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ETHC 15: Transparency Ethics
Transparency feeds into active, free, ethical press
Demise of newspapers due to economics of press has led to dramatic fall of press coverage
Self-posting
How private are text messages and emails?
How private is search history? Using electronic resources?
How much do you reveal to a family member about a patient’s condition? How much to the patient?
People are being held accountable for past writing;
Description:
Course Goals NOTE – NEEDS TO BE UPDATED AFTER COURSE COMPLETED:
Objectives:
Objectives:
Objectives:
Completion requirements:
- Read and comprehend course materials and suggested resources
- At least 75% correct answers on final exam
Introduction:
Transparency has become an increasingly important ethical concept. It is widely seen as a way to ensure ethical behavior, especially in areas that are prone to corruption.
Section 1: Understand
- Transparency and Values
- Transparency reveals values
- An organization that operates with transparency shows commitment to its values
- Transparency embodies values
- Transparency demonstrates commitment to acting according to values
- Transparency can ensure corporate responsibility
- Includes businesses, governments, or other organizations
- Entities may behave better when they know public can easily observe their actions
- Greater responsibility leads to greater trust in processes and outcomes
- Organizations that embrace transparency tend to be more successful than others
- Stronger culture
- Longer engagement with members or staff
- Greater employee loyalty, support for mission, and performance
- Higher trust with clients, customers, and the public
- Often more profitable
- Nations that measure success in wealth and happiness of their citizens tend to be more transparent
- Public entities may experience different demands than private ones
- Public stakeholders feel ownership of the information
- Stakeholders for private entities accept different boundaries
- Transparency reveals values
- Benefits of Transparency
- Increases trust among all stakeholders
- Allows for better understanding of current situations
- Increases options for future planning and rational expectations
- Limits corruption and unfair practices that ultimately undermine business and governmental sectors
- Overall performance and success tends to be higher with organizations and entities that practice transparency
- Transparency encourages staff/employee happiness
- Opens avenues for recruiting more and better team members
- Makes input from a variety of sources more likely and higher quality
- Helps with setting and measuring realistic goals
- Improves relationships with all stakeholders
- Elements of Transparency
- Transparency can have different meanings depending on the situation
- In finance, transparency usually means
- Shareholders and other stakeholders have access to data
- Market data for a sector
- A company’s financial reports
- Actions of senior staff or administrators
- A company committed to disclosing as much as possible without harming its own internal processes
- Shareholders and other stakeholders have access to data
- In government, transparency refers to
- The amount of information government shares with citizens
- How much citizens can learn about processes behind making and enforcing laws and regulations
- The public’s ability to monitor actions of leaders and officials
- A government’s commitment to disclosing as much as possible to citizens while protecting legitimate state secrets
- Transparency may include business dealings, such as contracts for goods and services
- Transparency in campaigns, including campaign finance, is an essential element of open government
- In the United States, regulations governing lobbying are designed to ensure greater transparency in lawmaking and government contracts
- In the U.S., the Freedom of Information Act aims to give citizens access to information and increase transparency
- In finance, transparency usually means
- Transparency usually infers open channels of communication
- Regular communication from leaders to staff
- Established and well-used channels for staff to communicate to leadership
- Regular communication
- Establishes boundaries
- Healthy transparency is not the same as complete openness
- “Transparency” is not “oversharing”
- Transparent organizations practice good confidentiality
- Important to know what kind of information to share and to what extent
- Transparency can have different meanings depending on the situation
- Common traits of a Transparent Business
- Establish aligned organizational culture
- Leadership is very clear and aligned on mission, vision, and values
- Leadership aligned on standards they hold themselves accountable to
- Leadership communicates values and standards to staff and stakeholders
- Leadership maintains communication with all stakeholders
- Organization demonstrates response to problems with alignment
- Regularly provide information related to
- Performance
- Revenue
- Processes and internal functioning
- Key staff, especially in leadership
- Pricing
- Values
- Real problems that arise
- Don’t hide from the truth; tackle it head on
- Businesses often keep confidential on matters such as
- Trade secrets
- Specifics of trade practices
- Suppliers, customers, or subcontractors
- Strategic and tactical decisions and plans
- Disciplinary measures, personal improvement plans, and HR specifics
- Staff salaries, specific benefits, and personal personnel information
- Non-disclosure and other confidentiality agreements
- As Forbes put it, “You can disclose the ingredients in your restaurant’s signature meal without giving away the exact recipe.”
