communication·Published 2025-11
Frequency of 'Transparency' in All-Hands Transcripts and Actual Information Disclosed: A Strong Inverse Relationship
Principal investigator: Dr. Percival Ashcombe, Chief Research Officer.
The more frequently the word 'transparency' appears in an all-hands meeting transcript, the less factual information about the organization is actually disclosed in that meeting.
Methodology
One hundred and seventy-eight all-hands meeting transcripts were obtained from organizations that had publicly described their all-hands meetings as 'transparent' in at least one piece of investor or press communication. Transcripts were coded by the Institute's disclosure analysis team using the Institute's Factual Disclosure Taxonomy (FDT), which classifies each declarative statement as: verified factual (containing a specific, verifiable claim), qualified factual (containing a claim dependent on a metric not provided), aspirational (containing no verifiable content), or procedural (administrative in nature). Only verified factual disclosures were counted for the dependent variable.
Funding disclosure: Funded by an anonymous institutional donor who requested, in writing, that their name not appear in any disclosure associated with this study.
Instruments cited in this study
Full citation
Ashcombe, P. (2025). Frequency of 'Transparency' in All-Hands Transcripts and Actual Information Disclosed: A Strong Inverse Relationship. Institute for the Study of Pointless Metrics. r = -0.92, p < 0.001, n = 178.