Legitimation processes in civil society organizations: cases in Slovakia

• In Event: Institutional Theory and Civil Society Organizations in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The social acceptance of organizations is an outcome of complex interactions between the structures, institutions, and organizations, that are often implicit and not visible, and the legitimating process is a crucial piece in it. The topic of the research work is the strategic organizational responses of civil society organizations to questioned legitimacy. The research is designed as a qualitative analysis of two case studies of two different civil society organizations in Slovakia - one focused on rights-based advocacy and the other on community development. The research explores what happens in the legitimation process in civil society organizations considering the resource and institutional context.The cases for research are selected as a pair of different organizations – rights-based advocacy and community-based CSOs in Slovakia. Legitimacy challenges to civil society organizations and strategic responses of organizations are the two main subunits analyzed. The research builds on the theoretical debate on the legitimacy of organizations as a function of their agency vs. function of the institutional and resources environment in which organizations are embedded and explore their interdependent relationship. The main theoretical lenses to inform the research are new institutionalism and resource dependence theory.

Author

• Boris Strecansky, Comenius University in Bratislava