Organizational transparency as myth and metaphor

Bibliographic Data

ID2398075
AuthorsLars Thøger Christensen (0000-0003-4586-5430, Copenhagen Business School, corresponding author), Joep Cornelissen (0000-0003-2500-3876, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Year2015
Volume18
Issue2
Pages132-149
Publication date2015-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1368431014555256
OpenAlexW2099407266
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited52

Transparency has achieved a mythical status in society. Myths are not false accounts or understandings, but deep-seated and definitive descriptions of the world that ontologically ground the ways in which we frame and see the world around us. We explore the mythical nature of transparency from this perspective, explain its social-historical underpinnings and discuss its influence on contemporary organizations. In doing so, we also theorize in a more general sense about the relationship between myth, as a foundational understanding and description of the world, and the constellation of metaphors, as specific ways of framing and seeing organizational reality, to which it gives rise. While observations and evidence can always be adduced to challenge a particular set of metaphors, the endogenous force of the myth may sustain the overall project. This process is explained with a detailed analysis of the transparency myth

Epistemology · Metaphor · Mythology · Political science · Sociology · E-Government and Public Services · History · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Public Policy and Administration Research

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