BUGEN2630 Principles of Responsible Business
Instructions:
You are required to write two essays form the following three options.
Each essay is worth 25 marks. The total marks for the assessment is 50 (25×2).
The essays are devised to assess your ability to interpret and apply your knowledge, comprehension skills, and critical thinking rather than only knowledge recall.
In supporting your arguments/views in your essays, you are required to use data from various sources including academic articles and professional reports. Use at least five sources (preferably 3 high quality, peer-reviewed journal articles and 2 professional reports such as reports published by the United Nations. Please note, these five sources are required in total for two essays (not for each of the essays). While the combination may vary, it is expected that you use more peer-reviewed journal articles than other materials). Students expecting higher grades are required to use more than five academic articles and professional documents.
You also need to cite the sources and present a list of references, following the APA referencing guidelines (available via FedUni library academic support)
The word limit for each of the task is 1400 words (2800 words in total for two essays).
Marking criteria for this task is posted in Moodle.
Essay 1
In the 2001 Australian film The Bank, a bank CEO has hold of research suggesting with certainty that a massive stock market crash is about to occur. Rather than publicise the advice he suggests the bank take advantage and make a massive profit out of the crash. When a board member suggests they have a duty to the public to release the information, he replies he only cares about the shareholders – “They are our people. They are our ‘society’. The public can take care of themselves.” (The Guardian, 5 February, 2019)
Using the shareholder and stakeholder frameworks and the key concepts from the session on ethics, law and morality
- Present the strongest argument you can in support of the bank CEO’s position.
- Present the strongest argument you can against the bank CEO’s position.
- Which argument do you consider to be stronger? Why do you take this position?
Essay 2
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) stress the necessity of private businesses’ active participation, appealing for their creativity and innovation to create value for the common good, such as reducing poverty, eradicating hunger, and protecting biodiversity. Recent research reveals that company’s involvement in SDGs is largely symbolic and intentional, rather than substantive [van der Waal, J. W., & Thijssens, T. (2020). Corporate involvement in Sustainable Development Goals: Exploring the territory. Journal of Cleaner Production, 252, 1-11.].
Using the theories relating to corporate social responsibility and your understanding of United Nation’s Agenda for sustainable development (2015), suggest why this is the case and what companies can do to promote SDGs?
Essay 3.
In the course materials, we discussed the ways in which businesses and governments can influence and impact each other. Discuss some of the specific ways in which a global mining company such as BHP or Rio Tinto can influence governments and the specific ways in which governments impact on their business/mining operations. Give examples of these impacts and influence.