case study analysis

 The second mode of assessment is a Case Study analysis in which students explore an example of ‘responsible management’ in their professional field or specialist discipline, and include examples of evidence which have informed the analysis.

The Case Study Analysis can take one of three formats:

• A ‘Responsible Management audit’ of a leading organisation in the student’s professional field or specialist discipline. Students must document and evaluate how far the governance, management and operation (e.g. resource use, behaviour and outputs) of the organisation they have selected complies with the Principles of the UN Global Compact by analysing a corporation’s annual ‘Communication on Progress’ report. This comprises four dimensions:
• Human Rights – Business should support and respect the protection of international human rights; and make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses;
• Labour Rights – Business should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour; the effective abolition of child labour; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation;
• Environment – Business should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies;
• Anti-corruption – Business should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.

          http://www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC/TheTenPrinciples/index.html

• Investigation of an example of a failure of responsible management.

Students analyse a corporate scandal or controversy, examining its causes, its social and/or environmental impact, and the nature and adequacy of response to it on the part of the wider industry or sector.

• Responsible Management Strategy.

Students design a strategy for an organisation in their specialist field or profession which would enable it to enact the key Principles for Responsible Management (i.e. those listed in option (i) above) or which would improve the corporation’s position in one of the principal CSR and related indices, e.g. B Corp; FTSE4Good; Dow Jones Sustainability Index; Ethical Trading Initiative; Rainforest Alliance index, or another they have chosen. (*Students must clearly state which index they are using to inform their strategy).

To accompany the Case Study report students must also compile and attach a small appendix of evidence sources which they have gathered to inform and substantiate their analysis. These ‘evidence portfolios’ must include no more than five artefacts (i.e. extracts from reports, articles, commentaries or other coverage) and a short commentary which describes and explains the significance of the items selected and inter-relationships between them. The maximum length of this commentary is 500 words (in addition to the 2,000 words in the main analysis). Items included in the evidence appendix should be attached as hyperlinks, scanned extracts from documents or conventional academic references rather than full texts, to enable the Case Study to be submitted electronically (see sect 5.3 below)

Word limit: 2,000 words for the main text of the Case Study analysis (plus a maximum of  500 words for the commentary accompanying the evidence appendix).

Students must state the word count in their submitted assignment.