Abstract

While stakeholders search for visible signs of organizational efficiency and effectiveness, organizations, in turn, depend on these stakeholders for resources. Therefore, organizations display so-called "fa?ades" — a symbolic front erected by organizational participants designed to reassure their organization's stakeholders, of the legitimacy of the organization and its management. In the classical formulation, facades act as buffers, allowing managers to gain new resources for their ongoing projects — regardless of their efficiency, effectiveness and institutional legality.

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Citation

Abrahamson, Eric, and Phillipe Beaumard. "What Lies Behind Organizational Facades and How Organizational Facades Lie: An Untold Story of Organizational Decision Making." In The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Decision Making. Ed. G. P. Hodgkinson and W. H. Starbuck. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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