Communications in business Custom Essay

Task
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been identified as an integral part of company operations, although media reports show that many firms are struggling with practical application. You have been asked to conduct a CSR audit for a company that has had negative publicity in recent years (5 years). In your capacity as a communications auditor, report to the firm’s management (report format with executive summary and table of contents).
1. Provide details of your ‘scope of engagement’ (i.e. what exactly were you instructed to do).
2. Critically analyse the current understanding of CSR, referring to academic literature and industry standards.
3. Examine your client’s CSR commitment through carrying out the following investigation:
• Identify the CSR claims embedded in the firm’s vision and strategic documents.
• Are these claims measurable (i.e. are the actions arising from them fully integrated into the firm’s governance and performance documents)?
• Can the firm demonstrate the positive impact of its CSR policy?
4. Clearly identify discrepancies between communicated intention and corporate practice.
5. Make recommendations.
6. Acknowledge sources and provide a reference list.
Rationale
This assessment brings together learning from modules 1-4 and allows you to clarify your understanding of the complexity of communication (learning outcomes 1, 2, 3 & 6).

Simple Report Format
Executive Summary about 200 words
Overview and aim of the project you undertook This audit involved the investigation of …
The primary aim was to …

What was the preparation? You first had to learn something. Before the audit could begin, the ….
(1)
(2)
Then you selected your goal (CSR) Explain how you selected the documents
Explain the criteria
Outline the findings What did you discover and what is your conclusion from that.
Table of Contents
1.0 XXX
1.1 XXX
1.2 XXX
2.0 XXX3.0 XXX

Introduction 150 words approx..
1. Purpose & Scope (summarise the task)
2. Background (why is this an important/interesting task/problem)
3. Statement of Problem
4. Questions that you are now asking based on the problem
5. Report outline (briefly explain how the report is organised)

Literature Review 150 words – what do the academics say?
Here you review what is known about the current commitment of companies to CSR – you may draw on Zaire et al. and a number of texts from ethics (more resources will arrive in the Ass. 2 resources file).

The Test Case (your organisation) 600 words
Describe the company; analyse their annual report for CSR commitments; review the publicity they have been receiving in more recent years. Restate your question here.

Explain the auditing process (Do the audit, using the audit checklist and rate each of the sections; if you find something else that shows CSR commitment or communication, add it in) 400 words
Explain the categories
Explain how you did it
Describe the outcomes

Conclusion and recommendations 200 words
Discuss and critically analyse the outcomes
Discuss what that means
Make recommendations

References: