Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:

Dwight

How Much Transparency

              Transparency in an organization can strengthen or improve the level of trust employees have with the leadership. It is up to leadership to determine what level of transparency is appropriate. That determination should be made based on the overall organizational culture, the nature of the organization, and the scenario in which transparency is needed (Merlo, Eisingerich, Auh, & Levstek, 2018). For example, during my deployment to Afghanistan in 2008, one of the commanders was suspended and subsequently relieved for an inappropriate relationship. This information was conveyed to the rest of the organization. However, the details were omitted. Personnel were told the commander had been suspended, but not why. Full transparency, in this case, would have only caused rumors amongst the 750 people in the organization. Furthermore, the investigation would take months. What if rumors of the commander’s guilt started to spread, but at the conclusion of the investigation, the commander was found innocent? That would be a problem. Therefore, leaders need to evaluate every situation to determine the level of transparency (Heimstädt, 2017). There are no one-size fits all. 

Exerting Influence

       There are a few different ways a leader can exert influence through transparency. One of those ways in during the interview process of a hiring action. Hiring managers routinely scrub resumes and have a basic idea of the candidate before the interview takes place. However, in almost every instance, there are some questions. Maybe it’s a gap in employment history or short period of employment at a particular company. Whatever the reason, there are questions. Leaders can exert influence during the interview process by being transparent about those concerns (Schnackenberg & Tomlinson, 2016). The leader can ask questions and openly communicate those concerns to the candidate. 

       Of equal importance is how a leader can exert influence through transparency while coaching, teaching, and mentoring a troublesome or low performing employee. Most organizations have a process for dealing with poor performers. It typically involves verbal and written counseling and if things do not improve, termination of the employee. A leader can exert influence during these verbal and written counseling by openly communicating the employee’s shortfalls. More specifically by developing a plan for the employee to overcome the challenges and succeed (Schnackenberg & Tomlinson, 2016).While serving in the Army, I routinely used this method to correct poor performing soldiers. In almost every instance, I was thanked afterward for being so forthcoming and honest with my assessment. In some instances, employees may not know they are poor performers. The employees’ previous leaders may not have done their job and counseled the employee of the poor performance. Therefore, a good leader will use transparency as a tool to motivate employees to improve their performance.

 

References

Heimstädt, M. (2017, December). Openwashing: A decoupling perspective on organizational transparency. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 125(), 77-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.03.037

Merlo, O., Eisingerich, A., Auh, S., & Levstek, J. (2018). The benefits and implementation of performance transparency: The why and how of letting your customers ? see through? your business. Business Horizons, 61(1), 73-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.09.007

Schnackenberg, A. K., & Tomlinson, E. C. (2016, November). Organizational transparency: A new perspective on managing trust in organization-stakeholder Relationships. Journal of Management, 42(7), 1784-1810. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206314525202

Marsheena

What transparency is about is hard to capture in just one sentence. It is about sharing all the information the receiver wants or needs, and not just the news that the sender is willing to share. It is about putting all the facts on the table, even when some of them are uncomfortable. (Berg, 2011) Transparency has advantages to the business; there are numerous occurrences where data requires anchoring. Any data that could accomplish more damage to the organization and the general population it backings would comprise occasions where straightforwardness is not a decent system. In an association that is in charge of keeping up classified data on the strength of the country's veterans, the data made accessible to workers and the general population is available to predictable evaluation. In government worked therapeutic services offices, giving complete divulgence in full detail might be destructive to the patients. Full divulgence of how or where some appropriated subsidizes bolster capacities, may bring up issues that could incidentally hazard introduction of a gathering of patient’s health data. While this model, is speculation and may not be the best representation, this brings issues to light that straightforwardness may not generally be something to be thankful for all organizations consistently. The outcomes of an excessive amount of straightforwardness Building on existing exploration and my consultancy work, I've presumed that total straightforwardness in the present associations may diminish useful, proportional conduct between representatives. (De Cremer, 2016) Complete straightforwardness should convey certainties to the surface. The actualities are then expected to represent themselves. In any case, disregarded to stand, realities don't make a culture that tries to comprehend why something occurred. Rather than making sense of why an error was made, you recognize what the oversight was and who made it.

References

Berg, O. (2011, July 5). 3 Reasons Why Organizations Need to Increase Transparency. Retrieved from https://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-collaboration/3-reasons-why-organizations-need-to-increase-transparency-011886.php

De Cremer, D. (2016, July 21). When Transparency Backfires, and How to Prevent It. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/07/when-transparency-backfires-and-how-to-prevent-it

Patel, N. (2014, October 9). Why A Transparent Culture Is Good For Business. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3036794/why-a-transparent-culture-is-good-for-business