Can We Have Too Much Transparency In Our Organizations?
Transparency is a simple word with a complex meaning. Companies like Buffer for example are completely transparent with salaries. Employees can see the pay scale for each position internally and in fact, even if you don’t work for the company you can see how much money everyone there makes. Many employees are looking to their leaders to be transparent with information and with the internal workings of their companies. However, perhaps there is such as thing as being too transparent!
Transparency is a two way street that operates on a spectrum. There are different ways a company can be transparent, such as, making more internal information public, sharing salary information, opening up management reviews, sharing executive meetings notes, distributing sales information, etc. Oftentimes we as employees want more information from the organization but as an employee how much information are you willing to give to the organization? Are you comfortable sharing your salary information or performance review history? Sites like Glassdoor have completely evolved the conversation on what corporate transparency really means but can we take it too far?
I believe transparency is just as much negotiation and dialogue as it is the actual action of sharing and opening up information. So my question to you is, what kind of transparency are you looking for from your organization and how much of your information are you will to give to the organization?
I talk about this more in the video below. Leave a comment below and subscribe to the YouTube channel for more videos if interested.
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Jacob Morgan is a keynote speaker, author, and futurist. To have Jacob speak at your event, see his videos, podcasts and articles, or to subscribe to his newsletter visit TheFutureOrganization.
