How you can achieve sustainable added value for your company with more "transparency"
Whether reports on product developments, last month's sales or colleagues' "to-do" lists, almost everything is now available to almost anyone at almost any company. On magnetic boards, glass office walls or with the help of Post-its, all imaginable information is stuck on, written on or attached to. This transparent exchange at all levels enables employees to be informed about everything that is going on in the company at the moment and what will happen in the future. But what use is a culture of disclosure?
What does transparency mean?
In the original Latin sense, transparency means "transparency". In the corporate context, this essentially means open access to information about structures, processes and key performance indicators. However, transparency does not mean that every piece of information is freely made available to everyone. Of course, personal data must be treated confidentially. Certain production processes or the details of a customer order are also not suitable for the public. Which information is made accessible for which reasons and which is not, should be communicated clearly in advance and is therefore an essential component of a transparent exchange of information.
In principle, a distinction can be made between external and internal transparency. In the first case, the exchange of information between customers and companies is meant, whereby a clear trend emerges that customers not only want to buy products, but also want to be informed about their origin and origins. They want to learn more about the company as a whole and attach particular importance to CSR activities. Employees also want to be informed about internal company processes in order to feel part of a larger whole.
Why is transparency so important in the VUCA world?
Digital information and communication technologies give us constant access to information and knowledge. For this reason, we are now used to information being freely accessible. Conversely, withholding information can create a feeling of distrust.
A survey conducted by the Society for Consumer, Market and Sales Research and the University of St. Gallen with more than 1000 junior managers showed that 77% are convinced that open sharing of information in a company makes it more successful in the long term.
Open communication is the cornerstone for credibility and trust, both with customers and with employees. Informed employees have the feeling that they are integrated into the overall concept of the company and that they are an important part of it. In this way, identification with the overriding corporate values and objectives can be increased.
Last but not least, a culture of transparent exchange encourages employees to contribute their own suggestions and ideas. If the employees are informed - beyond their own tasks - about the higher-level processes, procedures and structures, they are empowered to also use their knowledge and skills in other areas. This mechanism generates new knowledge that is specific to the company, which can, for example, shorten production paths or generate innovative problem-solving approaches.
How you can achieve sustainable added value through greater transparency
With regard to our concept of a healthy organisation, which includes a high learning and adaptability capacity of a company, the ability to absorb knowledge available internally and externally and to adapt it to specific needs is described as absorption capacity. Absorbent and thus highly adaptive organisations continuously collect knowledge, either by analysing the context and market conditions or by experiencing organisational events that broaden their own experience. In this way, companies can use their available knowledge to identify opportunities and develop new potential for themselves (compare Kallenbach 2016).
Relevant information must not only be recognised, but also processed and made usable as new knowledge. This will only succeed if the relevant information is distributed to all within the organisation. Open communication and transparent exchange lead employees to deal with the shared information and weigh up how they can use it for their department, project or task. This creates new, company-specific knowledge that is shared with everyone.
The generation of knowledge according to the needs of the company is therefore inevitably linked to the transparency of information. An organisation that is able to absorb and thus learn can adapt to dynamic market conditions (keyword VUCA) and changing customer requirements continuously and faster than others.
Conclusion
Transparency is a decisive factor for the sustainable success of a company, as it increases both credibility and trust in the company and thus improves customer loyalty and employee satisfaction. The absorptive capacity of a company determines whether and how information is used to generate specific knowledge that promotes the development and growth of the company from within.
(Editorial implementation: Corinna Brucker)