Digital Age | Managing Opacity: Information Visibility and the Paradox of Transparency in the Digital Age

Authors

  • Cynthia Stohl University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Michael Stohl University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Paul M. Leonardi University of California, Santa Barbara

Keywords:

transparency, digital age

Abstract

Organizational transparency is in vogue. When technologies make it possible for information about actors’ behaviors, communications, decisions, and opinions to be visible to interested parties, those actors and the organizations in which they work will presumably be forced to behave more responsibly because they can be held accountable for their actions. The assumption traditionally held by scholars who theorize the relationship between visibility and transparency is that more visibility results in higher levels of transparency. In this paper, we question this assumption. We begin by distinguishing between transparency and visibility and offer a conceptualization of visibility as the combination of three attributes: availability of information, approval to disseminate information, and accessibility of information to third parties. Although transparency is generally believed to be achieved at high levels of each of these attributes, we demonstrate how highly visible information can actually increase opacity and how each attribute of visibility independently and/or co-jointly contributes to the degree to, and manner in which, the relationship between visibility and transparency is managed. Our discussion surfaces a phenomenon we call the “transparency paradox” in which high levels of visibility decrease transparency and produce opacity. The theorization of this transparency paradox and the mechanisms through which it operates have important implications for theory and practice surrounding the role of technologies in organizational action in the digital age. 

Author Biographies

Cynthia Stohl, University of California, Santa Barbara

Cynthia Stohl is Professor of Communication and the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Her research focuses on globalization and network processes, most recently in the context of collective action and corporate social responsibility in the digital media environment. Her most recent publications include the co-authored book Collective Action in Organizations: Interaction and engagement in an era of technological change (2012), Crowds, clouds, and community (2014), and Social Media Policies: Implications for contemporary notions of corporate social responsibility (2015).  

Michael Stohl, University of California, Santa Barbara

Michael Stohl is Professor of Communication and the Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  His research focuses on political and organizational communication and international relations with special reference to political violence, terrorism, and human rights.  He is the author, editor or co-editor of fifteen books and the author or co-author of more than one hundred scholarly journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publications include the co-authored books Fragile States: Violence and the Failure of Intervention (2012) and Crime and Terrorism (2010).  

Paul M. Leonardi, University of California, Santa Barbara

Paul M. Leonardi is the Duca Family Professor of Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara. His research and teaching focus on helping companies to create and share knowledge more effectively. He is interested in how implementing new technologies and harnessing the power of informal social networks can help companies take advantage of their knowledge asses to create innovative products and services.

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Published

2016-01-05

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Special Sections

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