• Work

• Feedback Cycles

• Identity flexibility and sustainable cooperation
• Reconciling stakeholder interests
• Shared responsibility and sustainable cooperation

This paper develops the concept of Sustainable Governance, a normative framework for organizational authority under conditions of systemic crisis. Governance is often understood instrumentally as control, coordination, or value creation, but its legitimacy ultimately determines whether power is justifiable to those governed. Classical theories of legitimacy (Weber, Suchman, North, Ostrom) assume stable institutional environments where crises are temporary disruptions. Yet in today’s era of polycrisis—climate breakdown, democratic erosion, and global inequality—legitimacy is persistently eroded, undermining the foundations of governance. I argue that organizations cannot rely solely on external legitimacy but must cultivate internal sources of legitimacy that sustain cooperation and normative accountability when institutional infrastructures falter. Sustainable Governance reframes legitimacy as a partly internal capacity, anchored in three interrelated pillars: internal legitimacy, sustainable stewardship, and norm repair. This framework expands stakeholder theory and equips organizations to exercise authority that remains accountable, resilient, and ethically grounded even in systemic disruption.

How can organizations sustain legitimate governance when the institutional environments that normally support legitimacy are destabilized by systemic crises?

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