Trend in Global Business Practices

The essay discusses the critical balance between transparency and privacy in contemporary business organizations. It highlights how transparency enhances reputation and employee engagement, while excessive transparency can compromise employee privacy and productivity. The paper emphasizes the importance of maintaining this balance to foster innovation and gain competitive advantage. It also explores the relationship between business ethics and transparency, suggesting that ethical practices can lead to improved employee motivation and organizational performance.

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Transparency and privacy
In the present business scenario, contemporary business organizations are operating in
more intensely competitive situation. Thus, they have to consider various aspects in order to gain
competitive advantages over their competitors. However, various organizations are facing issues
in maintaining effective balance between the different policies to be considered. One of the key
issues that they are facing is maintaining effective balance between the transparency and privacy.
In the present business scenario, transparency helps the organizations in enhancing their
reputation and goodwill in the market. It helps in implementing effective marketing strategies.
However, on the other hand, excessive transparency can lead to the breach of privacy of the
employees in the organization. This in turn will reduce the efficiency of the employees. Thus, it
is important for the organization to identify an effective balance between maintaining the
transparency and privacy for the employees.
As stated by Bernstein (2012), providing privacy to the employees helps in enhancing
their productivity in the organizations. Moreover, it is also been seen that generation of
innovative ideas among the employees also get enhanced if they are being provided privacy in
the organization. Thus, organizations are facing paradox in marinating the balance between these
two aspects. In addition, it is also been seen that in case of transparency in the organizations,
employees tend to perceive that they will be more vulnerable to stringent monitoring of the
higher level management. Thus, they concentrate more time in hiding their private activities than
to effectively accomplishing the task. Thus, the productivity of the employees will be further
reduced. According to Seneviratne and Kagal, 2014, it is important for the organizations to find
an effective balance between transparency and privacy for their employees. According to them,
various technologies are being available which can be initiated in order to strike a balance

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between these two aspects. These technologies will help the organizations to effectively enhance
the productivity of the employees by maintaining both privacy and transparency in the internal
management.
Business ethics
Ethical principles being followed by the organizations are being related with transparency
in the organizations. This is due to the fact that, the prime objective of organizational ethics is to
maintain transparency in the organizational activities. The more transparent will be the activities
of the organization, the more will be the motivation level of the employees and more brand value
among the customers. As stated by das Neves and Vaccaro (2013), business ethics and
transparency in the organizational activities are closely related. According to them, transparency
is not limited to exposing the activities of the employees, rather than it involves the entire
activities of the organizations ranging from their financial activities to managing human
resources to providing effective customer service. Transparency in the organization portrays the
picture of accountability towards their stakeholders.
For instance, if the organizations are enough transparent in providing effective customer
service, then the customers will be able to have the access of the information about the product
they are receiving from the organizations. Employees will have the authentic knowledge about
the various employees’ welfare schemes being implemented in the organizations. This is the area
where the transparency in the organizations is getting related with following of business ethics.
This is due to the reason that one of the key objectives of business ethics is to provide authentic
and accurate information to the stakeholders of the organization. Thus, business ethics is directly
related with the initiation of transparency in the organization. In addition, it can also be

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concluded that maintaining of the privacy of the employees is also a key aspect for business
ethics. This is due to the reason that, business ethics also covers the measures which enhance the
productivity of the employees. Thus, maintaining the privacy of the employees will help to
enhance the productivity and effectiveness of them. Thus, effective balance between the privacy
and transparency in the organization will further help to follow the business ethics.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is another important aspect to be considered by the contemporary
business organizations. Major business firms are implementing various policies in order to
increase the level of engagement for the employees. One of the key influencing factors for
enhancing the engagement level of the employees is to maintain transparency in managing the
human resources in the organization. It is due to the reason that employees will get more
motivated if transparency is being maintained in the internal organization. In addition, providing
privacy to the employees in their workplace will also help them to be engaged and motivated in
the organization.
As stated by Vogelgesang, Leroy and Avolio (2013), transparency in the organizational
activities will help to enhance the performance of the employees in their workplace. The more
transparency will be there in the leadership roles, the more will be the transparency in the
activities of the employees. If the employees are having the access to the information regarding
their employability in the organization, then they will be more aware about their roles in the
organization and the job that they have to accomplish. Privacy of the employees is also an
important determinant in influencing the engagement level of the employees in their workplace.
This is due to the reason that employees tend to be more motivated in their respective job roles if

