From Expertise to Purpose: Institutional Legitimacy, Stakeholder Trust, and Long-Term Organizational Sustainability
Keywords:
Purpose-driven Leadership, Expertise, Legitimacy, Trust, Good Governance, Organizational ResilienceAbstract
This conceptual article develops a framework for explaining leadership driven by purpose rather than expertise to address contemporary organizational contexts characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and distributed knowledge across teams and networks rather than concentrated in any single individual. While many organizations continue to treat technical excellence as the primary basis of leadership legitimacy, the article argues that relying on expertise as the sole source of authority has important limitations when decisions must confront incomplete information, multiple and competing goals, and moral consequences for stakeholders. The article proposes understanding purpose as a meaning structure that guides the interpretation of situations, the prioritization of values, and the use of knowledge in ways that are consistent with the organization’s reason for existence. From an institutional perspective, the author distinguishes between leaders’ technical authority and their authority based on meaning or legitimacy and explains how purpose functions as a justificatory basis for the exercise of authority. The developed framework suggests that alignment between purpose and actual decision-making constitutes a key mechanism for accumulating stakeholder trust. Such trust, in turn, enhances organizational adaptability, strengthens resilience, and supports long-term sustainability under conditions in which expertise has become a widely accessible resource. Finally, the article advances conceptual propositions for future empirical testing and outlines theoretical and practical implications for the design of governance, the selection and development of leaders, and the management of stakeholder relationships in highly uncertain environments.
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