BUGEN5930 Business, Society and the Planet - Assessment 2 Part A

Part A – Business Values Assessment report

This activity is based on the exercise on page 226 of ‘Business Ethics’ (Crane & Matten, 2010) – a copy of the relevant pages are available on the course Moodle page. 

For this component, you need to work in a group of three to four (3-4) students to consider the values and social performance of two companies. You are required to consider and discuss the companies as a group, but must submit your responses to the questions as individuals. 

1. As a group, select two companies that produce social reports and whose values are identified on their websites or in other company documents (that are publicly available). The two companies selected by your group must be either:

1. From different industries but in the same country; or
2. From the same industry but different countries.

By Week 5, your group must provide the names of the companies you have selected to research, and the industry and country within which they operate. 

1. As a group, research each of your companies to determine their company values, their approaches to social responsibility and their reporting of their social performances. 

1. As an individual, you are required to submit responses to the following questions:

1. Identify and describe the two companies you have researched; their core business activities and the countries and/or industries in which they operate. (15 marks)
2. What differences are evident between the two companies in terms of the range of issues dealt with in their social reports and the depth of coverage on specific issues? Please note – this question does not ask for a description or summary of the content of each company’s reports. Instead, you need to analyse the types of information, the major themes, the presentation, formatting and tone of each report – and explain the ways in which the reports are similar to each other and the ways in which they are different.  (15 marks)
3. Discuss which of the Sustainable Development Goals you believe are most relevant to these companies, their industries and the countries in which they operate. Discuss the extent to which these SDGs were addressed, explicitly or implicitly, in the CSR/Sustainability reports of your companies? (15 marks)
4. Assess the apparent quality of the social accounting approach utilized by each company according to Zadek et al.’s (1997) criteria. (15 marks)
5. Discuss the extent to which the social reports provided by these companies reflect their stated values. (15 marks)
6. Briefly reflect on your groups’ discussions of these companies. In what ways did the ideas presented by your group confirm your own conclusions, influence your thinking and/or present another perspective to you? (15 marks)

• A score (10 marks) will be allocated for presentation, written expression, spelling, grammar, punctuation and referencing.

Word limit: 2000 words

Referencing: You are required to follow the APA style of referencing for this task. There is no set number of references required. It is recommended, however, that you independently seek out resources in addition to those provided by the lecturer.