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.

中文翻译：

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后种族隔离时代的#FeesMustFall#运动：领导人的合法性之战

目的

在机构合法性的支持下，本研究探讨了南非公立大学高级管理人员如何在计划外的激进变革过程中努力维持合法性。

设计/方法论/途径

Gioia 的扎根理论分析方法被用来分析对南非公立大学 37 名高级管理人员的访谈。

发现

这项研究的结果表明，没有适当规划的变革会严重损害领导层规范、经验、道德和务实合法性等各个方面的制度。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究通过说明制度合法性在计划外的社会变革期间的重要性以及否定合法性的因素，为合法性文献做出了贡献。

原创性/价值

尽管其他合法性模型已经得到很好的发展，但它们不适用于组织中这种无计划的社会变革。本研究从不同角度展示了非计划性社会变革条件下的合法性危机。