. The functions of these bodies are elucidated by a number of cases, together with selected statistical figures. It is concluded, regarding that both patients and doctors had voiced some dissatisfaction with the complaint procedures that there is a need to simplify the complaint system, to make it more transparent, and to some extent secure patients rights. If this it not done it will increase the legitimacy loss for the health sector as a whole.

Patients' Complaint Procedures, in a Scandinavian Perspective

AbstractA description of the problems regarding patients alleged physicians mis-conduct is given, focusing on conditions in Denmark, and to some extent on the other Scandinavian countries. The survey interprets the disciplinary, as well as the compensation, complaint procedures. The Parliamentary Ombudsman and patients ombudsmen functions are included also. The functions of these bodies are elucidated by a number of cases, together with selected statistical figures. It is concluded, regarding that both patients and doctors had voiced some dissatisfaction with the complaint procedures that there is a need to simplify the complaint system, to make it more transparent, and to some extent secure patients rights. If this it not done it will increase the legitimacy loss for the health sector as a whole.