Overview and Topic Selection: Using Carroll’s CSR Framework, conduct original research to analyze the real world issue/controversy of your choice. Topics should be selected from current events (news stories that have been reported within the last 1-3 years, but no more than 5 years). Topics must have at least two identifiable and legitimate sides. Your CSR analysis must consider the best possible arguments for each side even if only one side has been publically discussed.
Ideal topics for this reasearch assignment will be constrained by:
a single narrowly defined issue
a single company or industry
a specific date or time of occurence (all research collected must occur before this date)
This will insure that your analysis is manageable (approximate length 8-15 pages). Topics must be approved by the instructor. Submit your assignment to Blackboard before the deadline.
Format and Content: Assignments must be submitted in MS Word format. Assignments submitted in unreadable formats (Mac formats are unreadable on PCs) will receive a zero. Your paper should generally conform to the following outline.
Thesis of paper – This section will describe the overall issue (sub-issues/minor issues) you will analyze. I recommend you narrowly define the issue to limit the scope of your analysis
The information, data, and assumptions that are agreed upon by all stakeholders.
A brief description of the relevant stakeholders and their stakes. Make some attempt to group the stakeholders in terms of their side(s) of the issues.
CSR Analysis presented from the perspective of each stakeholder group
Economic Efficiency & Utilitarianism
Legal Responsibilities
Ethical Responsibilities (Rights, Justice, Proportionality, the Ethic of Care, Liberty and Freedom, Double Effect, etc.)
Philanthropy (and other models listed below if relevant to the Social Responsibility of Business of the various stakeholders)
The Rashomon Effect
Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection
Rational ignorance
The election cycle
Misaligned incentives
The Tragedy of the Commons
NIMBY
Externalities and other market inefficiencies
Cognitive biases
The use or abuse of power (e.g. “might equals right”, or “the end justifies the means”)
Evaluation of overall issue in terms of the Social Responsibility of Business
Recommendations to the organizations top leadership
Outside Evaluators – Two Important Issues
The COBA has hired outside evaluators to score student writing using the “credibility killers” rubric that you saw used when you took in BUAD 3335. This assignment will be evaluated for writing mechanics by these COBA evaluators. This evaluation is worth 20%. Essays submitted after the deadline, and too late for the outside evaluators, are subject to an automatic 20% penalty.
When the COBA Evaluators are done marking your essays, they will place a zero in the “override” box of the rubric built into Bb. Do not panic! This zero is NOT your grade. I will replace the zero with the score you earn after I am done scoring all the essays in the class.
