Deciding about transparency

Transparency contributes to organizational health. Despite the value of truth telling and the benefits it brings, many people, CEOs, managers, employees are facing difficulties when making ethical decisions. This doubt and uncertainty is not connected to a single company, but it is a general problem. In today's emerging digital age there is no place to hide any information thanks to virtuality enabling information to travel at the speed of light.

In this article, I will present difficulties of decision-making that concern embedding transparency in different circumstances. I will analyze three cases that happened in the past and the dilemmas connected with them whether to act transparently or not, namely from science and technology, corporation and politics. This will also include implications and consequences, both to the interior and the exterior of environment.

Employees behave in such a way as to be rewarded by organizations. As we know from the history, unpleasant news was in most cases not welcomed by leaders. Transparency by leadership is closely related to employees' ethical behavior at work. More to say, employees copy the behavior of their leaders as they are the ones that set example. Organizations that promote ethical behavior and openness would get feedback from employees. Truth telling can be harmful, yet also constructive.

Before Columbia shuttle launch, NASA engineers requested a damage assessment, but were overridden by management. They were afraid to raise safety concerns because of fear for their careers. During the Columbia shuttle disaster foam insulation from the external tank damaged left wing's thermal protection system. The disaster could have been avoided, but fear, evoked by suppression, predominated over ethics.

In the case of NASA transparency was something that was needed, there was no honest and open communication channel between management and employees, thus the problem arose. NASA management should give example to employees and promote culture of candor starting from themselves - welcoming even the most inconvenient opinions without allowing them to sugarcoat the information. Transparency would enhance ethics in the organization.

If a corporation doesn't want to disclose information and employees feel that secret activity violates their ethics, they do one of the three following things - continue to work hiding their feelings, quit or speak up.

Another example, Enron was an American energy company, where chairman Kenneth Lay was under suspicion of accounting scandal, yet he didn't admit that. One employee, Sheron Watkins, sent an anonymous memo to Lay with accusation. When Lay identified Watkins, he met with her and discussed the case. Lay, although made promises to her, fulfilled neither of them and the problem remained unsolved. Eventually her writing was made public by congressional investigators. Lay wouldn't have engaged in accounting scandal if the corporation had been transparent. Instead, he must have had behaved ethically.

What Watkins did, although being called a whistleblower, was speaking truth to power. Creating a culture of candor starts at the top. Leaders create a space of candor people then enter. So top management is the one who decides about adopting transparency into a corporation and thus free flow of information.

Power does not confer infallibility on anyone. Deciding about acting transparently whether as an individual or a group demands circumstances analysis, will, ethical thinking but first and foremost humility, and starts from the very inside. The problem is that people in power form shared ideas without examining them, holding together and forgetting about common sense. Leaders acting as listeners and teachers are far more contributing to the honest and open work environment than those certain of never being wrong.

John F. Kennedy practiced groupthink till that moment. President and his advisors were to make decision. Kennedy's top advisers knew facts that supported contrary decision to that which was made, however they concealed it. They decided to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, which as an outcome of a groupthink, turned out a mistake.

That shows Kennedy's and his advisors' tight-knot relationship, which disrupted reasonable thinking and decision making. Groupthink is prone to contributing to the contrary of disclosure, namely suppression. In this respect rethinking old assumptions and considering the decision, even when working in group can help avoiding misjudgment. Transparency, thus candor, could help avoid groupthink error.

The question we have to ask ourselves is whether each of us doesn't feel that secret activity violates our morality. In fact, making decisions is up to everyone's individual ethical code. Work behavior is rooted in family life, what is learned at home is then brought to organization. Character trait needed in discerning what is right or wrong and acting unashamed on behalf of that is called integrity. Above-mentioned examples, although chosen from many situations that took place, show that transparency is not only an organizational issue, it's each and every individual's concern. Whether in situations when a group of people discusses a matter and one doesn't reveal crucial information, when it's about the lives of people, even on a daily basis when it's about acting and behaving ethically, doing the right thing not violating the rules, not feeling remorse. It would save time and health when there wouldn't be any reason to disclose wrongdoings, which wouldn't exist. Speaking truth we don't have to remember what we said, because it's consistent with the events and information rooted in our minds.

Before saying or doing, each of us should remember about analyzing, questioning and rethinking our own assumptions. People shouldn't be afraid to speak their minds, everyone should have their freedom of speech. Discussing, welcoming other points of view, getting to know different perspectives instead of rejection and disrespect are the approaches needed in the 21st century. Openness and exchange of information is what matters today.

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