The yellow press keeps promising it and the Internet is making it happen: the world is ­becoming transparent. Within just a few minutes, the same breaking news delights, annoys, and bores people around the world. Everything appears to be transparent, including the companies and their ­customers. If the companies are not the first to offer information, the blogosphere does it. But how does the transparent world affect my own? 

Advertising works with messages which are speciously as clear as glass: my car is secure, and so are my financial investments. If they are not, there is the right insurance policy to cover the risk. This is a type of transparency which we are still able to follow. But it becomes more difficult with something as simple as the so-called lowest prices. Even the insignia of authority – the doctor in his white smock, the attorney spouting legal English, and the manager with the high-backed chair – create transparency only at first glance.  

So true transparency is not really so common in our more immediate environment. Moreover, we interpret what we perceive and are affected by the many preconceptions lurking around in our minds. We associate ideas such as those described below with the concept of the “boss”. Both people and companies suffer from this faulty understanding of management and performance.  

The Boss knows > The perception of the boss who knows virtually everything is deeply ingrained in our thought patterns. Yet these people know little or nothing of many events. And why should they? In actual fact, management work is being shared among more and more individuals with ­increasingly broader authorization to make decisions. This development is further enhanced by worldwide economic developments featuring greater regionalization and specialization.           

The boss takes the initiative > Managing means taking the initiative – not just reacting. But the top floor do that less frequently than expected: hectic action often turns out to be nothing more than a reaction. 

The top floor remains passive  >> A staff of more than a hundred drivers and warehouse workers is employed by a retail trade corporation to deliver merchandise to its stores every day. The head of the logistics department always keeps the stress level high, unsettling and irritating the workforce. Employees leave the company, others put up a brave front because they are about to retire anyway. The top floor knows about the high staff fluctuation in the logistics department, but does nothing about it. More and more people outside of the company are becoming aware of the ­deplorable state of affairs.