Pursuit of Legitimacy:

TOTAL is the fourth largest multinational oil company in the world after Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil. It has been strictly under the scrutiny of the public in regards to its operation in Burma where the governments significantly violate human rights. Its investment is considered by many international human rights groups to be supporting the military regime and thus supporting the junta’s human rights violations. It is clear that TOTAL has been facing a severe legitimacy problem, and struggling to regain legitimacy for more than a decade. TOTAL has responded to those criticisms in various ways. Throughout this study, case study research method is used to analyse and examine the responses of TOTAL in accordance with the Legitimacy Theory. Legitimacy Theory predicts that legitimising strategies are applied by company to regain legitimacy when there is a legitimacy problem or called legitimacy gap.