The Triggering and Restoration of Organizational Legitimacy Crises: A Case Study of Xibei Prepared Foods from the Perspective of Career Calling

Abstract

Organizational legitimacy is vital for an organization's survival and development; however, existing research has predominantly focused on macro-level analyses, leaving the micro-level transmission mechanisms of organizational legitimacy crises underexplored. To address this gap, this study adopts the perspective of career calling to construct an integrated analytical framework. Using the "Xibei prepared foods" incident in China as a typical case, this research employs a single-case study method to investigate the micro-level triggering and restoration mechanisms of organizational legitimacy crises. The findings reveal that the collapse of organizational legitimacy's three core dimensions—pragmatic, moral, and cognitive—impacts the corresponding dimensions of employees' career calling (personal meaning, other-oriented meaning, and action orientation), thereby forming a mutually reinforcing transmission mechanism. Based on this interaction, the study proposes dual-loop legitimacy restoration mechanisms driven by career calling, which involve internal value-behavior alignment and external communication-transparency strategies. This research contributes by enriching the micro-foundations of organizational legitimacy theory and offers practical guidance for enterprises, particularly in the catering sector, to manage and recover from legitimacy crises.