Running head: OPENNESS AND CLEARER TRANSPARENCY 1

The complexity of transparency

Ong Kong Hong

COM 437- L01

University at Buffalo

The State University Of New York

Instructor: Dr. Reece Durham

11/10/2020
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The need for transparency is experiencing an upward trend, as people become more aware of

what is happening around them, which has been intensified in this technological era.

Transparency has been touted to breed greater trust and accountability, but the term has been

used loosely and interchangeably with “openness”. The former is characterized as the access

to timely and reliable information, and the latter describes the interactions between different

parties. With this clear distinction made, the notion that without openness, it would be

difficult to achieve the effects of transparency (trust and accountability) , does not seem too

far- fetched.

The issue with transparency is that it is a multi- faceted concept that can be broken down into

dimensions and directions. The two main dimensions are:

- Clear transparency: access to information that states truthful reports about an

organization’s practices, specifying its members’ responsibilities.

- Opaque transparency: information disseminated that does not actually reflect how

institutions operate in reality, basically, information that is shared only for the sake of

sharing (Fox J., 2010).

The different directions of transparency can be broken down into:

- Upward: allows a supervisor to oversee the behavior and work displayed by a

subordinate

- Downward: allows subordinates to monitor the work and behavior of supervisors

- Inward: refers to external members of an organization ability to see how an

organization operates 

- Outward: refers to members of an organization observing what is happening outside

of the organization (Vian T., 2020).

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Based on how transparency can be divided up into various forms, it is clear to see that there

are plenty of avenues where problems can easily arise.

One of the main problems that is gaining traction is the susceptibility to falsifying records. In

the event where information is freely available, there is no guarantee that it is truthful even if

it comes from a supposedly reliable source (which explains why corruption exists). Take

corporate social responsibility (CSR) for example, it is a widely accepted fact that social and

environmental practices can either drastically improve/ worsen a company’s image. Recently,

researchers have come to question whether data in CSR reports are actually consistent with

actual performance, and whether the increase in availability of CSR information actually

leads to improvements made in sustainable practices (García-Sánchez, et al., 2019).

Furthermore, inconsistency between the information provided and the CSR decisions actually

taken by upper level management has been highlighted (Mio, 2010). With so much at stake, it

is easy to see why companies would be inclined to create favourable CSR reports to satisfy

members of the public. Because of the multitude of directions which affects transparency,

information coming from upward/ downward/ inward/ outward factors will affect whether

transparency becomes clear/ opaque. In the event where non- compliant practices are

exposed, “the problem of many hands” arises, whereby it is difficult to pinpoint who is

responsible. As more companies’ unlawful practices are brought to light, it poses a challenge

as to which source to trust and who should be held accountable. Hence, just because an

organization is transparent does not necessarily equate to an increase in trust or

accountability.

Thus, the need for there to be openness in order for transparency to be valid. When openness

is effectively employed, it is capable of positively influencing all directions of transparency:

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- Upward & Downward: promotes higher levels of creativity, innovation, and

flexibility.

- Inward: engaging members of the public may be able to help outsiders set realistic

expectations, thus reducing the need for companies to produce impressive results.

- Outward: engaging members of the public allows organizations to better identify

problems that need to be addressed. Or even gain access to opportunities for

collaboration with other companies to better meet consumer demands.

The result of an improvement in directional transparency through openness, under various

forms of interaction, has the ability to produce clearer transparency.

To conclude, openness acts as a precursor for clearer transparency. The concept of clearer

transparency may seem counterintuitive, but the susceptibility to various risk factors (ie.

Falsified reports) denotes that transparency may not be as clear as it seems. Without

openness, it is often difficult to tell apart the degree of truthfulness from information that is

disseminated.