Posted: September 20th, 2015

BUSINESS VALUES ASSESSMENT REPORT

BUSINESS VALUES ASSESSMENT REPORT

This activity is based on the exercise on page 226 of ‘Business Ethics’ (Crane & Matten, 2010).
For this component, you need to consider the values and social performance of two companies. You are required to consider and discuss the companies.

1. Select two companies that produce social reports and whose values are identified on their websites or in other company documents (that are publicly available). At least one of these companies must have had the social responsibility and/or performance of their business activities queried.
Telstra (Telecommunications company) and Qantas (Airline company).

2. As a group, research and discuss each of your companies to determine their company values, their approaches to social responsibility and their reporting of their social performances.

3. As an individual, you are required to submit responses to the following questions:

i. Identify and describe the two companies you have researched; the countries and/or industries in which they operate. (15 marks)
ii. What differences are evident between the two companies in terms of the range of issues dealt with in their social reports and the depth of coverage on specific issues? (15 marks)
iii. To what extent can these differences be explained by the country or industry differences? What other explanations might there be? (15 marks)
iv. Assess the apparent quality of the social accounting approach utilized by each company according to Zadek et al.’s (1997) criteria. (15 marks)
v. Discuss the extent to which the social reports provided by these companies reflect their stated values. (15 marks)
vi. Briefly reflect on your groups’ discussions of these companies. In what ways did the ideas presented by your group confirm your own conclusions, influence your thinking and/or present another perspective to you? (15 marks)
• A score (10 marks) will be allocated for presentation, written expression, spelling, grammar, punctuation and referencing.

Word limit: 2000 words
Referencing: You are required to follow the APA style of referencing for this task. There is no set number of references required. It is recommended, however, that you independently seek out resources in addition to those provided by the lecturer.