An organization can destroy its own legitimacy by trying to maintain it.

Evidence

The two legitimating factors – the idea of grassroots democracy and low-cost electricity – had become the standard by which people judged the TVA. The Authority lost its grassroots support when the people in the Valley would no longer favor its programs and policies. People no longer favored its programs and policies when the TVA could no longer provide inexpensive electricity. The basis for the TVA’s legitimacy thus began to crumble as a consequence of the TVA’s efforts to maintain this legitimacy. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 286

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘Legitimacy’s Death Spiral’ — cases where the fight to preserve standing is what dissolves it.