Ecological Change and Organizational Legitimacy Repair: A Case Study of Hong Kong YWCA, Tai O YICK, Man Kin A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Sociology The Chinese University of Hong Kong August 2011 Abstract of thesis entitled: Ecological Change and Organizational Legitimacy Repair: A Case Study of Hong Kong YWCA, Tai O Submitted by YICK, Man Kin for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in August 2011 ii Abstract This thesis studies how an organization maintained its legitimacy in response to the changing ecology. Through this study, the dynamics between state and social service sector in Hong Kong in the past two decades will be illuminated. This study draws on concepts from literature on organizational legitimacy, stakeholder analysis, and nonprofit studies. Through a qualitative case study, I attempt to illustrate how a social service organization (SSO), Hong Kong YWCA, differed in strategies of legitimacy repair after challenges from a Tai O rural consultative body, government departments, and other parts of the society in two time periods: the District Board election in 1988 and post-disaster relief during 2008-10 (the River Crab Saga). I aim to provide an explanation of more consistent, unified, and less complied response in the earlier case but less consistent, unified and more compliance with stakeholders' demands in the latter case - the high level of change in salience among YWCA stakeholders in the latter dispute. Two factors resulted in such a change: 1) the less stable funding environment due to Lump Sum Grant System, and 2) the intensified struggle between pro-Beijing and pro-democracy factions due to party penetration of society and rise of popular political awareness. In the River Crab Saga, YWCA had to deal with more stakeholders with contradictory demands. The stakeholders also varied in salience as defined by YWCA. Especially, the rural iii consultative body seeking the support of a government minister enhanced its salience and increased stakeholder multiplicity. YWCA faced greater obstacles in satisfying all stakeholders and their demands. This made the legitimacy repair to stakeholders more fluctuating. In the 1988 case, there were fewer stakeholders, due to fewer funding sources and less intensive struggle between political camps. There were no obvious linkages between stakeholders. Hence stakeholders showed less variation in salience. The relationship between government and YWCA was more balanced in the 1980s, leading to YWCA's high bargaining power and stronger autonomy. This study has confirmed the dynamic nature of legitimacy across time, and offers several implications on Hong Kong study: the tension of large SSOs in Hong Kong between the role of operator and advocator under heavy reliance on government subvention, as well as the debates over Beijing's intervention and undermining of Hong Kong's political autonomy. Keywords: Organizational legitimacy, non-govemmental social service organization, Tai O, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder salience, nonprofit studies, Lump Sum Grant, River Crab Saga iv legitimacy ) social service organization, SSO)—— 1988 2008 2010 1988 S 2008 ’ ° ° 1988 0 XV vi Acknowledgement This thesis is dedicated to social scientists and archivists who provide us records and insightful viewpoints on Hong Kong studies. Most of the ideas and arguments for my thesis were inspired by their work. I am indebted to those who provide me support during my postgraduate study. First of all, I would like to present my deepest gratitude to all my informants in this research. They shared with me their personal experiences and life stories, and helped me search for other informants, which would otherwise be impossible to know from other sources. Special thanks should be given to a few key informants (unfortunately unable to acknowledge them in real names here) because they did not feel annoyed about my repeated interviews. I want to express my greatest appreciation to my principal supervisor, Professor Chan Kin-man, for his sincere mentorship during the whole study. His agreement for conducting a research about Tai O, his invaluable experiences in civil society, and his intellectual advice on my thesis, kept motivating me to think beyond my immediate findings. I am also thankful for his excellent suggestions after my messy presentation of fieldwork and data, especially in the final stage of thesis writing. Whenever I got lost in literature and evidence, he always patiently calmed me down and reminded me to stand firm to my core ideas. Professor Chan, I treasure each and every vii discussion with you. I would like to thank all members of the thesis committee for their time, interest, and valuable comments, especially