Chapter 3 Public Relations and Transparency

1. Chapter 3Public Relations and Transparency Rise of Transparency Defining Transparency Transparency as a Process Motivation and PR in Transparency

2. It’s Everywhere • Transparency seems to be everywhere. • It is more than a buzzword. • Seems to be a factor in many aspects of society.

3. Related Concepts • Public sphere • Space where people communicate about issues and exercise influence • Develops when people talk about an issue in public • Marketplace of ideas • People can hear multiple voices (ideas) • People then select the best voice (idea) • People are convinced an idea is the best

4. Related Concepts • Transparency adds “products” to the marketplace of ideas. • Transparency facilitates the development of a public sphere. • Generally transparency is about information availability for constituents.

5. Satisficing • People have bounded rationality. • Do not consider all options when making a decision, just a limited number. • Seek a viable answer. • Important to make voice/idea stand out and public relations can help with that.

6. Transparency Questions • What is it really? • What should it look like in action? • Why is the term used so much?

7. Rise of Transparency • Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 • Sought to improve reliability of corporate reporting of financial information • Would increase financial transparency • Transparency International • Exposes corruption in governments • Bribe Payers Index for governments • Need to verify CSR information

8. Summary of Rise • Many societal forces pushing for accountability. • Answer is transparency or more information for constituents. • Transparency can reveal truth or lies.

9. Meaning for Public Relations • Focus on full disclosure of sources • Creators of video news releases • Sponsorships of front groups • Authors of online messages • Proper identification of employer

10. Definitions Transparent • Quality of being transparent. • Transparent means sheerness, the property to transmit light so that objects lying beyond are clearly seen, free of pretense or deceit. • We can consider sheerness as the ease in which constituents can collect information about the organization.

11. Quality of an Organization • Full, accurate, and timely disclosure. • Too vague • Openness. • Difficult to judge • How can we really know? • Pressures for withholding information • Defensive competitive intelligence • Cloaking • Greenwashing and bluewashing

12. Quality of an Organization • Transparency as a quality is problematic because control and power still rests largely with corporations. • Too limited. • Emphasis on financial transparency.

13. As Respect • Transparency occurs “when a corporation respects the integrity of all its stakeholders and does not seek to manipulate them by controlling access to information” (Gower, 2006, p. 92). • Both naïve and impractical, ignores power. • Corporations decide their level of transparency on social and environmental concerns.

14. Roots in Communication • Transparency is at its roots communicative—what information does the corporation provide constituencies. • A group has power when it can control the communication process (Mumby, 1988).

15. Power • Management free to decide on what social and environmental information to disclose. • Full disclosure both overwhelming and impractical. • Information is not value neutral, it is released strategically to influence constituents. • Management must be motivated to disclose social and environmental information.

16. Transparency as Process • Can be deterrent to illegal and unethical behavior. • Less likely to engage in bad behavior if you will be caught and punished. • Do not do anything they would not mind seeing on the Internet that day. • Transparency as control mechanism.

17. Gold Mining Example • Company has choice in how to mine gold: environmentally friendly or destructive. • Destructive practices are cheaper but can trigger constituent churn/opposition. • More likely to use environmentally friendly practices if management believes constituents will learn about their practices and create churn.

18. Transparency as Process • Transparency is more than something an organization has. • Transparency is a tool constituents use to inspect the organization and to “regulate” the organization. • Transparency is not just the sheerness of corporations but the efforts of constituents to examine what rests beyond.

19. Transparency as Process • Resources and power matter. • Constituents decide what information is necessary and sufficient not management. • Constituents need to force organizations to disclose the necessary information.

20. Constituent Intelligence • When constituents “look inside” the organization for information. • Cloaking occurs when organizations “hide information in plain sight.”

21. Constituent Intelligence • Constituents must be able to find and analyze the desired information. • Constituents must be motivated to engage in intelligence gathering. • Constituents need power to induce corporations to disclose information they prefer to withhold. • Public relations can help to create leverage for disclosure.

22. Constituent Intelligence and Transparency as Process • Desired information must be found. • Desired information must be analyzed. • Results communicated to others.

23. Hegelian dialectic • Thesis or idea • Conflicting idea or antithesis • Synthesis reconciles the conflict Represents a process of inquiry. Can apply to transparency as a process.

24. Transparency as Process and Dialectic • Corporation’s initial information is the thesis. • Pressure from the constituents for additional information is the antithesis. • Resulting information disclosure (transparency) is the synthesis. At times, constituents must leverage their power to pressure corporations to release information.

25. Guides for Reporting Social Issues • Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). • Has categories • No specific standard for reporting • UN Global Compact has reporting guidance. • Socrates, the corporate social ratings monitor, examines social reporting.

26. Transparency as Process • Active view of transparency, not passive. • Constituents do not wait to see what a corporation might show. • Active constituents (not all of them) seek information and demand relevant information that is not released. • Emphasizes multiple channels for transparency information.

27. Active Nature • Transparency is an active process that ideally is driven by constituents. • Constituents drive transparency by identifying the types of information they need and want from corporations. • Transparency as process is consistent with our view of public relations as mutually influential relationships.

28. The Search for Information • Constituents will seek missing information. • Organizations should provide it or risk consequences. • Churn • Information gathered from other sources • Severing ties with the organization • Benefits from disclosure.

29. Information Disclosure • Information disclosure is the lynchpin of transparency. • Must disclose relevant information, as defined by constituents. • Relevant information is necessary but not sufficient for transparency to establish accountability, motivation matters.

30. Motivation • Constituents must be motivated and/or care enough to act on the information. • Actions can be praise or quiescence when the information is favorable or punishment when the information is unfavorable. • No amount of transparency (openness of information) will matter if a critical mass of constituents is not motivated to respond to the information.

31. Role of Public Relations: Listening • Corporations can benefit from listening to ideas from constituents, even marginalized ones. • Public relations is a natural mechanism for listening since they are connected to constituents. • Part of public relations is advocating for constituent interests.

32. Danger of Spin • Spin involves simply presenting only the positive information. • Transparency runs counter to spin. • Public relations must hold true to its values and not become spin.

33. Reflection Points • Why is it limiting to treat transparency as a quality of an organization? • What demands does transparency as a process place on constituents? • What demands does transparency as a process place on public relations?