Talk from the top: leadership and self-legitimation in international organizations

von Billerbeck, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0154-1944 (2022) Talk from the top: leadership and self-legitimation in international organizations. International Studies Review, 24 (3). ISSN 1468-2486 doi: 10.1093/isr/viac022

Abstract/Summary

How do leaders create legitimacy in international organizations (IOs)? It is widely acknowledged that legitimacy matters to IOs, but little research examines internal self-legitimation – the creation of legitimacy for staff, rather than for external audiences – and who specifically undertakes these self-legitimation activities in IOs. This paper fills these gaps by examining the particular role of leaders in self-legitimation and I develop a theoretical framework that shows: (1) how leaders have a unique role to play as legitimators due to their high social status within the IO and their access to discursive resources for legitimation; (2) how leaders create internal legitimacy through the introduction or reintroduction of narratives and the creation of self-referential language and (3) how leader-led self-legitimation entails three potential risks. I illustrate these points with three case studies, one from the World Bank and two from the UN. I conclude by proposing a new research agenda for this underexplored area of IO and legitimacy scholarship.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/106103
Identification Number/DOI	10.1093/isr/viac022
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Politics and International Relations
Publisher	Oxford University Press
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