RESEARCH ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY RESTORATION OF MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES BASED ON RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVE——A CASE STUDY OF KOBE STEEL MAKING INCIDENT

Abstract

          In conjunction with globalization, external communication of organizational subjects has an essential impact on the restoration and reconstruction of corporate image and legitimacy. When an organization faces a crisis, the rules, norms, and value system in the institutional environment will prompt the organization to carry out external communication, affecting the way and content of the organization's information transmission. On the perspective of rhetoric, with Kenneth Burke’s (1966) dramatic rhetorical criticism as the research method, this study carried out a discourse analysis of the declaration texts issued by three multinational enterprises in the host country, which were impaired by the Kobe Steel Event. The research showed that in the process of restoring organizational legitimacy through discourse: (1) Its rhetorical purpose and discourse motivation was achieved by reasonably arranging the five elements of drama in the discourse and highlighting some of them; (2) The use of the same strategy played an essential role in the realization of rhetorical motivation, which can be recognized by the public; (3) Rhetorical purposes can be achieved by arranging discourse structure reasonably. This study constructed a relational model to reflect the relevance among the organizational legitimacy, discourse, and rhetoric, which generated feasible suggestions for effective crisis management of transnational organizations from the perspective of discourse and rhetoric.