Topic 20 Corporate Social Responsibility & Ethics

Oh no now i am really worried.i have put so much effort intovthis report.it would be a shame if they suspect my work for this.Thanks any ways for your queries

I have referenced each and everything in my report which i have taken from internet sources and even if they believe its not my own work.dont know what to do?

Don't worry about it - I was just saying what the worst case scenario was - it may never happen!

Thanks a lot mate. But are you aware of any instances like this where report has been referred to ACO due to one wrong date or something like that.I am confident as i have done my report on my own.so if they dont penalty me due to wrong date i am sure i will be allright.please update me if you have any knowledge regarding this issue.you are always helpful thanks a lot for that.i hope i can enjoy more the europa league final now.cmon liverpool.thnk you a lot.

hello Trephena I am using Carroll's pyramid and Mendelow's matrix. I am including the seven positions mentioned by Gary,Owen and Adam too.Should i include Triple bottom line as well ?

@annie - the purpose of the models should be to guide your application of the theory to your company and see how it measures up on the various factors. In this respect the Gray, Owens and Adams model is of limited use - so personally I would not bother to use it and would recommend the triple bottom line as more relevant when doing a RAP on CSR.

Hey Trephena, Can you please give any reference for the limitations of Carroll's social responsiveness model and Gray, owens and Adams 7 positions on social responsibilities models ?

Hello Hope you are all well. I decide to do RAP based on topic 20 and I select Carroll's model with GRI, Ratio analysis and Mendelow matrix for Oil and Gas Industry based company. Are those techniques suitable for oil and gas company in context of topic 20? Or any advice will be helpfull. Thanks

@annie - you will have to do what I would have to do and that is do a search on Google Scholar

@swajal -in principle this approach should be fine. You will in addition (a) need to explore what the current CSR issues are that have been affecting this sector in particular (how has the fall in oil price and volatility in the market impacted ? Have social and charitable initiatives declined accordingly for example? Have any projects been 'mothballed' and staff laid off as a consequence?) and (b) read through all the posts on this forum if you haven't already done so as there is a lot of helpful advice on here (and I really don't have the time to repeat it all). To pass the marker expects to see you have researched widely from several angles

Thanks a lot for your valuable advice sir. (NOTE FROM TREPHENA - madam actually - not sir! - I know people are confused by my icon but it is a sculpture by Sir Anthony Gormley called Sound Ii which happens to be a personal favourite of mine :-D )

Can anyone please help me to learn how to set my Research Objectives and Research Question for topic 20. I am a bit confused. Thanks

Please use the search facility at the very bottom of our page and put in some key words like 'RAP Aims' or 'RAP research objectives' or ' RAP Research questions' and read through the answers (there is a special forum topic where these have been discussed in detail). Then once you understand what this process is all about stand back and consider what are your aims in doing a T20 on your particular company? These will tend to be general questions like " To assess whether Company XYZ is a good corporate citizen' and 'How ethically is Co XYZ operating? etc. (Normally you will need to have about 4 or 5 sensible aims that you seek to establish through your research). Then you need to work out how you are going to approach and fulfil these aims. You break the aims/objectives down into more precise questions. More detail and input from you will be required to produce this sub-set of questions and only you can produce them once you have set your basic aims and objectives

Some interesting articles on companies' failures to protect customer data are worth exploring. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2014-data-breaches/ https://uk.businessinsider.com/talktalk-uk-government-report-significant-fines-companies-hacked-vulnerabilities-sql-injection-dido-harding-bonus-2016-6 This is something you could research for your chosen company. Your company does not necessarily have to be an offender - however as part of the stakeholder analysis with regard to customers (and/ or employees) you could bring this issue in. The requirement to ensure integrity of customer/ employee data is an overlap between good governance and CSR, so if anyone is doing T17 as opposed to T20 the articles may also be relevant Anyone doing an American company should consider the tax issues - as illustrated in the recent EU v Apple case. Whether the company is doing anything illegal is not necessarily the main issue - as I have pointed out before: is it morally acceptable for overseas companies to earn significant amounts of revenue in certain jurisdictions but give little back in the form of taxes and does this give them an unfair advantage over domestic companies who are unable to move operations to make huge tax savings. Things like this are something that allow you to introduce some critical thought into your work (and potentially get a better grade) if you explore and develop the issues thoroughly

Thank you open tuition.

Thanks a lot. I would like to contact if I face any difficulty further.

@TREPHENA Oh! Sorry madam.

@trephena I am currently stuck in part 3 of my RAP (T20), anyone who can give me ideas on how my contents for the part 3 would be really appreciated Thanks.

