08 Aug Research the CSR efforts of your chosen company.
Now that you’ve learned about the functional areas of the company through your internship and the company’s focus on teamwork and problem-solving, your manager would like you to lead an effort to select a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue that the company can adopt and champion over time. You’ve impressed others with your work so far. This is a significant vote of confidence from your manager and an opportunity for visibility from the CEO and even external audiences.
For this assessment, you will:
- Research the CSR efforts of your chosen company.
- Choose a specific current issue that can be addressed with sustainable solutions.
- Prepare a short presentation to leadership about the chosen issue and present some sustainable problem-solving actions that the company could take as part of a new CSR campaign. You may use the Assessment 4 Template [PPTX] to help organize your work.
INSTRUCTIONS
Using the template, create an 8–10 slide PowerPoint presentation with slide notes that define a corporate social responsibility issue, explain how the problem affects a local or global community, and describe possible sustainable solutions that the company can support.
1. In preparation for this assessment, review your selected company website and look for evidence of a social responsibility issue or problem that they have adopted to support in the local, national, or global community. Think about the following questions as you review the website. The interactive activity Corporate Social Responsibility can take you through these first questions and help you get a start on your assessment.
- Is the company support for the issue financial or is there also a volunteer element?
- How are employees engaged in the financial or volunteer activities? Are customers able to contribute financially and through volunteering?
- How is the solution that the company supports sustainable?
- How does the issue tie to your chosen company’s mission and vision?
Note: If you don’t find much evidence of a CSR issue on the website, you can identify one that you feel fits.
2. Select a corporate social responsibility issue to research. Possible topics include:
- Workplace diversity, hiring, and equity.
- Reducing the carbon footprint.
- Clean energy.
- Water stewardship.
- Climate change.
- Hunger.
- Digital divide.
3. Narrow the topic down to a specific CSR problem that needs to be solved. Explain how it relates to your chosen company and offer possible solutions that the company can support.
- Example:
- Topic: Water stewardship.
- Problem: Children’s access to clean drinking water.
- Possible Solutions: Dig safe wells for local and international communities, support UNICEF clean water project, or contribute bottled water to FEMA for natural disasters.
- Relates to business: Water is a key ingredient for the product, and the organization has factories in the same states where children need clean drinking water.
4. Next, research the CSR problem. Locate 3–7 reputable resources about the business problem and solutions. The resources you choose will help you to define the focus of your research and writing. Your research should also help you develop possible solutions to the problem. You can find some resources in the “First Steps” resource activity. This activity is linked in the Assessment hub page and counts toward engagement. The interactive activity QuickStart: Business Problems and CSR will also help you to review key aspects of CSR campaigns.
5. Develop a PowerPoint presentation with 8–10 slides with slide notes on the chosen corporate social responsibility topic and business problem. Organize your content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions. Remember that the Assessment 4 Template [PPTX] is available to help you with this.
