Managing Corporate Legitimacy: Public Affairs Activities, Strategies and Effectiveness

The legitimization and ultimate survival of a firm may hinge on adequately managing the relationship between the organization and its social and political stakeholders. How the public affairs function chooses to match corporate activity with external expectations can be considered a public affairs (PA) strategy. PA strategies should be classified according to the emphasis on buffering and the emphasis on bridging. Classification systems should accomplish at least 3 objectives: differentiation, generalization, and identification. In order to test the applicability of the classification, a questionnaire was answered by top managers in large US corporations in 1992. The level of buffering, the level of bridging, and PA effectiveness were measured. Higher internal effectiveness measures were consistently associated with high activity strategies. Firms that did more perceived themselves as being more effective. Results also demonstrated the apparent lack of a positive relationship between PA effectiveness and buffering activities.