TY - EJOU AU - Jao, Paschal AU - Zhao, Shurong AU - Anthony, Baraka Jao AU - Luo, Ailing AU - Dossa, Joel AU - Sun, Tiantian AU - Bakarr, Koroma Abu TI - Why do you reveal? Perceived organizational motives of instrumental and image-enhancement orientations on employee transparency efforts in E-commerce T2 - Journal of Psychology in Africa PY - VL - IS - SN - 1815-5626 AB - Employee transparency is critical for operational effectiveness in e-commerce organizations. Drawing on cost-value framework and self-regulatory theory, this study examines how organizational motives shape employee transparency behaviors. Study 1 surveyed 300 e-commerce employees (females 44%, main job categoty 38%) to assess differences in perceived motives and transparency behavior, showing instrumental motives positively predict transparency, while image-enhancement motives negatively predict it. Study 2 surveyed 400 participants with managerial experience were recruited from e-commerce platforms to participate in the experimental design manipulated organizational motives, showing that instrumental motives increase quality and sensitivity of transparency behaviors, while image-enhancement motives reduce feedback quality without affecting sensitivity. We find employees perceiving transparency initiatives as instrumentally motivated show higher engagement, while those seeing image-enhancement motives show reduced engagement. Findings emphasize instrumental motives’ stronger influence and highlight the importance of framing transparency for performance improvement to drive employee engagement. Study findings extend the cost-value framework to employee transparency and shifts from individual traits to organizational motives. Findings provide guidelines for e-commerce organizations in designing transparency initiatives that maximize engagement and learning, particularly in digitally mediated work environments. KW - Perceived organizational; employee; transparency efforts; organizational motives; e-commerce DO - 10.32604/jpa.2026.076434