CONSTRUCTING ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY TRANSACTIONALLY: THE COMMUNICATIVE CONSTITUTION OF ISIL

Abstract

This dissertation explores how organizations attempt to construct their ontology and legitimacy through external messages, known as institutional positioning. Constructing an image of legitimacy is particularly important, yet complicated, for groups thought to be illegitimate, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)—an organization that is emerging as a de facto nation state. Analysis of Dabiq, ISIL’s recruitment and propaganda magazine series, revealed ISIL’s institutional positioning conformed to a communication pattern I define as a transactional organizational identity narrative. This pattern is comprised of a set of legitimacy appeals that, together, socially construct the unfolding of a collective’s defining characteristics across time, and anticipate and refute other collectives’ delegitimation attempts. Across the pages of the magazines, the transactional organizational identity narrative consisted of three broad categories of institutional appeals: material, religious, and confrontational. Implications for communication constitutes organizing (CCO) theory and the social construction of organizations are included.