Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers |
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Authors: | Linda Klebe Treviñ o,Niki A. den Nieuwenboer,Glen E. Kreiner,Derron G. Bishop |
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Affiliation: | 1. Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, 402 Business Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States;2. Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, United States;3. Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, 443 Business Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States;4. Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, 416A Business Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States |
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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. |
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Keywords: | Behavioral ethics Cognitive legitimacy Compliance Officer Ethics Officer Ethics programs Legitimacy Instrumental legitimacy Moral legitimacy Organizational ethics Relational legitimacy |
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