Search results

Process mapping is used to articulate the activities and procedures of business entities in a graphical way as pictorial images readily convey considerable information. The objective of this research is to provide evidence and a methodology to assist organizations in evaluating the early stages of their process mapping efforts.

A review of literature identifies key characteristics of transparency (process visibility) related to process mapping. Quizzes and surveys are used to study the impact of process mapping on transparency in an employee training session.

The paper finds that process mapping increases transparency between 5 percent and 27 percent for the applications discussed in this paper.

The research presumes that better understanding and recall of the company's business processes equates to higher transparency. This research study is limited to one field test, organization, and process mapping methodology. These limitations should be considered when extrapolating the results to other organizations.

The methodology outlined in this paper provides a way to measure the impact that formalizing (mapping) an organization's business processes and then using these maps to communicate the organization's business processes has on an individual employee's understanding and recall of those business processes. This methodology may help other organizations evaluate the early stages of their process mapping efforts.

A measurable definition of transparency is developed. A field study provides evidence that process mapping increases transparency and a methodology is shared for others to study the impacts of their process mapping efforts.

The analysis intends to clarify whether higher education institutions place as much value on internal transparency as on external transparency. This study aims to analyze the university budgeting process as a reflection of internal transparency. It also aims to identify the weaknesses of the budgeting process regarding transparency in order to improve decision-making.

A case study that applies mixed methods – documentary analysis, observations and interviews – has been conducted. To study internal transparency, the model of three levels of transparency of Biondi and Lapsley (2014) has been applied to the budgeting process of a university. Then, the results have been compared to the external transparency of this institution.

While external transparency is achieved, internal transparency in the budgeting process is far from optimal in the case of study. An improvement in transparency of the budget process can promote the engagement of stakeholders in the process and achieve better governance.

The general inductive approach is not as strong as other approaches in the area of theory or model development. However, it does provide a simple approach for deriving findings linked to this research’s questions.

Trust issues and external accountability appear to be more relevant than internal transparency for universities. However, improving the three levels of transparency along the budgeting process could motivate collegiate members to reinforce accountability, as it requires them to effectively communicate their actions and decisions to their represented.

This paper seeks to situate transparency as an attribute of university governance, contributing to the scarce literature on transparency, internal and external, in the university. The study compares the approach of this university to external transparency – which relates to accountability – with internal transparency – a concept that links to corporate governance. This study uses the novel lens of Biondi and Lapsley model (2014) to study internal transparency, focussing on university budgeting as a key management tool.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between perceptions of mediators acting symmetrically (treating parties equally) and transparently (providing an explanation of past or future behavior) with parties’ assessments of the neutrality of their mediator and satisfaction with the mediation process.

This mixed-method study surveyed parties and mediators from 35 naturally occurring mediation sessions at community mediation centers about their perceptions of neutrality, symmetry, transparency and satisfaction.

The results showed that parties overwhelmingly assessed their mediators as acting neutrally. Compared to parties’ assessments of mediator neutrality, mediators rated their own neutrality even higher. Symmetry and transparency were both positively correlated with parties’ assessment of mediator neutrality and also emerged as qualitative themes. Speaking order and talk time did not significantly correlate with perception of symmetry. Overall, symmetry appeared to be a more salient factor in parties’ assessment of mediator neutrality than transparency. Both neutrality and symmetry were positively correlated with party satisfaction with the mediation process, but transparency was not.

The present study provides a foundation for future research in understanding neutrality from both parties and mediators’ perspectives. The primary limitation was a small sample size and possible selection bias in achieving the sample.

The study found that symmetry and transparency are useful strategies for managing party perceptions of mediator neutrality and party satisfaction with the mediation process.

This study is one of only a few empirical research studies that investigated the parties’ perspective of mediator neutrality. The study provides a foundation for future research in understanding neutrality from both parties and mediators’ perspectives.

