The role of a county health department as a linking-pin organization in a network.

This is a case study of a local health department's role in the formation and operation of a network of health care providers. The local health department served as a linking-pin organization in the network and engaged in actions to legitimize itself and the network it formed. Legitimacy management requires the development of pragmatic, moral, and cognitive strategies that can be used for gaining, maintaining or repairing legitimacy. The results of this study indicate a unique government legitimacy management profile in which there is a predominant use of cognitive and pragmatic actions intended to gain legitimacy. The implications of this profile are discussed.