their emphasis on implication of organizational legitimacy repair and its significance on the changing state-civil society relations. I am very much benefited from the following people for their intellectual input: Mr. Ah So, who suggested that Tai O was a nice place of field site; Professor Susanne Choi Yuk-ping, who advised me to study literature on legitimacy; Dr. Leung Hon-chu, who reminded me the importance of factions in the community; Dr. Siu Yat-ming, who told me to be aware of the consequence of intervention of the state and social service organization into village politics; Dr. Fung Kwok-kin, Mr. Mok Hing-luen, and Dr. Leung Chi-yuen, who shared their work experiences in their community development service and dynamics with the government in the 1980s; Dr. Kwong Kam-kwan and Dr. Ip lam-chong, who told me to pay emphasis on the patron-client politics and enduring influence of rural elites even after Hong Kong went through modernization; Mr. Lee Kim-ming, who told me to be mindful of the discrepancy between analytical distinction of types of legitimacy and laymen's perception of legitimacy as a whole; and Dr. Lau Siu-lun, who pushed me to think of a framework for clear explanation. Special thanks should be given to Dr. Leung, Mr. Lee, Dr. Lau, and Mr. Ho Chun-kit for sparing their time and expertise to comment on my early draft. viii I also enjoyed fruitful discussion with Sze Tak-on, Gigi Lo, Ben Li, Patrick Yip, Jeff Kwan, Victor Ng, and Stanley Ho. I need to thank the Department of Sociology in CUHK for providing a comfortable study environment and helping me handle the administrative work on thesis submission. An unintended consequence of my postgraduate study is that my readings about development of the New Territories helped me engage in discussion of rural politics (although marginal) when people started to question village representative system and the privileges of indigenous people; while readings about 'harmonious society' agenda aroused my interest in studying how Beijing politics is shaping Hong Kong politics, as well as in studying the perception of Hong Kong people about the struggle of integration and autonomy, which is another hot debate in the present and coming future. Finally, I need to dedicate my thanks to my parents, who gave me intensive care during my journey of thesis writing. Without their support in housework, I could not concentrate on my research. ix Contents Page Abstract in English iii Abstract in Chinese v Acknowledgement vii Contents x Abbreviations xiii Lists of Tables, figures and graph xv Section 1 Introduction 1 Purpose of the study 4 Section 2 Historical development of social welfare sector and YWCA 5 Conceptualizing NGOs 5 Early colonial period to WWII: Formation of charity organization 7 under minimal welfare provision of the government Post-WWII to 1960s: Government in need of SSOs for relief work 9 and against communism 1960s to 1990s: Expansion of social welfare and state 10 incorporation of SSOs From the 1990s: Towards a contractual relationship between SSOs 12 and government in uncertain times YWCA has followed the footsteps of social service sector 16 Section 3 Conceptualizing legitimacy repair 18 Why legitimacy? 18 Conceptualizing and defining legitimacy 20 Typology of legitimacy 22 Measurements of legitimacy 25 Legitimacy repair 25 Stakeholder and stakeholder politics 28 Section 4 Analytical framework 32 Determinants of degree of consistency of legitimacy repair 32 strategies Section 5 Methodology 35 A longitudinal single case study 35 A qualitative research 36 Why TO YWCA? 36 Research method 37 Field roles and field relations 39 XV Informant selection 40 A note on the role of media 41 Ethical issues in this study 42 Section 6 The setting: Tai O 43 The administrative-political setting 48 Local associations in Tai O 51 Section 7 Legitimacy challenge on YWCA during 1988 District Board 53 election Entry of YWCA 53 Struggle in 1988 District Board election 63 YWCA after the election: Formal complaint by TORC and its 73 repair strategies Section 8 The River Crab Saga from 2008 to 2010 75 The two floodings in brief 75 What were TORC s challenges to YWCA? 76 Response of YWCA: Apology to TORC and adoption of a softer 85 work strategy of community work A turn to expression of regret under public scrutiny 88 The effect of the Saga on Tai O community: TO YWCA and 99 pro-TOYWCA residents The effect of the Saga on YWCA 100 Section 9 Discussion 102 Differences of the two disputes in terms of stakeholder 102 identification and analysis Explaining the difference of repair strategies of YWCA legitimacy 114 between the two controversies What factors could link up pro-Beijing and rural forces since the 136 1990s? 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