Transparency: Social and Digital Technologies for Building Trust

by Verna Allee

We are entering a new era of transparency that is unprecedented in the world of business. The Internet has made a wealth of information of all kinds more accessible, including business knowledge that previously was closely guarded. Now any savvy researcher can find financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, product weaknesses, scandals, legal proceedings, corporate policies, supplier and customer complaints, etc. -- the list is long and growing. In addition, companies are under increasing pressure to make internal data and business practices more visible to shareholders, suppliers, customers, employees, business partners, and civil society.