I am using 3 models; Triple Bottom Line approach, Carols CSR pyramid and mendelows matrix. Are these techniques suitable and do u think too many techniques are used

There are lots of ideas on this forum for developing your arguments and approaches in the Evaluation section so please read through. A degree is about working things out for yourself after all. Yes if you apply those models well it should work -again I have discussed these elsewhere on this forum.

Thanks, I shall read :)

Regular readers to this forum will know that I frequently bang on about large corporations avoiding tax liabilities. This discussion paper may be particularly useful to those students overseas as it looks at why big companies ought to take a more responsible and ethical approach to paying tax particularly in developing nations. It may help you assess the arguments in relation to your chosen company. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/getting-to-good-towards-responsible-corporate-tax-behaviour-582243

For the Submission checklist for this topic please go to page 4 and scroll down to find it

Hi all I’m looking to undertake T20 but I’m getting a bit bogged down by the topic title. You’ll have to forgive me but I have zero academic experience so all this report writing and topics are new to me. My quandary is this; I’m looking to focus on Tesco ‘Fair for Farmers Guarantee’ (FFFG) as a CSR policy but my worry is that this is too narrow as the topic mentions CSR policies (eg plural). Now the FFFG does cover three aspects, Fair payment for milk, 100% British milk and cows being well cared for so I suppose I could argue polices. But to get a good grade will I need to cover all of Tesco’s CSR policies or just cover these three well, by comparing and contrasting to benchmarks such as best in practice supermarkets, expected welfare and dairy industry standards? The thing is I’m really interested in tax and big business and so I’m looking to investigate Tesco’s taxation policy (oh look their head office is in Luxembourg) and how this may match or take away from the ethics and FFFG. But my other worry is that I am shoehorning this in based on my love of taxation and it's effect on ethical business decisions that I may stray too far. It’s just if I get an A for the project I’ll get a 1st class degree and I have noticed that Oxford are doing an Msc in Taxation but guessing I’ll need a 1st to get in with a sniff of entering for this. So any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Yes your approach would be too narrow as (a) the business sells far more products than just those from farmers (beverages, confectionery, wine and toiletries - to name just a few of its product lines, has a bank and mobile phone services) and (b) to pass you need to cover the full topic title as it is written in the information pack - not the title you might like to choose. By all means you can cover the 3 aspects you mention but you will need to broaden your research to cover more CSR practices and deal with the ethics element of the title as otherwise it would be marked down and no way will you get the A you are after (and in fact would be lucky to get a C). The tax example is good and so hopefully you are beginning to see that CSR is a broad topic. You also need to consider Tesco's charitable initiatives and its carbon footprint and environmental issues - consider too how it deals with waste food for example. Company policies and practices and its relationship with all its stakeholders. and whether like a lot of supermarkets it is serving the community by sitting on land sites it is yet to develop (land banks) waiting for land prices to rise. Go on Google Scholar and download a few academic articles on CSR - and if you are very lucky there may be one even on Tesco. Use these to give you some ideas but do NOT copy and paste passages from them into your report.

Hi Trephena That was my sneaky suspicion and so glad I asked the question. I'll check Google Scholar see what is about and start digging a little further. Many thanks

@suze - I forgot to mention with Google Scholar you will find that many articles require a subscription. Those having a pdf link on the right may have the full document for you download FOC. Otherwise feed in the author's name(s) and title of document in a new search and you may find the author(s) have made the article available publicly without your having to pay to read it. Other things for Tesco (or in fact any supermarket -food labelling in terms of calorie, sugar and fat content of own brands to improve health awareness. Also information on packaging recycling (again own brands) This last week the Chairman of Tesco put his foot in it about about men on boards - I think it is fair to assume that he was joking however some journalists have quoted him out of context prompting the hysterical reaction by some women's right groups to call for a boycott of Tesco! This article I believe shows good balance (and illustrates the need to read full facts before reaching a conclusion!) https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/11/white-men-an-endangered-species-in-uk-boardrooms-tesco-chairman.html

hi trephena could you please suggest how i could use the Star model and Tripple bottom line relevant to the CSR in the auto industry. thanks alot

To be perfectly honest -no I can't as they are not models I would choose. I prefer Carroll's pyramid and would use either Mendelow or Kendall &Kendall as the stakeholder model. These have been discussed previously either on this forum or on T17 so you will have to through to find the posts. Sorry for the curt reply but I am working long hours from 8a.m. to 10p.m. and just don't have the time to repeat things especially as to a certain extent a degree is about researching and working things out for yourself. Sorry- nothing personal but I am exhausted! :-(

The submission checklist for Topic 20 can be found on page 3 -then scroll down (Though written for an earlier submission period it is still valid for period 34)