Abstract
Purpose Underpinned by institutional legitimacy, this study explores how South African public university senior managers struggled to maintain legitimacy during an unplanned radical change process. Design/methodology/approach Gioia's grounded theory analysis approach is employed to analyse interviews with 37 senior managers of public-funded universities in South Africa. Findings This study's findings show that a change without proper planning severely damages institutions in all aspects of leadership's normative, empirical, moral and pragmatic legitimacy. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the literature on legitimacy by illustrating the importance of institutional legitimacy during unplanned social change and the factors that negate legitimacy. Originality/value Though other legitimacy models have been well developed, they do not apply to such unplanned social change in organisations. This study shows a different angle of the legitimacy crisis under unplanned social change conditions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 663-678 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Journal of Organizational Change Management |
Volume | 36 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published (VoR) - 1 Jul 2023 |
Funding
Funding: This research study was made possible through a collaborative University Capacity Development Grant that was awarded by the DHET to Nelson Mandela University.
Funders | Funder number |
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Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
Keywords
- Legitimacy
- unplanned change
- crisis
- FeesMustFall
- Social movement
- Senior managers