Table 1.

Different ways to build legitimacy via controls within inter-organisational relationships

Control-related strategies for building different types of legitimacy
Pragmatic legitimacy: utility for stakeholders delivered by the contractor with its activities
Exchange attributesAdapting and conforming to the stakeholders’ needs by evaluating and monitoring adaptation. Communicating the conformance
Specifying and co-ordinating activities with procedures
Influence attributesCo-opting stakeholders into the decisionmaking structures and communication, making them feel in control
Dispositional attributesAdapting and communicating conformity to stakeholders’ values by using controls in interactions
Moral legitimacy: a general positive normative evaluation (‘rightness of actions’) of the contractor and its activities (by employees)
ConsequencesConforming to ideals of fair consequences of actions by demonstrating fair outcomes in (HRM) practices
ProceduresDemonstrating responsibility and esteem in the (HRM) procedures
Cognitive legitimacy: Comprehensibility (or “taken-for-grantedness”) of the contractor and its operations
Predictability/ plausibilityFormalising and professionalising operations with procedures, presenting them as simple activities
(Permanence)Fostering interconnections with the stakeholders in organisational structures
 Popularising and standardising new models, while also seeking certification

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