Corporate approaches to social responsibility
Corporate approaches to social responsibility
COMM101 Autumn Session 2020
COMM101: Tutorial Week 9, Autumn Session 2020
Topic: Corporate approaches to social responsibility (Assessed for Assessment 1)
Recommended reading for this assessment:
- Babic, M, Heemskerk, E & Fichtner, J 2018, ‘Who is more powerful – states or corporations?’, The Conversation, 11 July 2018, available at: https://theconversation.com/who-is-more-powerful-states-or-corporations-99616.
- Dans, E 2015, ‘Volkswagen And The Failure of Corporate Social Responsibility’, Forbes, 27 September 2015, available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2015/09/27/volkswagen-and-the-failure-of-corporate-social-responsibility/#606504174405.
- Mitchell, RK, Agle, BR & Wood, D 1997, ‘Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 853-886.
- Moore, G 1999, ‘Corporate Moral Agency: review and Implications’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 329-343.
- Shaw, WH, Barry, V, Issa, T, Catley, B & Muntean, D 2017, ‘Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance’, Moral Issues in Business, 3rd Asia-Pacific edn, Cengage, South Melbourne, VIC, pp. 154-200.
- Smith, NC & Orts, EW 2017, ‘Who Is Responsible for Corporate Misconduct?’, INSEAD Knowledge, available at: https://knowledge.insead.edu/responsibility/who-is-responsible-for-corporate-misconduct-5751.
- Week 8 lecture notes.
Task 1: Read the article by Babic et al. (2018) – https://theconversation.com/who-is-more-powerful-states-or-corporations-99616 – and answer the following questions.
- Is the powerful role of corporations in politics more or less conducive for fulfilling social responsibilities by corporations? Explain your answer.
- What are some of the challenges in terms of ethical practices posed by the interplay between state and corporate power?
Task 2: Read Forbes’ article by Dans (2015), https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2015/09/27/volkswagen-and-the-failure-of-corporate-social-responsibility/#606504174405.
AND
Smith and Orts’s (2017) article, https://knowledge.insead.edu/responsibility/who-is-responsible-for-corporate-misconduct-5751, and answer the following questions.
COMM101 Autumn Session 2020
- Who should be held responsible for the Volkswagen’s failure of corporate social responsibility, individual(s) within the company or the company itself? Provide reasoning for your answer.
- How could the adoption of the broad view of CSR by Volkswagen help the company avoid the unethical behaviour? Could such a perspective help with the company’s bottom line as well? Explain your answers.
- What could be some of the arguments against Volkswagen’s adoption of the broad view of CSR?
Note: Remember to use concepts from COMM101 lectures and the textbook (Shaw et al. 2017)