It is the responsibility of any government to ensure efficient, transparent and reliable services to the common man through telecentres. The purpose of this study is to take into account the influence of people and process on transparency that leads to effective e-governance.

This study involved collecting data through questionnaire method from 400 citizens who visited the telecentres. Data were analysed by conducting chi-square test and independent sample t-test, and it was found that there exists significant influence of location on transparency.

The current study reiterates the fact from literature that transparency in transactions enables effective e-governance. Beneficiaries perceive that people and processes have influence on transparency.

The research adds up to the literature in establishing that there exist differentials among the rural and urban population with respect to transparency. Results could be skewed, as there could be an impact of population density across urban and rural areas.

This study brings out a framework and an action plan for the government to implement and ensure transparency in processes leading to effective e-governance.

The action plan ensures transparency in service delivery leading to effective e-governance. Increased transparency empowers citizens with increased trustworthiness towards services delivered through telecentres.

This paper fulfils the need for an action plan to assure citizens to use deliveries through telecentres with better transparency. The aspect of transparency is not being studied in the present context of service delivery by the government authorities in India. Moreover, the influence of transparency on e-governance is also under-explored.

By increasing the digitalization of commercial services citizens' expect more from public services. First of all, this study will strive to identify which problems citizens encounter when they use a complex public service: preparation of an application for a building permit. In the light of the popularity of omnichannel approaches, the study then explores how omni-channel could help to address the problems which have been identified.

We implement the first phases of an action design science research project. We collect data both from citizens and public agencies and frame them as transparency problems. These abstract problems are then addressed by an omnichannel service provision as an abstract solution. The abstract solution is then instantiated in a design in the form of a user scenario developed in collaboration with current and future public officials.

The analysis uncovers multiple transparency issues: it distinguishes between process, case, language, cross-channel and cost transparency. One root cause of the transparency issues observed is the lack of service transparency which defines the purpose and scope of a ser-vice. We therefore recommend defining a service-strategy before informational and technical aspects of an omnichannel approach can be implemented. Following this strategy, omnichannel offers public administrations unique opportunities to excel in citizens' service provision.

The study provides insights into how citizens view complex public services. For researchers, this study offers the conceptualization as transparency issues. Practitioners from the public administrations can also benefit from the concept and vision of omnichannel public services.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) transparency claims are propagating a belief in a modern panopticon for ensuring responsible corporate behavior. Corporations use transparency claims to cultivate the impression of full disclosure. The paper aims to explore why people believe transparency ensures responsible behavior from corporations as well as the negative effects of this pseudo‐panopticon.

The paper explores transparency in relation to CSR, CSR reporting, the internet, and activism and describes how their confluence produces pseudo‐panopticon.

The paper finds that the pseudo‐panopticon allows corporations to claim transparency in CSR communication and for stakeholders to accept that claim. The reality is that a minority of activist stakeholders bear the burden of ensuring true transparency by questioning disclosure.

Transparency should be seen as a process, and it fails if activists cannot create public awareness of CSR shortcomings. The challenge is to find ways to make transparency as a process work in a world where apathy and self‐deception, in part facilitated by the pseudo‐panopticon, work against the process.

The paper builds on the process view of transparency by developing its implications for CSR communication. The result is a novel approach to CSR reporting and transparency that contributes to other critical voices concerned about the value and effects of CSR communication.

The purpose of this study was to understand how male and female consumers differently evaluate sustainability claims from brands and how brands’ sustainability efforts and the presence/absence of information transparency in the claims affect their brand schemas differently.

Five hundred participants were recruited for an online experiment implementing both treatment and message variance. PROCESS, a recently developed regression-based bootstrapping technique was used to test the hypotheses.

Males were more likely than females to rely on their existing schemas for judgment in case of Made in USA but not Fair Labor claims. The presence of information transparency in claims reduced participants’ reliance on their schemas.