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they are being given privacy in their workplace. It is been seen that employees tend to relate the
privacy of them being provided by the organization with that of their organizational freedom.
Thus, the more freedom or privacy will be provided to the employees, the more will be the
engagement level of the employees due to the reason that they will feel more comfortable in their
workplace and the individual opinions of the employees will be given value. Thus, balance
between the transparency and privacy in the organization is also important to determine the level
of engagement of the employees.
Generation of innovative ideas
Effective balance between the transparency and privacy in the organizations will also
help in generation of innovative ideas from the employees. However, it depends on the
organizations about how they will implement the transparency and privacy in their internal
management to motivate the employees in generating innovative ideas. As stated by Hoyrup
(2012), innovations from the employees can be effectively generated if they are being given
enough space, freedom and privacy in their workplace. This is due to the reason that employees
tend to prefer more privacy in nurturing their individual ideas. Thus, in the case of excessive
transparency, the personal space or freedom of the employees is not being provided which cause
reduction in the rate of generating innovative ideas.
However, it is also to be noted that transparency in the organizations is also contribute in
generating innovative ideas from the employees. This is due to the reason that, transparency in
the organization helps in monitoring the effectiveness of the employees in the organization. In
addition, it helps in determining the market requirements. Transparency in the organizations
helps in initiation of effective connectivity with the customers. Thus, with having access to the

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change in the market scenario, employees are being more motivated in generating innovative
ideas in their workplace. Hence, effective balance in transparency and privacy will help to
generate more innovations in the organizations.
Competitive advantage for the organization
Competitive advantage of the organizations also depends on the extent to which the
organizations can balance transparency and privacy for their employees. This is due to the reason
that, transparency in the organization helps in determining the market requirement more
effectively. In addition, transparency in the operations of the organizations helps in creating
positive image in the market among the customers. All the stakeholders related to the
organization can be effectively managed by being accountable and transparent in operating the
business. Thus, organizations will gain competitive advantage from the positive word of mouth
among the customers. Moreover, the enhancement in the performance of the employees due to
the transparency in the internal management will also help to increase the competitiveness of the
organizations in the market.
According to Wagner III and Hollenbeck (2014), the approach of the organization in maintaining
the balance between the privacy and transparency is one of the key determinants to influence the
competitive advantage of the organization. Privacy of the employees should also be effectively
maintained in order to provide the employees enough apace and freedom in their workplace. As
discussed earlier, freedom and initiation of the privacy for the employs will help generate more
innovative ideas in the organization. The employees will be more motivated and engaged in their
workplace. Thus, more generation of innovative ideas and more motivated employees will help
the organization to achieve their organizational goals and objectives more effectively. It will help
in gaining competitive advantage in the market. Thus, proper and effective balance between the

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privacy and transparency in the organization is one of the key determinants of gaining the
competitive advantage in the market.

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Reference
Bernstein, E.S., 2012. The transparency paradox: A role for privacy in organizational learning
and operational control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(2), pp.181-216.
das Neves, J.C. and Vaccaro, A., 2013. Corporate transparency: A perspective from Thomas
Aquinas’ summa theologiae. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(4), pp.639-648.
Vogelgesang, G.R., Leroy, H. and Avolio, B.J., 2013. The mediating effects of leader integrity
with transparency in communication and work engagement/performance. The Leadership
Quarterly, 24(3), pp.405-413.
Høyrup, S., 2012. Employee-driven innovation: A new phenomenon, concept and mode of
innovation. In Employee-driven innovation (pp. 3-33). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Wagner III, J.A. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive
advantage.
Seneviratne, O. and Kagal, L., 2014, July. Enabling privacy through transparency. In Privacy,
Security and Trust (PST), 2014 Twelfth Annual International Conference on (pp. 121-128).
IEEE.