Corporate social responsibilty (CSR)

Throughout the course, your project assignments will recommend and defend a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) project for a global, publicly traded organization.

In Week 1, you will select a global, publicly traded organization. (Hint: The Fortune 500 list of companies is a good source for this kind of information).

You will need to research the chosen organization through primary and secondary sources and investigate the organization’s mission and vision statement and code of ethics. Begin thinking about a potential social cause you might recommend for the organization (that is different than any current social cause the organization pursues).

For example, you may decide that you want to select Google as your global, publicly traded organization. In doing research on Google, you find that it supports a number of charities, including improving computer science education, empowering women and girls, and fighting trafficking and child abuse. However, for this session-long project, you should identify another cause for Google to support beyond what it is already doing.

Tasks:

Citing research from a variety of sources, including the company’s website, social media sites, company blogs, industry and trade sources, and other sources, provide a summary of the organization, including the organization’s products or services, customer or client base, areas of operation or distribution, history, main competition, and the organization’s current situation.
Analyze the mission, vision, and values of this organization.
Evaluate the ethical principles and policy under which the organization works.
Defend the reasons (e.g., personal, professional) and rationale leading you to select the organization. What drew you to this particular organization?