Stakeholder Engagement: Why Transparency is Fundamental Posted on 26/08/2015 by Henrietta Hedberg
The sound Enron made in 2001 is still clear as a whistle when tackling corporate transparency today. It’s become a competitive advantage rather than an obligation to select key stakeholders to be transparent. Acknowledging that ethics is at the heart of leadership, the lack of transparency becomes a a greater risk than the presence of it. An M&S stakeholder transparency study conducted in 2015 revealed that nearly 1\3 of the respondents saw more benefits than risks in terms of transparency. Transparency used to show stakeholder goodwill can lead to an increased interest whereby the engagement leads to a successful shared value creation. This fellowship results in multiple benefits discussed bellow.
Trust Transparency creates trust between stakeholders, leading to a decrease of mistakes and scandals through ethical leadership. A trusting environment leads to an improved morale and an overall greater company culture. This is positive from a profit point of view, but also essential for the employee satisfaction and loyalty.
Keeping Tabs Transparency can also serve as a tool of justice for the stakeholders. Leaders can be held accountable for their actions by those involved and society at large. A balance of power is essential to maintain an environment composed of trust and mutual respect. Ethical leadership complements the balance of powers which in turn creates a more positive environment and rational expectations. Andrew Leigh covers ethical leadership to a greater extent on his blog and highlights the indispensability of it.
Success Taking an active role and recognising the responsibility of transparency creates a mutually beneficial relationship between the relevant stakeholders leading to an increased success.
Positive Public Perception Presenting the public with exhaustive data eliminates the barrier between the stakeholders, be it society, managers, shareholders, clients or suppliers. Such lack of hidden informationleads to a positive public perception.
Facilitating Communication Leadership challenges in a global stakeholder society are manifold, and utterly complex. The use of transparency within a corporation can facilitate the communicative barriers, and sustain a trustful relationship amongst all stakeholders, not only the key stakeholders, creating a mutually beneficial practice. Another key factor in terms of communication is the way transparency is displayed. The transparent information should communicate complexities of statements in simple and compelling ways in order to overcome emotional reactions through clarity, appropriate context and a facilitating channel.
Category: Stakeholder engagement
Title: Stakeholder Engagement: Why Transparency is Fundamental Focus keyword: transparency Description: Exploring the fundamental aspects of transparency for stakeholder engagement in the workplace and the use of ethical leadership. Tags: balance of powers, communication, Enron, Ethical Leadership, loyalty,Reputation, satisfaction, Stakeholder, Success, transparency, trust, stakeholder engagement, ethics, ethical, Andrew Leigh , stakeholder engagement strategy,
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