Transparency in leadership is a valuable quality, significantly contributing to various interactions with subordinates and stakeholders. In the leadership context, transparency is the ability to share the right information at the right time with those who benefit from it.
That means people understand the leader, including the reasoning behind their actions or strategy and why they are taking a specific approach. Transparency has significant benefits such establishing trust and reducing confusion in communication, building a healthy culture and environment, and generally, greater satisfaction and productivity.
Since people have a greater awareness of their leader’s methods, demeanor, values, and plan for attaining organizational goals, they are similarly, more likely to be more engaged in the work or mission. In a work environment, transparent leaders are more approachable, with employees more likely to seek guidance and or bring up concerns, which may address many issues before they become major problems, as well as helping to manage fear and uncertainty (Spalluto et al., 2020).
Many leaders and managers believe that their position inherently implies some level of isolation and secrecy. However, good transparent leader can determine what to say and when, without lying, but also not to generate unnecessary reactions if there is still unclear information or solutions that can be found.
Equitable treatment can be defined as people receiving the same opportunities to reach the same objective with all other influences being similar. It also means that people expect a fair treatment regardless of their characteristics, background, or opinion. The concept of transparency in leadership directly relates to equitable treatment (Ortino, 2018). Transparency calls for a full and honest account of information and context in order to make an informed and equitable decision.
It also applies in the conduct of leaders, whether they are acknowledging their biases and conflicts of interests, as well as sharing criticism or dissenting perspectives that may arise. In a transparent leadership, equity is not just a goal, it is an underlying principle guiding decision-making. In a workplace, that would be decisions such as hiring practices, interaction with subordinates, selecting employees to work on projects and assignments, salary, and compensation.
Police-community relations are a foundation to a healthy and functioning society. Police leaders can demonstrate transparency while still fulfilling their duties to the fullest extent. First, police leaders can be open with the community on the challenges that they are facing, even if it is an issue that is damaging to law enforcement such as misconduct by an officer. Being transparent about the difficulties that the police has and the challenges it sees in the community, while highlighting an action plan can become a foundation to building trust.
Police leaders should be accountable, meaning that if an incident occurs, as much information should be released, and dialogue maintained with community members and media (Kochel & Skogan, 2021). Furthermore, in day-to-day operations, police leaders can update their public information, actively engage with population, and also detail its policies on sensitive issues in the neighborhood such as drugs or use of police force.
However, this is a two-way process as community leaders should also both demonstrate transparency and encourage their local law enforcement leaders to do the same. Community leaders should be honest about the issues locally that may concern police, not attempting to hide or manipulate information, but seek common solutions. Furthermore, community leaders can see some potential pitfalls in the work of local police, and push for leaders to take steps in reducing bias and improving culture, prior to any critical incident occurring (Kochel & Skogan, 2021).
Maintaining dialogue and good relations will be beneficial in the long-term, and if a divisive incident does occur, it will allow both sides to remain civil, transparent, and united, knowing that all that could have been done was done, and if improvements are needed in the future, they can collaborate appropriately.
References
Kochel, T. R., & Skogan, W. G. (2021). Accountability and transparency as levers to promote public trust and police legitimacy: Findings from a natural experiment.Policing: An International Journal, 44(6), 1046-1059. Web.
Ortino, F. (2018). The obligation of regulatory stability in the fair and equitable treatment standard: How far have we come? Journal of International Economic Law, 21(4), 845–865.
Spalluto, L. B., Planz, V. B., Stokes, L. S., Pierce, R., Aronoff, D. M., McPheeters, M. L., & Omary, R. A. (2020). Transparency and trust during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(7), 909–912.