corporate social responsibility

Princess Nourah University (PNU)

College of Business Administration

Group Project Work Guidelines (B.E.S.R)

Project Description

The Group Project is based on corporate social responsibility good practices in the companies within the gulf region. The term project for Business Ethics & Social Responsibility course is a group project work which is required to be submitted at the end of the term (Week 12). This will allow students to explore best practices in the industry related to Corporate Social responsibility.

The Project:

Students must select any one of the company public or private with its presence in gulf region. The group must study the organization’s CSR initiative and its best practices. The project must include the emerging trends followed by the organisation to make its CSR presence strong. They must also make a comparative study of the CSR initiative of the competitors from the same sector.

The Project consists of two Parts:

1)Group Project report -15%

2)Defense Presentation-10%

Learning Objectives:

1. Students will assess key trends that impact on the relationship between business and society.

0. Students will be in a position to understand the responsibility of the corporates towards various stakeholders; employees, customers, employees, government, suppliers and society etc.

The students will be assessed on the following areas of the project:

1.Introduction of the selected) company’s CSR.

2.Study of company’s CSR towards stakeholders.

3. Comparative study of the CSR initiative of the selected company with the competitor firm from the same sector.

4. Conclusion and Recommendation: The final outcome of the project and recommendations to make CSR better/Suggestions to fill any gap in CSR practices.

Guidelines

• A team can have up to 5 students.

• The project report must be in the form of a written form as per guidelines with minimum of 10-15 max pages or word limit (2500-4000 words) in English.

• Student teams can collect information for the group project through:

· secondary research of data through published sources.

· Primary sources: Students can contact the company officials directly and interview the relevant responsible executives.

· Some charts, graphs and campaign pictures or pictures can also be included in the project.

· A comparative analysis of CSR initiative must also be made in the project with a competitor firm from same sector.

Report structure:

Please use the following structure:

1: Cover page: Group member names, Course Name and Code, Lecturer Name, Title of the project, Department and University Name, Date of Submission:

2: Table of Contents (Index required)

· List of Tables (optional)

· List of Figures (optional)

· List of Keywords (optional)

3. Executive summary, which includes short summary/abstract of the whole project. Students can write down in brief (150-200 words/One paragraph)

4: Company profile: The introduction of the company (The following information can be included as well as other important introductory details from their website.

Company Name: [full name]

Headquarters: [city, country]

Sector: [sector]

Number of employees: [number, excluding subcontractors]

Annual gross revenue: [US$ and local currency; if disclosed]

Status: [listed, private or government owned]

Introductory CSR vision, motto and objective/sustainable goals must be included about the company.

5. Comparative study of CSR practices with a company in same sector. It can include the following:

background research on how the company is doing CSR activities on the chosen sector (How the company has included CSR factors in their marketing, manufacturing and operational areas)

a. Best practices followed in CSR of competitor firm with relevant examples and statistics.

Students can do the internet research through website, annual reports etc/primary research by visiting the company. SWOT/PEST analysis can be applied for comparative study.

6: Study of CSR towards stakeholders: Identification of stakeholders; stakeholders contacted if any and CSR initiative towards each stakeholder identified with respect to the company chosen.

7: Conclusion and Recommendations: Suggestions to fill the gap in CSR if any or recommendations to make it better by adopting other best practices. Implementation plan, ideas suggested.

-Description of about how did you reach to the final output of the project.

9: References (Harvard Style)

10: Appendices (if needed) (Can include pictures of CSR activities and charts e.t.c)

Name of company executive interviewed:

Position:

E -mail:

Phone number:

Date of interview:

List of questions asked (Schedule)

Submission:

A hard copy of the report should be submitted to the lecturer, and a soft copy of the report should be submitted on Blackboard prior to the deadline.

Writing Mechanics:

Font type: Times New Roman, Size 12, Spacing 1.5

Presentation

Each individual shall be assessed as per individual contribution in the project report during presentation. Every team member must participate in the final defence presentation.

Due Date

Projects should all be submitted on week 12. Each group must submit a hard and soft copy of the report by week 12 on Thursday,28th March at 12 noon.

Late submissions will not be accepted. There will be a defense presentation in the following week 13 and 14 based on the project report.

Citation

All references you use should be cited appropriately according to APA standards. Please visit https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/apa for guidelines on citations. Take the time to visit and bookmark for your future reference the previous link for details on how to cite a variety of hardcopy and online sources.

Academic Integrity

No cheating or plagiarism will be tolerated. Any student that is found guilty of cheating or plagiarism will be turned over to the Dean of Students for disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the university’s policies, rules and regulations. Marks shall be deducted for any acts of plagiarism.