Nineteenth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

Public organizations face important challenges regarding information access. The legal and regulatory environment is changing rapidly and constantly. However, the direction is not clear. There is an increased pressure for transparency, open data and information access. On the other hand, there is the right to privacy, the right to be forgotten, commercial and banking secrecies. This study analyzes how Brazilian public organizations are dealing with this situation. The methodology used is a multiple case study, based on secondary data available on organization websites, analysis of press releases, news and reports. The theoretical framework includes a comparison between the legal and regulatory environment in Brazil and other countries. The results showed that public organizations have different approaches and different degrees of transparency, based on their maturity, sector and pressures from the society. Using these results, we proposed a theoretical framework to perform the same analysis on other countries. Some opportunities for additional research include extending this study to non-governmental organizations, including private firms and civil society associations.