The Sweet Spot of Legitimacy: A Manager’s Guide (Business Guides on the Go)

This book provides an overview of legitimacy-related challenges at hybrid organizations and demonstrates legitimacy’s importance for the strategic development of organizations. In a reader-friendly way, it addresses the question of how hybrid organizations can gain legitimacy from the perspectives of key stakeholders. To do so, the book examines legitimacy management in the context of two real-world hybrid organizations – the Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine and the Swiss Center for Design and Health in Bern, Switzerland – from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It shows why the systematic combination of three types of legitimacy has the potential to optimize the level of legitimacy in emerging hybrids, contributing to their success. It also explains how organizational legitimacy can be operationalized using governance legitimacy, purpose-rational legitimacy, and value-rational legitimacy. This book equips managers and executives working at hybrid organizations with useful guidance and hands-on strategic tools to develop legitimacy management strategies. It also offers a source of inspiration for academic research and teaching in this field. Preface and Acknowledgments 7 About this Book 10 Contents 11 List of Figures 14 1: Setting the Scene 16 1.1 Background 16 1.2 The Relevance of Organizational Legitimacy 18 1.3 Research Questions 18 1.4 Relevance of the Research Question 20 1.5 Structure of the Book 21 References 23 2: Legitimacy as Condition for a Hybrid’s Success 26 2.1 What Hybrids Are and Why They Matter? 26 2.2 What Organizational Legitimacy Is and Why It Matters? 28 2.3 Finding the Sweet Spot of Organizational Legitimacy 31 2.3.1 Governance Legitimacy 32 2.3.2 Purpose-Rational Legitimacy 34 2.3.3 Value-Rational Legitimacy 35 2.4 The Affinity Between the Management of Organizational Legitimacy and Ethical Leadership 36 References 39 3: Methodological Considerations 44 3.1 The Sitem-Insel and the SCDH as Typical Cases of Hybridity 45 3.2 Verification of Sources: How to “Measure” Legitimacy? 47 References 51 4: The Journey of the Sitem-Insel and the SCDH 54 4.1 The Sitem-Insel: A Journey with Tailwinds and Headwinds 55 4.2 The SCDH: The Combination of Health and Design as USP 62 References 67 5: Legitimacy Building in the Cases of the Sitem-Insel and the SCDH 70 5.1 Governance Legitimacy: Where Waterfall and Iteration Meet 71 5.1.1 Law Abidance and Political Accountability 71 5.1.2 Facility and Infrastructure 73 5.1.3 Leadership and Organizational Structure 74 5.1.4 Organizational Processes and Practices 76 5.2 Purpose-Rational Legitimacy: Defense Wins Games—Offense Wins Championships 77 5.2.1 Strategic Management 78 5.2.2 Financial Sustainability 81 5.2.3 Collaboration and Uptake 84 5.3 Value-Rational Legitimacy: Visualize Cohesion and Success 85 5.3.1 Social Mission 85 5.3.2 The Symbolic Appeal of Facilities 86 5.3.3 Dissemination and Validation 88 5.3.4 Team 90 5.4 The Legitimacy Guideline 92 References 94 6: Conclusion 96 References 100 Untitled 96 Appendix A Empirical Strategy 102 Appendix B Interview Questionnaire 105 Introductory Questions (Setting the Scene and Getting in the Right Mood) 105 Output-Oriented Questions 106 Value-Oriented Questions 106 Governance-Oriented Questions 107 Appendix C Legitimacy Guideline 108