Ethics and transparency in business decision-making are critical to the long-term success of a company and its team. Such decision-making promotes trust, respect and a positive workplace culture. It helps retain top talent and keep them contributing happily.
Organisations should prioritise ethical and transparent decision-making to build a sustainable and successful business. Unfortunately, most Sri Lankan organisations try to run ‘a shadow company’ making decisions offline with a failed attempt to show that they are authentic business decisions.
Creating a culture of trust that fosters psychological safety starts with ethics and transparency demonstrated at the top most level. It promotes fairness and managers like to work in an honest environment where they know how and why decisions are made.
When practices are ethical and transparent, managers are more likely to feel valued and respected, leading to greater job satisfaction, productivity and retention. Managers across the whole world now place workplace transparency high on the list of factors that influence their job satisfaction.
What is workplace transparency?
“An organisation that operates in a way that creates openness between and across the management hierarchy.”
Communication should flow both ways in a transparent workplace and entertain the views of both sides before conclusions are made. In addition to organisational leaders and managers sharing information with team members, team members are expected to provide constructive feedback to leaders and other team members openly and honestly. Creating workplace transparency and a transparent organisation culture requires effort on everyone’s part.
A lack of transparency fosters an “us vs. them” culture where managers don’t feel safe about discussing real business and workplace issues at the right forums. They may quit instead of bringing their job concerns to the top management in that ‘shadow company setting’.
When leaders and managers embrace honest and open communication, team members have less reason to feel distrustful of their motivations which at the end helps grow the business. This correlation is not understood well by some top leaders.
Uniformity in communication
When team members are uninformed about organisation-wide goals, they may make decisions that aren’t aligned with business goals. Using transparency to promote shared goals helps align the efforts of all team members. When challenges arise, everyone on the team is more likely to step up when they understand what they are working towards. Leaders who don’t share business problems don’t have the opportunity to tap into their team’s knowledge and experience. In a transparent workplace, team members have a better understanding of issues facing the organisation and are free to suggest solutions.
Open communication leads to mutual problem-solving that benefits the entire organisation rather than satisfying leaders’ personal psychological needs.
Workplaces that lack transparency typically have lower rates of real management engagement, hence the talent is wasted. Lower engagement can directly affect an organisation’s finances due to reduced productivity, lack of data based decision making, lower level of engagement, frustration and a higher turnover rate or managers having to play a passive role to just save the job vs doing what is right for the business.
Ethics and transparency in HR decision-making have become increasingly important for both companies and their teams. HR departments are no longer just responsible for administrative tasks; they now play a pivotal role in shaping company culture, fostering employee engagement and ensuring fairness.
By embracing ethical practices and maintaining transparency, organisations can build trust, attract and retain talented employees, foster collaboration within teams and ultimately drive overall company success.
ROI
Workplace transparency, when implemented correctly, can bring long-term returns. Employees who feel informed about business strategy and organisational direction are proven to be more engaged and involved in their work, have higher morale, and experience less workplace-related stress. This is easier said than done.
Exception to the norm; every organisation has some information that must stay confidential for legal or strategic reasons. Part of the challenge of creating a transparent workplace is deciding where boundaries should be set since sharing too much can be just as damaging as not sharing enough.
This also holds true for some employee information that requires confidentiality. Transparency doesn’t require that discretion be thrown out the window, but it does depend on everyone communicating as openly and honestly as possible, with leadership setting the tone.
A culture of ethics and transparency can improve the company’s reputation, including attracting stellar talent and ensuring customer and investor confidence. It creates a positive work environment, fosters trust and increases engagement among employees, which promotes the long-term success of the company and its teams.