Tuesday, March 31st - Financial Issue Management
An important concept from the readings this week is transparency. Christensen and Langer (2009) define the overall concept as promoting availability of information, availability that minimizes opaqueness and complexity. The authors go on to explain how information is not truly successful in its transparent intent unless outsiders (such as individuals who are not organizational members) are able to unpack and understand the message. Otherwise, by manipulating a message to the extent that only insiders or experts can understand a message, organizations are hypocritical in their claims that they are being transparent. And obviously, organizations can also be hypocritical by claiming to be transparent when in actuality they do not provide open information.
One example comes from the agricultural machinery manufacturing corporation John Deere. In 2018, they received an Ag Data Transparent seal of approval, which means that they effectively comply with agricultural data standards of technology providers ("John Deere", 2018). However, the corporation was likely awarded this because of involvement surrounding the founding of Ag Data Transparency ("What", n.d.) since their track record does not match the qualifications for this accolade before (Bloomberg, 2017) or after the seal of approval was awarded (Waldman & Mulvany, 2020). This organization is infamous for creating barriers around their software that make it impossible for farmers to fix their own machinery, but farmers, digital rights activists and other invested groups insist on their right-to-repair (Bloomberg, 2017; Waldman & Mulvany, 2020). As a leading corporation in agriculture, John Deere is likely trying to manage their image and deflect instances such as these involving frustrated customers. But from this instance and many others, it is clear that in terms of information availability, John Deere is on the stringent side. Ag data transparency is a large spectrum, where lack of transparency involves not sharing machine data, and full transparency is open source data sets across manufactures and research communities (Y. Wang, personal communication, March 31, 2020). John Deere is an example of an organization that purports to be transparent to its publics, but upon research they appear to be hypocritical.
Bloomberg, J. (2017, April 30). John Deere's Digital Transformation Runs Afoul Of Right-To-Repair Movement. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/04/30/john-deeres-digital-transformation-runs-afoul-of-right-to-repair-movement/#2c5e3a145ab9
Christensen, L. T., & Langer, R. (2009). Public relations and the strategic use of transparency: Consistency, hypocrisy, and corporate change. In Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations II (pp. 141-165). Routledge.
John Deere receives Ag Data Transparent seal of approval. (2018, February 26). Retrieved from https://www.deere.com/en/our-company/news-and-announcements/news-releases/2018/agriculture/2018feb26-ag-data-transparent/
Waldman, P., & Mulvany, L. (2020, March 5). Farmers Fight John Deere Over Who Gets to Fix an $800,000 Tractor. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-fight-john-deere-over-who-gets-to-fix-an-800-000-tractor
What does it mean to be Ag Data Transparent. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.agdatatransparent.com/about
One example comes from the agricultural machinery manufacturing corporation John Deere. In 2018, they received an Ag Data Transparent seal of approval, which means that they effectively comply with agricultural data standards of technology providers ("John Deere", 2018). However, the corporation was likely awarded this because of involvement surrounding the founding of Ag Data Transparency ("What", n.d.) since their track record does not match the qualifications for this accolade before (Bloomberg, 2017) or after the seal of approval was awarded (Waldman & Mulvany, 2020). This organization is infamous for creating barriers around their software that make it impossible for farmers to fix their own machinery, but farmers, digital rights activists and other invested groups insist on their right-to-repair (Bloomberg, 2017; Waldman & Mulvany, 2020). As a leading corporation in agriculture, John Deere is likely trying to manage their image and deflect instances such as these involving frustrated customers. But from this instance and many others, it is clear that in terms of information availability, John Deere is on the stringent side. Ag data transparency is a large spectrum, where lack of transparency involves not sharing machine data, and full transparency is open source data sets across manufactures and research communities (Y. Wang, personal communication, March 31, 2020). John Deere is an example of an organization that purports to be transparent to its publics, but upon research they appear to be hypocritical.
Bloomberg, J. (2017, April 30). John Deere's Digital Transformation Runs Afoul Of Right-To-Repair Movement. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/04/30/john-deeres-digital-transformation-runs-afoul-of-right-to-repair-movement/#2c5e3a145ab9
Christensen, L. T., & Langer, R. (2009). Public relations and the strategic use of transparency: Consistency, hypocrisy, and corporate change. In Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations II (pp. 141-165). Routledge.
John Deere receives Ag Data Transparent seal of approval. (2018, February 26). Retrieved from https://www.deere.com/en/our-company/news-and-announcements/news-releases/2018/agriculture/2018feb26-ag-data-transparent/
Waldman, P., & Mulvany, L. (2020, March 5). Farmers Fight John Deere Over Who Gets to Fix an $800,000 Tractor. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-fight-john-deere-over-who-gets-to-fix-an-800-000-tractor
What does it mean to be Ag Data Transparent. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.agdatatransparent.com/about
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