Corporate legitimacy as deliberation. A communicative framework
Details
State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: Not specified
It was possible to publish this article open access thanks to a Swiss National Licence with the publisher.
Serval ID
serval:BIB_86DBEB51D027
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Corporate legitimacy as deliberation. A communicative framework
Journal
Journal of Business Ethics
ISSN
0167-4544
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2006
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
66
Number
1
Pages
71-88
Language
english
Abstract
Modern society is challenged by a loss of efficiency in national governance systems values, and lifestyles. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourse builds upon a conception of organizational legitimacy that does not appropriately reflect these changes. The problems arise from the a-political role of the corporation in the concepts of cognitive and pragmatic legitimacy, which are based on compliance to national law and on relatively homogeneous and stable societal expectations on the one hand and widely accepted rhetoric assuming that all members of society benefit from capitalist production on the other. We therefore propose a fundamental shift to moral legitimacy, from an output and power oriented approach to an input related and discursive concept of legitimacy. This shift creates a new basis of legitimacy and involves organizations in processes of active justification vis-a-vis society rather than simply responding to the demands of powerful groups. We consider this a step towards the politicization of the corporation and attempt to re-embed the debate on corporate legitimacy into its broader context of political theory, while reflecting the recent turn from a liberal to a deliberative concept of democracy.
Keywords
Business and society, Business ethics, Corporate social responsibility, Deliberative democracy, Globalization, Organizational legitimacy
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
29/11/2007 9:08
Last modification date
14/02/2022 8:55