Building the legitimacy of an enterprise based on symbols – conceptualization of the problem

Purpose: The intentional use of symbols when preparing messages to stakeholders of modern enterprises could influence texts to become either more powerful or more vague. The purpose of the conducted analysis was to establish what the conditions need to be met for statements being prepared by enterprises to be the source of symbolic values that next could actually impact activities performed by them. Design/methodology/approach: The character of the research problem inclined the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach involving literature review of disciplines, including management science as well as sociology and psychology. Findings: In a highly uncertain conditions of the environment of modern enterprises activities performed by enterprises can be possibly interpreted in many ways. Traditional approach to communicating with stakeholders, which is believed to be based mainly on the presentation of financial data, appears to be too modest to convey effectively the message related to enterprises goals and aspirations. When enriching the descriptive part of their messages in statements of the enterprises, managers can create the context for interpretation aiming at encouraging all stakeholders to more effort being put into daily activities of their enterprises. The arguments presented in the article encourage to recognize symbols and symbolic management as cognitively interesting both in terms of scientific research and actions undertaken by company management boards in practice. Originality/value: When using symbols in their texts in a way leading these symbols to interacting with issues important from the point of view of stakeholders, managers can make stakeholders be sure about the activities undertaken by enterprises. However, only the appropriate use of these interactions, i.e. allowing for the creation of appropriate symbolic values, is to make enterprises actually follow declarations claimed by managers. Otherwise in the long term perspective the stakeholders’ trust can be weakened, which can threaten the existence of the enterprise in a contemporary, highly uncertain environment. Hence, the attention paid to the intentional use of symbolic values appears to be not only original but primarily interesting topic for the future research. It may be emphasized that the originality of the presented concept lies in its interdisciplinary assumptions that are to more accurately address the complexity of the challenges facing modern enterprises. Keywords: agency, legitimacy, symbolic management, CEO letter. Category of the paper: conceptual paper.