Corporate Transparency vs. Corporate Governance

Corporate Transparency vs. Business Performance Throughout history, mankind has had innumerable moments of corruption and greed. From the City-State wars in ancient Greece to the organized crime during the prohibition, human beings have always been prey to the desires of wealth and power. While our current society may seem civilized compared to those eras, the shallow traits which haunted mankind then are still in play in today’s society. There are always going to be people looking for a way to get ahead of everyone else, and many are willing to bend or even break laws to do it. The corporate world today advances the opportunity for corruption unlike any other arena in today’s world, save perhaps politics, but that topic is for another day. As society has matured throughout the centuries, governments have tried to regulate this dark side of human nature to create a fair and even playing field, thus corporate transparency was born. Essentially, the rule of thumb has been the more transparent a company is, the more likely it will follow the laws and regulations. There has been little resistance to this concept, as most economists would agree that it is necessary to limit corruption. However, one could actually make the case that too much transparency would actually hurt the performance of a company. Therefore, it can be argued that there must be balance for a company to perform at an optimum level and that both extremes, full disclosure and zero transparency, will result in less than optimum performance.
The purpose of any business is to make money for its owners and investors. It is an obvious point to make but still an important one. Some people are so concerned with growth that they are willing to break laws and hurt others just so they can get further in life, but others are more concerned with building a foundation for the employees and investors alike to grow and make a living within the company. Both types of people have the same motive, financial gain,