- Establish aligned organizational culture
- Corruption
- “Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain.” – Transparency International
- Types of corruption:
- Business
- Example: an employee falsifies sales documents and gets a kickback
- Corporate
- A corporation donates to a politician in return for obtaining a contract
- Political
- An elected official gives a job to an unqualified family member
- Business
- Corruption flourishes in situations that are kept hidden
- Corruption diminishes when there is openness and transparency
- Costs of corruption
- People lose faith in institutions
- When people know systems are unfair, they stop believing in them
- Greater risks
- When regulations are skirted or ignored, safety is compromised
- Corruption can lead to environmental damage
- Loss of freedoms
- Corruption can undermine democracy and protection from the law
- Economic harm
- Prices can rise because corruption drives up costs
- People lose faith in institutions
- Transparency and Medical Care
- Guideline from the American Medical Association
- The value of patient autonomy is key to transparency
- Patients should know options available and factors that could potentially affect their treatment
- Doctors should inform patients about care
- Appropriate treatment options
- Potential risks and benefits of those options
- Alternative possibilities with accompanying risks
- Doctors should be open about care costs
- Good faith explanations of costs
- Note availability of payment options when available
- Explain relevant provisions of the patient’s health care plan
- Physicians should also be transparent about their own potential conflicts of interest
- Their financial ties that may affect care choices
- Care options or treatments that may not be covered by patient’s health plan
- Physicians should encourage health plan providers and insurers to disclose
- Plan provisions that limit care, such as formularies or constraints on referrals
- Provisions for obtaining desired care that would otherwise not be provided, such for prescriptions
- Plan relationships with pharmacies and pharmacy management organizations
- Transparency and Finance
- Transparency and the stock market
- Investors are more likely to purchase stocks of businesses that are open with their financial reports
- In the long run, this is more likely to increase the business’s value
- Transparency and the stock market
Section 2:
Define
Examples of Transparency practices
Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
“The 10 Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying”
1. Countries should provide a level playing field by granting all stakeholders fair and equitable access to the development and implementation of public policies.
2. Rules and guidelines on lobbying should address the governance concerns related to lobbying practices, and respect the socio-political and administrative contexts.
3. Rules and guidelines on lobbying should be consistent with the wider policy and regulatory frameworks.
4. Countries should clearly define the terms ‘lobbying’ and ‘lobbyist’ when they consider or develop rules and guidelines on lobbying.
5. Countries should provide an adequate degree of transparency to ensure that public officials, citizens and businesses can obtain sufficient information on lobbying activities.
6. Countries should enable stakeholders – including civil society organisations, businesses, the media and the general public – to scrutinise lobbying activities.
7. Countries should foster a culture of integrity in public organisations and decision making by providing clear rules and guidelines of conduct for public officials.
8. Lobbyists should comply with standards of professionalism and transparency; they share responsibility for fostering a culture of transparency and integrity in lobbying.
9. Countries should involve key actors in implementing a coherent spectrum of strategies and practices to achieve compliance
10. Countries should review the functioning of their rules and guidelines related to lobbying on a periodic basis and make necessary adjustments in light of experience
Section 3:
- Corporate scandals related to lack of transparency
- Seeing how things go wrong can reveal the importance of transparency
- Boeing
- Wells Fargo
- Volkswagen
Section 4:
Resources: