The New Yorker reviews Prof. Dr. Jana Costas' book Secrecy at Work

Why do companies choose to keep their own misconduct secret - even if it has serious health consequences for consumers and employees? The US magazine The New Yorker discusses this in an article from 20 May 2024. The article picks up on the research findings of organisational scientist Prof. Dr. Jana Costas. Together with Prof Dr Christopher Grey, Costas published the monograph Secrecy at Work. The Hidden Architecture of Organisational Life (Stanford University Press).

Per se, it is not wrong for companies to keep secrets, The New Yorker quotes the two researchers. In the case of trade secrets, for example, this may be necessary in the face of competition from other companies. However, according to Costas and Grey, the keepers of secrets can form a tight-knit group that keeps the very existence of secrets secret. "Such techniques become disastrous when a company keeps a dark secret - a secret about wrongdoing," the New Yorker quotes Costas and Grey as saying.