This week we will take a look at Srijan Technologies, an New Delhi, India-based IT consulting company engaged in designing and building web applications and IT infrastructure systems using open source software. We’ll explore how they practice radical – and responsible – transparency.
Q: How open should a company be with financial information? Should they even be open about salaries and if so, why?
A: Srijan Technologies practices open-book management, which means that they are open with financial information about the company to their employees. Salaries of all the staff at Srijan, including the CEO, are also recorded in spreadsheets and made accessible to everyone.
“If freedom to express oneself fearlessly is built into the day-to-day work culture, it brings in greater accountability across the board, including of the top leadership, and pushes everyone to give their best - and a little bit more. The environment demands greater communication, and feedback for improvement,” explains managing director Rahul Dewan.
The CEO also shares the company’s financial information with the employees, and solicits their feedback for strategic planning. As a result, the staff feels a greater sense of fairness and of shared responsibility.
“Transparency in finances becomes a necessity in this culture, and with it the sharing of profits,” continues Dewan. “This brings in a much deeper sense of co-ownership. All of this is working quite well for us, and it just makes our work environment more loving, tolerant, accommodating – and even spiritual.”
To learn more about Srijan Technologies and their democratic practices, click here.
Nov 30, 2009
Traci,
Thanks for this. I thought it was really interesting that everyone’s salaries are also shared, along with other financial data.
For those who want to know more about open book management, here’s the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-book_management (tho’ unfortunately it’s largely one huge block of text)
Lastly, we at Equal Exchange (3 time WorldBlu winner) have always practiced open-book management and have found it indispensable to our democratic workplace culture. http://www.equalexchange.coop/worker-owned
After all, can you imagine trying to maintain a democratic _society_ without the government revealing what the budgets or deficits were? What if we didn’t know what we paid our President or Senators or government workers? What if we didn’t know how much went to healthcare or defense?
Suffice it to say that democracy without transparency is like a meal with no food, ie a pointless exercise.
Jan 30, 2010
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