Transparency: A False Solution to a Real Problem

As a fundamental part of an inescapable, hegemonic capitalist system and given the insistent emphasis on it as a moral imperative, transparency, we aver, needs to be examined and challenged as to its true governance value in building a sustainable twenty-first century society – is it fit for purpose? It is with growing urgency that the philosophers’ advice and guidance for taking the time to ask the “right” questions. Value creating boards need to evolve to become problematizing bodies where decision-making is not under time pressure and the protection of power. Rather than clinging to the fantasy of complete transparency as the only form of accountability, corporate governance is strengthened in this way by practicing true social responsibility, which emerges not from outward-looking compliance but from a deeper place in the corporate psyche through inward-looking contemplation and the development of moral maturity.