Topic 20 Corporate Social Responsibility & Ethics

@unyimeedem – the correlation idea is a very good one – a pity they haven’t included the detail to allow you to do this for the last couple of years however you certainly can do it for the other two years.

I think you should use the latest reports for most of your RAP but you could still include a graph showing the correlation for 2010 & 2011 as part of it. Then you have the best of both worlds. However mention underneath the graph that you could not include the latest figures as the company has not disclosed this information

@nickel – Triple bottom line is an acceptable model but I think you should also consider Carroll in addition as it introduces Philanthropic aspects and with T20 you need to explore the subject as broadly as possible. The important thing with any RAP in general and T20 (and T17) in particular, is to ensure that you research and use a variety of sources that are not all dependent on company generated information. The hallmark of a good RAP is one that shows a balanced view and critically reviews the information and does not just accept the company standpoint. Obviously you will be using some company reports but broaden your research and actively seek out business articles that will help you assess it objectively. As with T17 try to assess the company’s performance on some aspects of CSR with a competitor*. For a good mark you have to show that you have questioned and critiqued all information sources.

In principle there is no problem using the same topic but you must submit original work. It may not be advisable to use the same company unless you ensure that you do not even read their submission to avoid any possibility that you replicate any of it even inadvertently. Make no mistake the electronic checking system is only one of the measures used to assess authenticity of student’s work – experienced markers are quite skilful at using a range of techniques that ferret out work that is not the student’s own – and at least 10% of submissions I understand are initially referred to the ACO as being suspicious.

*in fact for T20 as there is no laid down code for companies, just general guidelines (see The Global Reporting Initiative) a more appropriate way of doing comparisons is possibly benchmarking against ‘Best Practice.’ Find examples of good CSR and see how your chosen organisation measures up.

Thank you soo much for this!! clarifies a lot!

@Trephena thank u and ur comments r always helpful…. I would like to know is there any list of recommended software for presentation….. I was considering doodling presentation however not sure whether is it permissible or not??? Thanks in advance dear………..

@Trephena the marker wants me to use GRI framework to analyze the company’s actions and reporting

Pls how do I use this?

@unyimeedem – The emphasis here is on ‘framework’ as the Global Reporting Initiative is quite complex so I suggest that you use p. 9 of this as a guide to some of the areas to look at:

https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/GRIG4-Part1-Reporting-Principles-and-Standard-Disclosures.pdf

Not all of these would be applicable to your organisation and there are too many to be able to cover them all so you will need to be selective. I think you should also look at Carroll’s Pyramid – there is some overlap between the two (many of the facets in Table 1 could come under ‘legal’ and ‘ethical’ dimensions included in the Pyramid for example). However you should also include charitable initiatives and community projects as part of the ‘philantrophic’ dimension.

It is important with T20 (as well as with T17) that you look for independent articles from the business press and the internet so that you are not just relying on company statements. For example a current ethical issue is global organisations moving their head offices to low tax countries and arranging complex intercompany transfers to minimise the tax liabilities in many of the countries they actually operate in. Statements from such companies that ‘they pay all their tax as due’ is only half the story – this may be so but is it morally and ethically right that they aggressively pursue tax avoidance policies so that the minimum is given back to many of the countries they depend on for income? So rather than just repeat all the positive statements that the company makes, try to provide evidence that either supports or contradicts this so that your report is balanced.

@tanvi2211

1. There is no need to have a specific comparator as CSR encompasses many aspects and different companies put different emphases on the various aspects so direct comparisons with just one company is not very effective. However what you can do is look at these various aspects and find companies that excel in particular areas via your Research and ‘benchmark’ against these – in effect you will be measuring your company against ‘best practice’.

2. Primary research for T20 is not really advised. The prob with Questionnaires is that unless you have experience in putting together a questionnaire you are likely to waste your time in producing something that does not measure anything reliably and is too subjective to be of any use.

