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Responsibility Laundering: FIFA and the Discursive Maintenance of Legitimacy

Laan, Jesper LU and Soto, Aimar LU (2026) BUSN49 20261
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
Abstract
Title: Responsibility Laundering: FIFA and the Discursive Maintenance of Legitimacy
Course: Managing People, Knowledge and Change
Authors: Aimar Soto and Jesper Laan
Supervisor: John Murray
Purpose:
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how global organisations maintain legitimacy when operating across multiple and conflicting normative environments. The study’s goal is to understand how an organisation's language and communication produce and maintain their legitimacy.
Methodology:
This study is based on a constructivist ontology and adopts an interpretivist epistemology. The thesis employs a qualitative single case study with an abductive approach. The data consists of official FIFA communications regarding the... (More)
Abstract
Title: Responsibility Laundering: FIFA and the Discursive Maintenance of Legitimacy
Course: Managing People, Knowledge and Change
Authors: Aimar Soto and Jesper Laan
Supervisor: John Murray
Purpose:
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how global organisations maintain legitimacy when operating across multiple and conflicting normative environments. The study’s goal is to understand how an organisation's language and communication produce and maintain their legitimacy.
Methodology:
This study is based on a constructivist ontology and adopts an interpretivist epistemology. The thesis employs a qualitative single case study with an abductive approach. The data consists of official FIFA communications regarding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar between 2015 and 2024. The material is analysed using a critical discourse analysis to identify how discursive strategies actively produce and maintain legitimacy.
Theoretical Framing:
The study is grounded in institutional theory and organisational legitimacy, extending into the literature on institutional maintenance work and discursive legitimation. It draws on Scott's (2001) three institutional pillars and Suchman's (1995) distinction between pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy to frame what is at stake when legitimacy is contested, and on Lawrence and Suddaby's (2006) concept of institutional work to analyse how legitimacy is actively maintained. The framework is extended into the transnational setting through Scherer et al. (2013) and Tallberg and Zürn (2019), and the analysis of discursive tactics builds on Vaara and Tienari (2008) and Vaara et al. (2006).


Contributions:
This thesis contributes to management and organisation studies by developing the concept of responsibility laundering, showing how global organisations actively manage legitimacy through four specific discursive tactics: acknowledge, buffer, deflect, and facilitate. It demonstrates that the institutional position in a transnational setting is sustained by maintenance work that contains moral criticism at the normative pillar. This is done so that it does not reach the cognitive pillar on which the institution depends. The study reveals that a fragmented audience is not a difficulty for legitimation but the structural condition under which this maintenance work can succeed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Laan, Jesper LU and Soto, Aimar LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN49 20261
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Key Words: Organisational Legitimacy, Institutional Work, Discursive Legitimation, Responsibility Laundering, Transnational Organisations, FIFA
language
English
id
9241191
date added to LUP
2026-06-18 16:40:49
date last changed
2026-06-18 16:40:49
@misc{9241191,
  abstract     = {{Abstract
Title: Responsibility Laundering: FIFA and the Discursive Maintenance of Legitimacy
Course: Managing People, Knowledge and Change
Authors: Aimar Soto and Jesper Laan
Supervisor: John Murray
Purpose:
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how global organisations maintain legitimacy when operating across multiple and conflicting normative environments. The study’s goal is to understand how an organisation's language and communication produce and maintain their legitimacy.
Methodology:
This study is based on a constructivist ontology and adopts an interpretivist epistemology. The thesis employs a qualitative single case study with an abductive approach. The data consists of official FIFA communications regarding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar between 2015 and 2024. The material is analysed using a critical discourse analysis to identify how discursive strategies actively produce and maintain legitimacy. 
Theoretical Framing:
The study is grounded in institutional theory and organisational legitimacy, extending into the literature on institutional maintenance work and discursive legitimation. It draws on Scott's (2001) three institutional pillars and Suchman's (1995) distinction between pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacy to frame what is at stake when legitimacy is contested, and on Lawrence and Suddaby's (2006) concept of institutional work to analyse how legitimacy is actively maintained. The framework is extended into the transnational setting through Scherer et al. (2013) and Tallberg and Zürn (2019), and the analysis of discursive tactics builds on Vaara and Tienari (2008) and Vaara et al. (2006).


Contributions:
This thesis contributes to management and organisation studies by developing the concept of responsibility laundering, showing how global organisations actively manage legitimacy through four specific discursive tactics: acknowledge, buffer, deflect, and facilitate. It demonstrates that the institutional position in a transnational setting is sustained by maintenance work that contains moral criticism at the normative pillar. This is done so that it does not reach the cognitive pillar on which the institution depends. The study reveals that a fragmented audience is not a difficulty for legitimation but the structural condition under which this maintenance work can succeed.}},
  author       = {{Laan, Jesper and Soto, Aimar}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Responsibility Laundering: FIFA and the Discursive Maintenance of Legitimacy}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}