组织制度理论中的“合法性”研究述评

“合法性”是组织制度理论中的核心概念.虽然国内学界对这一概念已并不陌生,但在对其内涵的把握上却并不是很准确,由此也产生了很多研究上的误区和瓶颈.文章通过对近30年来西方顶尖学术期刊中相关文献的梳理,系统阐述了组织制度理论中“合法性”的内涵、维度、来源、基础、作用机理及组织的应对策略等理解“合法性”的最根本性问题,并首次提出了“合法性连续体”的概念用以全面刻画“合法性”.最后,文章还提出了关于“合法性”研究的三大研究前沿性命题.

A Review on Legitimacy in the Organizational Institution Theory

Legitimacy is the core concept in the organizational institution theory.Although this concept is no longer strange to the domestic scholars,but few can grasp its content fully,which leads to misunderstanding and bottlenecks in many research.Based on the literatures concerning the field which published in western top academic journals in the past thirty years,this pa per expounds the content,dimensions,sources,foundations and mechanism of"legitimacy"systematically,together with the legitimacy strategies adopted by organizations.And then it proposes"legitimacy continuum"to fully describe the"legit imacy"for the first time.Finally,this paper suggests three issues concerning the research frontiers of legitimacy.