Transparency in Organizations

Appropriate Use of Transparency in Organizations

It is important to assume some level of organizational transparency because people need to know what is happening in an organization. It is evident that transparency among employees in a company increases their productivity through distributive incentives ability. Appropriate transparency promotes positive perceptions that are important for an organization (Jehiel,2014). Transparency enables leaders to capitalize on perceptions of honesty and fairness. Transparency has enabled increase and maintain public trust in the organization through the availability of information which has reduced mistrust and arousal suspicion.

The most appropriate level of organizational transparency is whereby the organization can implement the principles of transparency. These are the principles that the organization has to follow to be transparent. This will facilitate a higher level of transparency in the organization. For appropriate transparency, an organization needs to be transparent about guarantees for any product, about their prices, being transparent about business success and mistakes, dealing with unsatisfied customers and about change in an organization (Ball,2009). The effort of a fully transparent organization is accompanied by a better operation. It is important for an organization to be honest, open and accountable in the relationships with everyone they work with. It is also essential to provide timely and accurate reports about their activities and operations to their stakeholders.

While transparency has had benefits to organizations, some instances securing information is required. In a case that the information could lead to harm to the organization and the stakeholders it supports hence constituting to transparency not being a good strategy (Auger,2014). For example, a healthcare facility that provides complete disclosure in details may affect the patient negatively. Provide a full disclosure of the organization funds support functions may lead to questions that can inadvertently expose risk to the health information of the patient (Choo et al., 2008). This shows that transparency may not be appropriate for all organization at all times.

Through transparency, a leader can communicate innovations to their employees hence influencing them positively to adopt the innovations. This, therefore, shows that transparency can enable some leader guide others in the most appropriate way. A leader can inspire trust to their customers through the transparency of their products through relevant information about their products. They can set a big picture through transparency hence influencing its stakeholders who increase their trust in the company (Oliver,2004). Transparency has been a formal mechanism that leaders have used to influence their employees that have felt free to voice their opinions. This has made them feel empowered in the organization. Therefore, leaders have utilized transparency as a social influence hence capturing their followers. This is because leaders are responsible for influencing their followers to achieve.

References

Auger, G. A. (2014). Trust me, trust me not: An experimental analysis of the effect of transparency on organizations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(4), 325-343.

Ball, C. (2009). What is transparency?. Public Integrity, 11(4), 293-308.

Choo, C. W., Bergeron, P., Detlor, B., & Heaton, L. (2008). Information culture and information use: An exploratory study of three organizations. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 59(5), 792-804.

Jehiel, P. (2014). On transparency in organizations. The Review of Economic Studies, 82(2), 736-761.

Oliver, R. (2004). What is transparency?. McGraw Hill Professional.