A better way of approaching this topic (and T17) then trying to do primary research is to supply some independent information (e.g it is not produced by the company) to support or present an alternative point of view of company statements. This way you are adding ‘balance’ to their CSR statements and sustainability reports. Look for some articles from bodies that focus on ethics and sustainability. From their websites you will get ideas and ‘leads’. So for starters look at the first of these in relation to (1) above

https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/20/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies/

and also see the website of Applied Corporate Governance as they have discussed ethics well and on another page there are links to various articles

https://www.applied-corporate-governance.com/define-business-ethics.html

https://www.applied-corporate-governance.com/business-ethics-articles.html

@Trephena thanks for your advise. another issue is this;

how do i use footnotes in my report? i contacted OBU about copy and pasting company stated policies.

and the response was that i must introduce the text and cite the sources using footnotes to avoid plagarism.

@tanvi2211 you’ll fail if you do a questionnaire on this topic.

I already failed because I did a questionnaire. The marker said it wasn’t useful

@unyimeedem – Is your first paragraph about what you had done previously or what you have now done for your resubmission?

With any topic the markers want to see evidence of ‘critical thought’ which basically means that you have shown that you have looked at something and not just accepted the situation but examined it from different angles. So by comparing actual practice with stated policies you seem to be doing this and this should greatly improve your work.

By doing the sort of comparisons you mention you will have also needed to use independent sources (i.e. articles not written by the company) as well as Apple’s own reports and statements – which again is good as it (a) shows research (b) the ‘balance’ I mentioned in an earlier post and (c) demonstrates objectivity (you are not just accepting the company view of things). So presuming this is your new work this all seems to be moving in the right direction now. 🙂

Show that you have used the GRI framework for some of your work and yes bring in the child labour issue (and maybe point out that your research indicates that Apple needs to ‘audit’ its suppliers better in this respect to ensure consistency in policy and practice).

The idea throughout is that you subject the company’s CSR to valid scrutiny so comparisons with best practice and/or business practice are appropriate. In fact if you find that the GRI is inadequate in any aspects then you can legitimately mention this in your Conclusion & Recommendations section. Constructive criticism will enhance your work – emphasis on the word constructive as you need to support statements with facts and references (not just make sweeping statements). Effective evaluation is about demonstrating that you are using sources sensibly, presenting reasoned arguments and thinking for yourself.

Your suggestions now seem to indicate that you have grasped what is required so hopefully this time you will be successful

@unyimeedem – great stuff! (Remember to reference well too throughout).

I suggest that you also start your Resubmission Statement – see my article on this called ‘The Resubmission Statement – why a good one is your key to success’ on our homepage http://www.opentuition.com/obu

As this is your last attempt you need to ensure that you have addressed all the areas the markers and moderators highlighted and by starting your statement now it will be like a checklist. You sound as if now you have the proper focus so well done and keep up the good work! 🙂

@unyimeedem – I suggest in your methodology or in Part 2 you mention that your analysis will be covering Carroll’s Pyramid and include one of the usual images for this (referenced). As your stakeholder section will be dealing with profit and shareholder returns this covers the economic dimension. For legal and ethics there is some overlap. I think you are looking at some of the GRI issues on these and also discussing issues like chiild labour and the moral/ ethical issue of ‘legal’ global tax avoidance. You have also done a section on charitable and philanthropic initiatives so all round by the end you should have covered Caroll’s.

In your conclusion you can just relate back to your objectives and mention that in your work you have referred to various relevant models including Carroll’s and Mendelow as well as basing your work on the GRI so that you believe you have researched the theory of CSR adequately and by using many independent sources you have tried to give a balanced view of Apple’s actual CSR and ethical pracices. In this sense you won’t have a definite section called ‘Application of Caroll’s Pyramid’ but it will all be there and that is what counts. You can also more or less summarise the above when completing your Resubmission Statement. I am reliably informed that most markers review this and previous feedback to see whether a resubmitting student has followed the advice and then expect to see evidence of it in the work. This will show that you have addressed the issues and made all the necessary improvements (hopefully) and now deserve to receive a pass 🙂