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Scholars since Weber have acknowledged the fundamental role of legitimacy in the social world. Theoretical and empirical work overwhelmingly advances a sanguine yet static view of legitimacy; legitimacy both enables institutionalization and authorizes action. In contrast, this paper explores the dynamics of legitimation processes and emphasizes that legitimacy, like any element of social structure, both enables and constrains action. When the undesired constraints associated with the on-going construction of legitimacy become both salient and entrenched, the result is a legitimacy trap. This study’s setting is the human resources profession, an entity that has embarked on two well-documented legitimation projects in the past 50 years. The first of these projects established a compliance-oriented role for HR as the interpreter and enforcer of workplace regulations. The second project has sought a strategy-oriented …