The findings might be helpful for brands to design marketing claims with specific customer segments to stand out amidst advertisement clutter. Especially, brands targeting male consumers might try to build strong brand schemas starting the early stages of brand image building as males tend to consistently rely on their schemas for judgment. On the other hand, brands might benefit from providing transparent information about their sustainability efforts in their claims (especially those related to Made in USA) while targeting female consumers. However, irrespective of gender, brands might benefit from making claims with information transparency.

This study investigated the influence of gender in evaluation of brands’ sustainability claims and the role of information transparency in the process, thereby filling a gap in literature. It is one of the very few studies to empirically investigate not only whether males and females are different in their information processing styles but also how such differences arise.

The purpose of this paper is to create an instrument for conducting future supply chain transparency research by developing and validating a measure of supplier transparency. Specifically, the research develops a two-dimensional measure of supplier transparency that builds on previous studies that independently examine visibility and traceability in supply chain management (SCM)/logistics.

The scale development process is carried out over three stages (item generation, scale purification, scale validation). Survey methods are used with two separate data collection phases involving a total of 358 managers from multiple and diverse industries.

The new supplier transparency measure is a concise, two-dimensional scale that has the potential for significant usage in the development and testing of SCM theory.

This study implemented a purposefully general sampling procedure. However, different industries may have additional, specific constraints regarding what it means to be a transparent supplier. Additional opportunities for future research include applying the new supplier transparency measure to examine supply chain frameworks, regulatory compliance, supply chain relationships and the implementation of information technology.

Firms are under increasing pressure to be transparent about partner sourcing, resource utilization and other transactional issues related to the products and processes in their supply chains. The new measure may be utilized to address these issues as well as the interaction between supply chain operations and stakeholders by facilitating a quantitative assessment of supplier transparency.

Drawing on the established constructs of supply chain visibility and traceability, a measure of supplier transparency is developed, supported by a review of the literature, input from subject matter experts and interviews with supply chain managers. Suggestions are made for future validation of supplier transparency within established supply chain frameworks.

The chapter uses a comparative case study design to address the mutations and trajectories of transparency in two organizations. We chose organizations that are similar in that they favor extensive forms of self-disclosure, but also different in terms of which sector they inhabit, audiences, and organization type: the Pirate Party of Germany and the lobby organization Epsilon. The findings, in close dialog with different threads in the transparency literature, unveil three crucial dimensions in which transparency regimes are likely to trigger unintended consequences: first, organizations have to cope with the tension between the disclosure of internal information on the one hand, and the need to appear consistent in public on the other. Second, transparency strategies can, however, turn into surveillance and trigger new forms of data ordering, sorting, and aggregating practices. Third, disclosure practices create and undermine complex hierarchies and power relations for organizational members. The comparison of the cases demonstrates that it is crucial to observe the practical implications and multiple trajectories of transparency practices.

Multinational resource companies (MRCs) are under pressure to become responsible corporate citizens. In particular, stakeholders are demanding more information about the deals these companies negotiate with the host governments of resource-rich nations, and there is general agreement about the need for industry commitment to transparency and the benefits that a mandatory disclosure regime would bring. This paper examines the production of one attempt to regulate disclosures related to payments between MRCs and the governments of nations with resource wealth: Section 1504 of the Dodd–Frank Act.

Drawing on Boltanski and Thévenot's (2006) Sociology of Worth, the authors examine the comment letters of participants in this process with a view to revealing how stakeholder groups produce justifications to promote their positions vis-à-vis transparency to regulators.

The authors show how justifications were mobilised by various constituents in an effort to shape the definition of transparency and the regulatory architecture that governs disclosure practices. In this case, the collective recognition of desirability of transparency enabled the SEC to suture together the views of constituents to create a shared understanding of the role of the common good as it relates to transparency.

This paper explores an alternative approach to the consideration of comment letters advanced during the process of disclosure-related rule-making. The authors show how a sophisticated regulator may be able to draw together elements stemming from different constituents in a way that appeals to a shared sense of the “common good” in order to produce Final Rules.