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Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers

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  • Treviño, Linda Klebe
  • den Nieuwenboer, Niki A.
  • Kreiner, Glen E.
  • Bishop, Derron G.

Abstract

Organizations have responded to ethical scandals in part by creating the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) role to help insure employee ethical and legal behavior. Because ECO work is so fundamental to behavioral ethics in organizations and we know very little about it, we conducted a grounded theory study to learn more. We learned that, although most ECOs were hired to help their organizations respond to external legitimacy challenges, ECOs face major legitimacy challenges inside their organizations. Facilitating conditions may reduce these challenges and help ECOs reach internal legitimacy. But, we also found that ECOs engage in what we term legitimacy work that relies on a number of tactics to help them gain legitimacy in the eyes of their constituents. We tie our findings to the broader legitimacy literature and draw implications for the behavioral ethics literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Treviño, Linda Klebe & den Nieuwenboer, Niki A. & Kreiner, Glen E. & Bishop, Derron G., 2014. "Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 186-205.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:123:y:2014:i:2:p:186-205
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.10.009
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. W. Hoffman & John Neill & O. Stovall, 2008. "An Investigation of Ethics Officer Independence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 78(1), pages 87-95, March.
    2. Shuili Du & Edward Vieira, 2012. "Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 413-427, November.
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    4. Henry Adobor, 2006. "Exploring the Role Performance of Corporate Ethics Officers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 57-75, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Díez-Martín & Alicia Blanco-González & Camilo Prado-Román, 2016. "Explaining nation-wide differences in entrepreneurial activity: a legitimacy perspective," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 1079-1102, December.
    2. Francisco Díez-Martín & Alicia Blanco-González & Giorgia Miotto, 2022. "The impact of state legitimacy on entrepreneurial activity," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 935-955, June.
    3. O'Neil, Isobel & Ucbasaran, Deniz, 2016. "Balancing “what matters to me” with “what matters to them”: Exploring the legitimation process of environmental entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 133-152.
    4. Shankar, Raj K. & Shepherd, Dean A., 2019. "Accelerating strategic fit or venture emergence: Different paths adopted by corporate accelerators," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1-1.
    5. Smith, Brett R. & Bergman, Brian J. & Kreiner, Glen E., 2021. "When the beacon goes dark: Legitimacy repair work by subsequent actors in an emerging market category," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    6. Melanie de Waal & Floor Rink & Janka Stoker, 2015. "How internal and external supervisors influence employees' self-serving decisions," DNB Working Papers 464, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    7. Mohammed S. Albarrak & Marwa Elnahass & Aly Salama, 2019. "The effect of carbon dissemination on cost of equity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1179-1198, September.
    8. Hervé Stolowy & Yves Gendron & Jodie Moll & Luc Paugam, 2019. "Building the Legitimacy of Whistleblowers: A Multi‐Case Discourse Analysis," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 7-49, March.
    9. Jesus R. Jimenez-Andrade & Timothy J. Fogarty & Richard J. Boland, 2022. "Post-scandal Organizational (Dis)order: A Grounded-Theory Approach Shifting from Murphy’s Law to Safer Regulatory Environments," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(1), pages 62-77, February.
    10. Thabo Gerald Maleka & Gibson Nyirenda & Michael Bamidele Fakoya, 2017. "The Relationship between Waste Management Expenditure and Waste Reduction Targets on Selected JSE Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-20, August.

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