Conceptualizing transparency: Propositions for the integration of situational factors and stakeholders’ perspectives

Abstract

In communication research on transparency, information has been predominantly regarded as an objective and ascertainable construct – for example, evaluated by its amount – resulting in the neglect of highly subjective and intersubjective considerations of situational factors such as crises, organization types, and larger external environments that include laws, regulations, and social norms, in addition to stakeholders’ perspectives. In reviewing the relevant literature, we first find that transparency has developed from an instrumental to an intrinsic value, and then locate the current inquiry into transparency in an area of overlap between the two approaches – implicating objective certainty and subjective value, respectively. Based on this review, we present the significance of integrating the two additional parameters of situational factors and stakeholders’ perspectives by focusing more on normative, rather than instrumental, perspectives. For the purpose of creating a comprehensive theoretical framework of transparency, we propose an operational definition of transparency as a process, as well as a research framework.