Transparency is generally seen as a corporate priority and a central attribute for promoting business growth and social morality. From a philosophical perspective, society has experienced a gradual paradigm shift which intensified after the Second World War with the advent of the information era. As a fundamental part of an inescapable, hegemonic capitalist system and given the insistent emphasis on it as a moral imperative, transparency, this book avers, needs to be examined and challenged as to its true governance value in building a sustainable twenty-first century society. Rather than clinging to the fantasy of complete transparency as the only form of accountability, corporate governance is strengthened in this way by practicing true social responsibility, which emerges not from outward-looking compliance but from a deeper place in the corporate psyche through inward-looking contemplation and the development of moral maturity.

Finn Janning , PhD, is a writer and philosopher. His work has been published in Philosophy of Management, Journal of Philosophy of Life , and Kritike, among other publications.
Wafa Khlif is Full Professor of Management Accounting at TBS Business School in Barcelona, Spain. Her research interests are in board of directors' efficiency, corporate board roles, duties and composition, and issues in accounting and audit professions. She is former president of the Accounting Tunisian Association, and acted as Faculty Dean at ISCAE, University of Manouba, Tunisia. She sat as a director on the Francophone Accounting Association board. She has published in International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Journal of African Business and Society and Business Review .

Coral Ingley , PhD, is Associate Professor of Management at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Her research covers various aspects of corporate governance. Coral's articles are presented regularly at refereed conferences and published in academic journals and books. Her research focus is on boards of directors, their leadership role, and the strategic dimension of governance. She is a regular reviewer for a range of academic journals and conferences and serves on the editorial boards and scientific committees of a number of these. She is a professional member of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA). Coral is also a board member of Governance NZ and several other boards of directors in New Zealand.