Contributions published at Organization and Management (David Seidl)

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Basing on recent literature about decoupling, legitimacy, Corporate Social Responsibility, identity and Social Identity Theory, this paper aims to adopt a novel approach to the study of identity in individuals in decoupled structures, focalizing on the relationship between identity work and internal legitimacy. Using data gathered from seven interviews with people working in CSR structure within multinational companies based in Switzerland, I provide practical examples of the construction of a sense of integration and awareness of the CSR business played by these employees to legitimize their positions inside companies. In addtition, I produce evidence that underlines the decoupling of CSR structures within organizations.

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This thesis examines how CEO`s legitimacy is interrelated to the corporate strategy along with an investigation of the last 3 CEO’s of the company „Charles Vögele”. Based on publications of „Charles Vögele” as well as newspaper articles, the legitimacy and its dynamic for each of the 3 CEO`s and their corporate strategies are researched and analysed. Within this analysis, the interrelations between each CEO`s legitimacy and their chosen corporate strategy are looked for. In consequence, a comparative analysis between the 3 CEO’s has been done and propositions developed. The main findings are the following ones: Firstly, it is shown, that there are interrelations between CEO legitimacy and corporate strategy. Secondly, it is shown, that the corporate strategy can either have a positive or a negative effect on CEO`s legitimacy. It is also identified, that the corporate strategy can be split in the following two layers: strategy direction and strategy implementation. Based on that, it is additionally shown, that having the right strategy direction in combination with a poor implementation, usually leads to the loss of CEO`s legitimacy.

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In this thesis I will examine legitimacy dynamics of middle managers in organisa-tional change. Literature on legitimacy, organisational change and roles of middle managers state the basis for the thesis and will later be used to evaluate whether my findings support literature. By means of interviews with employees at Globus AG I will empirically analyse middle managers’ legitimacy in several organisational changes and compare my findings to literature. My analysis revealed consensus with literature regarding the aspects of legitimacy dynamics (cognitive legitimacy, Tost´s (2011) theories) and organisational change (culture, institutional entrepreneur) I wanted to validate. In contrast, my interviews showed that Tobin´s (1998) proposal of new middle managers could not be support-ed empirically at Globus AG.

Even though the literature on practical relevance emphasizes that practice itself ultimately determines whether academic knowledge is practically relevant, practitioners' perspective on relevance has hardly received any attention from researchers interested in the practical relevance of management science. Analyzing practitioners' accounts of relevance of academic concepts, this paper examines how practitioners perceive academic knowledge as relevant. A theoretical model of practitioners’ relevance perception is developed, which shows that practitioners perceive academic knowledge as relevant if it mirrors their contextual problems and existing knowledge, extends them and is advantageous to them. Understanding relevance from practitioners' perspective, this study shows that there are two sides to ambiguity - ambiguous knowledge might increase and at the same time decreases the chance of being perceived as relevant. In addition, this study offers an understanding of the conditions under which practitioners perceive academic knowledge as relevant before they apply it to their organizational contexts.

Being approved as the “leader” in a firm is one of the most difficult tasks that a CEO has to accomplish to be efficient and to achieve economic performance as soon as possible. After his election, the immediate task of the new CEO is to be legitimized by the staff because, as Weber noted, when people believe that the CEO is entitled to his position, they will trust his judgment and follow his ideas and plans (Weber, 1968). Moreover, legitimacy “creates trust. Trust, in turn, is a powerful resource in any organization” (Porter and Nohria 2010, p. 29). In this Master’s thesis, thanks to the data received by the Chair of Organization and Management of a Swiss firm, I will investigate how a new CEO builds legitimacy over time within an integration process.

In this chapter we review practice-based studies that have examined the ontological and epistemological conditions for producing strategy research that proves relevant to management practice. Drawing on these works, we argue that researchers inevitably adopt a scholastic point of view, which makes it impossible to capture directly the logic of strategy practice. However, scholars can increase the practical relevance of their research by developing theories based on practical logic. We have outlined three approaches to capture the logic of management practice (1) theorizing through practical rationality, (2) the application of ‘participant objectivation’, and (3) the consideration of the dissociation process. We argue that if strategy-as-practice research builds on these insights, it can prove a particularly fruitful approach to generate knowledge that is of conceptual relevance to strategy practice.

The prevailing context in the financial industry requires new bank CEOs to implement major organisational restructurings in order to meet increased regulatory requirements. At the same time the new CEOs have to meet stakeholder expectations in order to be perceived as appropriate and thus legitimate leaders of their organisations. This, however, is of an increased challenge as the required restructurings involve significant costs and thus negatively impact organisational performance. Thus, despite lacking short-term evidence, the new CEOs have to convince the capital market of future success in order to be seen as legitimate leaders of the organisation. The thesis combines insights from social psychology theory, institutional theory and theoretical concepts that are related to CEO succession in order to analyse how the CEOs gain and maintain their legitimacy in the current context in the banking industry. The analyses presents a case study that analyses the Co-CEOs of Deutsche Bank in order to identify which of the concept from theory occur in practice in order to support existing findings and to extract new insights. The findings developed suggest that the legitimation of new CEOs in the banking context involves a collective process in which stakeholders and new CEOs alike engage in a dynamic process of attributing meanings to unfavourable events in order to rationalise costs and to justify corresponding performance sacrifices. Further, the process requires that stakeholders and CEOs form consistent beliefs with regards to organisational outcomes such that the outcomes can be implemented in a commonly shared set of values, norms and beliefs of the societal environment.

