Daniel Holback
Walden University
Appropriate Use of Transparency in Organizations

Organizational Transparency
Transparency in economic terms refers to the degree of openness regarding information about the nature of transactions, terms of contractual agreements, the degree of financial interest, fiduciary obligation, the level of risk and degree of understanding of both nature and terms of business dealings. Organizational transparency gives employees an unfiltered insight into a company’s operations and future. It’s giving employees a voice. Silver (2005) states that In an age when nothing can be hidden for long, everything depends on trust and transparency (Silver, 2005). He also said that stakeholders were demanding that organizations become more transparent—which he defined as honesty and accuracy—not only “in the numbers they release but also in how they’re run” (p. 16). However, transparency also requires trust. Being transparent requires a willingness to be vulnerable because you can’t ensure how people will use the information you share. Therefore, organizations must also trust their stakeholders in order to risk being transparent.
Appropriate Levels
Healthy organizational culture is vital when it comes to the workplace according to Northouse (2013). According to Watschke (2015) using social media to drive organizational transparency helps build trust with stakeholders. He informs how social media dynamics may be forcing organizations to take another look at how openly they communicate with their audiences (Watschke, 2015). I believe that the Mass acceptance of social tools and technology has created an information democracy. Stakeholders are beginning to expect open access to relevant content and the ability to participate in dialogue that will help them satisfy their information needs. All this for the purpose of building trust in a product, service or organization. Trust is the foundation of all relationships and relationships are what fuel business growth and long-term success. Transparency across digital channels is a great way for organizations to start connecting with their audiences and slowly building trust.
Not a Good Strategy
Transparency can be a struggle for certain organizations. Governments across the country are striving to meet a call to transparency by upping their data collection and analysis efforts. But with this trend toward big data comes an influx of “bad data” inaccurate, outdated or misused information that leads to ill-informed policies, misled initiatives and an ensuing lack of citizen trust. According to Williams (2004) Transparency for funders is a helpful idea, but it’s not a panacea. For example, If private foundations and grant makers think it is, then their attempts to bring a measure of sunlight to a sector shrouded in mist are likely to fail or, much worse, do damage (Williams, 2004). I’ve discovered in my own career that a lot of people's reactions to surprise is somewhat counter-intuitively negative.
Transparency Leaders Influence
According to Larsson et al. (2010), leadership behavior has a critical role in the creation of successful organizations. Their research depends on the three-dimensional leadership behavior theory (change, structure, and relation-orientation). Leadership behavior theory has traditionally included two dimensions derived from factor analysis.
In conclusion, I believe that transparency is only effective with great communication within the organization. Transparent communication is useful because it builds trust. Communication the characteristics of transparency that helps employees to avoid surprises and provides the information those individuals need in order to understand what is going on at the time that they need it.

Reference
Larsson, Johan; Vinberg, Stig. (2010). Leadership behavior in successful organizations: Universal or situation-dependent?Total Quality Management. Vol. 21, No. 3, March 2010, 317–334.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage
Silver, D. (2005) "Creating transparency for public companies: The convergence of PR and IR in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley marketplace." The Public Relations Strategist, 16-19.
Watschke, B. (2015). Promoting transparency and branding of megaprojects using social networking sites (SNS) (Order No. 1591309). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1697862136). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1697862136?accountid=14872
Williams, C. C. (2004). Trust diffusion: The effect of interpersonal trust on structure, function and organizational transparency (Order No. 3193074). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305221777). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/305221777?accountid=14872