TRANSPARENCY OF BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS: TRUE AND OWN PERCEPTION

Abstract

This study examines how transparent business organizations communicate during crisis events, how prepared they are for such communication, and how their attitudes towards transparent communication have changed over a period of 10 years. A longitudinal study was conducted to determine how transparent the crisis communication of business organizations actually is and what their self-perception of transparency entails. Based on the research findings, it was determined that business organizations believe that their communication is transparent. However, the content analysis showed that it was not completely transparent, i.e., transparency declines during crisis situations, and most business organizations do not inform stakeholders about the risks associated with their business operations. Optimism regarding the progress of communication transparency in the European Union is supported by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting (CSR) Directive, according to which all business organizations will be required to begin reporting in 2024.