Homework: Corporate Social Responsibility Analysis Guidelines
Overview:
Now that you have looked at a company (Theo Chocolate) from an ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective, it is time for you to apply what you have learned as you investigate a company of your choice. Analyzing the ethics and CSR of a company is a skill that will prepare you for a career in management. It is a process you may find useful as you look at companies for potential career opportunities in the future, or you might be charged with developing the CSR and ethical approach to doing business for the company you work for someday. This homework will provide an opportunity for you to practice this process.
For this homework, you will identify a company to research from an ethics and CSR perspective. You will use their company website and reliable news sources from the past decade to do a thorough analysis of the company's state of ethics and approach to CSR. You will develop your thoughts about the research you gather to write a well-developed short paper.
Directions:
Be sure to address the following critical elements in your short paper:
a) Identify what the company is doing to consider the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit)
b) Describe any recent or current ethical situations facing the company, as referenced in reliable news sources such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, Inc., NPR, the Washington Post, etc.
c) Assess how focused the company is on each of the three elements in the triple bottom line-for example, is this CSR initiative or mission very visible or is it buried within the website? Sometimes the location of the CSR mission can be an indication of how they prioritize people versus profit versus planet.
d) Choose one of the approaches below and explain how you would categorize the company on the pyramid or continuum of CSR approaches. Why? Support your position with your perspective and/or indicators from your research.
Approach I: Criteria of Corporate Social Performance pyramid from Exhibit 5.5 in Chapter 5 of the textbook (economic, legal, ethical, or discretionary/philanthropic)
OR
Approach II: Approaches to Social Responsibility continuum from Figure 5.2 in the CSR Approaches Continuum document (obstructionist, defensive, accommodative, proactive)
a) Evaluate what is going well or how this company could improve their consideration and mindfulness of the triple bottom line
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
o The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
o The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
o Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.