This paper will examine different variables that evoke legitimacy for CEOs, ac-cording to organizational members. CEO strategies, behaviors, and characteristics are well defined in established theoretical research, as is the distinction between those concepts. Less research focus on CEO legitimacy. This project uses data from a longitudinal qualitative study to understand how CEO legitimacy among organizational memebrs arises. Data is used from two different organizations in the Swiss market on various variables that impact a CEO’s legitimacy, namely: Origin, age, appearance, language, professional qualification, tenure, relation-ships, communication, personality traits, personal attitude, method of operating and CEO actions. The finding is that all variables have an influence on CEO legit-imacy, though the dimension varies according to the particular volume of state-ments. The major finding in this analysis is the significance of the CEO’s origin, relationships, communication, personality traits and personal attitude, method of operating, and actions as CEO on a his legitimacy.

This paper examines the role of different material artefacts in the exploration of novel strategic topics. We conceptualize strategic topics as epistemic objects that become instantiated in multiple material artifacts, i.e., partial objects, which not only represent the epistemic object but also energize and direct the exploration process. Based on a longitudinal case study of a company that (in collaboration with other companies) explored the strategic topic of “flexible production”, we develop a new typology of material artefacts in terms of their relation to the strategic topic. We describe the layered nature of materiality, differentiating between different types of objectual and non-objectual material artefacts, and show how their interplay shapes the dynamics of the strategizing process. In particular, we explain how the constellation of material artefacts can lead to a shift of the strategic topic itself. We offer a conceptual model that captures the mechanisms in the dynamic interplay of different types of material artefacts and their effect on the process of exploration.

The early tenure of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), also referred to as ‘the CEO post-succession process’, is a critical phase in the history of an organization, because it is associated with a high rate of organizational failure and CEO dismissal. Research on this important process has grown rapidly over the last decade, focusing particularly on the question of how the match between the CEO, the organization and the environment is created in the post-succession process. Yet, the respective literature is highly fragmented, which suggests that there is a need for a systematic review and evaluation of existing works. Adopting the conceptual vocabulary of the practice perspective, the authors review this literature in terms of what it reveals about (1) the practices adopted by new CEOs and other actors involved in the post-succession process, (2) the properties of the key practitioners involved, and (3) the practical context of the post-succession process. This review suggests that new CEOs are primarily involved in practices aimed at integrating the new CEO into the organization, and practices aimed at realigning the organization with its environment. The important insights that the existing literature affords are identified, and the gaps in this body of research are highlighted. On this basis, a concrete research agenda is developed in terms of topics, methodologies and theories.

Sensegiving plays a critical role in the process of strategic change, especially when the change is under time pressure and broad interests are at stake. In order to facilitate the intended change, top managers often engage in intense sensegiving activities to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity. Our study explores the role of sensegiving by drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study of strategic change in two large firms. We establish a processual framework of top managers’ sensegiving practices that involve various discursive practices and symbolic actions. We show a mode of action-driven sensegiving, where bold actions were taken, then justified, and future actions are taken in order to create a coherent sense for the initiated change. Theoretical implications of our findings are discussed.

Taking charge is a major challenge that newly appointed chief executive officers (CEOs) has to face. In this paper, we focus on how new CEOs manage this challenge and establish influence in their organizations. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study of eight new CEOs, we identify important processes of managing the post-succession period. Our findings show that in order to navigate through the dynamic post-succession period, CEOs use various practices in gaining initial acceptance, establishing an inner circle, managing board-relation, adjusting top management team and initiating strategic changes. We also found that the CEO’s low accountability for performance and the high expectation of strategic change in the first year create a space for new CEOs’ agency. Our findings suggest that the post-succession period can be better understood as two processes of leader integration and strategic change, which interact and co-evolve over time. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Sensegiving plays a critical role in the process of strategic change, especially when the change is under time pressure and broad interests are at stake. In order to gain acceptance and to create momentum for the initiated change, top managers often engage in intense sensegiving activities to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity. Our study explores the role of sensegiving by drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study of strategic change in two large firms. We establish a processual framework of top managers’ sensegiving practices that involve various discursive practices and symbolic actions in order to create a coherent sense for the initiated change. We show a mode of action-driven sensegiving, where sensegiving is triggered by the announcement of the strategic change program. Theoretical implications of our findings and future directions are discussed.