a polite, digniWed, and respectful way by authorities (Colquitt et al. 2001 : 427 ).
Informational justice points to the role of informationXows and the way people
perceive theseXows: in particular, information about why certain procedures are
used and why certain outcomes are distributed (Colquitt et al. 2001 : 427 ). All four
forms of justice aVect employee motivation.
- 2 Organizational Legitimacy
Organizational legitimacy relates to the organization as a whole. It can be deWned as
‘a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable,
proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values,
beliefs, and deWnitions’ (Suchman 1995 : 574 ). Suchman ( 1995 ) provides an excellent
overview of organizational legitimacy and distinguishes two overall traditions. The
Wrst tradition, seen in the work of PfeVer and Salancik ( 1978 ), among others, adopts
a managerial view and stresses the instrumental ways in which an organization can
manifest itself: for example, by using evocative symbols to gain societal support
(Suchman 1995 : 572 ). This approach can be characterized as organizational man-
agers ‘looking out.’ The second comes from studies in the institutional tradition like
that of DiMaggio and Powell ( 1983 ). These emphasize the sector-wide structuration
dynamics that put pressures on organizations to meet or adopt legitimacy expect-
ations set at sectoral or societal levels. These pressures can limit the organization’s
room to maneuver in decision-making (Suchman 1995 ). This viewpoint reXects
society ‘looking in.’ Each tradition is further subdivided among researchers who
focus on legitimacy grounded in pragmatic assessments of stakeholder relations (a
superWcial way of looking at legitimacy), legitimacy grounded in normative evalu-
ations of moral propriety, and legitimacy grounded in cognitive deWnitions of
appropriateness and interpretability (Suchman 1995 ). Pragmatic legitimacy mainly
rests on the self-interested calculations of an organization’s most immediate audi-
ences. Moral legitimacy builds on the question of whether a given activity is the
right thing to do and not on judgements about whether a given activity beneWts the
evaluator. Cognitive legitimacy is based on acceptance of the organization as
necessary or inevitable based on some taken-for-granted cultural account. It does
not involve evaluation on moral grounds.
In summary, strategic balancing involves taking into account both market
principles (economic value) and institutional principles (moral values). In our
view, the viability of an organization can only be secured by meeting contextual
economic demands (e.g. for eYciency,Xexibility, innovativeness) and institutional
demands both at the societal level (reXected in the concept of organizational
legitimacy) and at the individual employee level (reXected in the concept of
organizational justice).
180 jaap paauwe and paul boselie