STRM075 Social Responsibility and Impact AS1 Portfolio Assignment Brief | UoN

STRM075 Assessment Task Guidance Description 

Learning Outcomes Aligned to this Assessment: 

On successful completion of this assessment, you will be able to: 

• Demonstrate systematic understanding of how to develop front-end strategising processes/procedures for sustainable business and development projects.
• Employ advanced skills to complete an audit (i.e., an examination of the quality or condition) of an organisation's corporate social responsibility.
• Display mastery in the application of appropriate models and practical/pragmatic tools of sustainability to specific situations.
• Adapt knowledge and skills to the critical analysis of complex situations. 

STRM075 Assignment Task: 

Title: Company Social Responsibility Report

The first step is to select a company operating in an industry (e.g., Tea, Coffee House, Chocolate manufacturing, Fast fashion retail, Furniture construction, Fresh fruit, etc.) of your choice 

You have just been employed as a Consultant by the Strategic Planning Group and the Project Management Team of the company you chose. You have been asked by the Chairs of the Strategic Planning Group and the Head of the Project Management Team to produce a rigorous, precise, SR report no more than 2,500 (+/- 10%) words(excluding Cover page, Appendices and References) to be submitted to both Committees which does the following: 

• Provides an industry analysis examining the present structure of the industry (e.g., the main/leading companies, the major production centres /locations, the main sources, and locations of raw material supplies at the earliest stage of the supply chain, and the major products, customers, and markets etc.) - Approx. 400 words 
  NOTE: Provide an overview of the industry. The issues above are examples of what you could cover. You don't need to discuss all of them!
• You are required to then carefully examine the main/key stages in the industry value chain (i.e., from raw materials/primary commodity production to the supply chain, to the production stage and the main markets), to identify/unpack actual and/or potential ethical, sustainability and Social Responsibility (SR) issues - Approx. 500 words 
• The remaining parts of the report should then focus on the company you are consulting for, and should address the issues noted in A, B and C below 

A. A well-argued section which elaborates on the actual and/or potential ethical, sustainability and/or SR issues faced by the company. In this case, you are expected to draw from ethical/sustainability/SR issues identified as occurring at the industry level (i.e., Point 2 above), to identify and critically discuss those that have a bearing on the company you assume to be consulting for - Approx 400 words. 

B. A section setting out what impact a response and non-response to these issues is likely to have on the company's performance in the next 10 years - Approx 400 words. 

C. Finally, a discussion on possible SR/Sustainability strategy (and/or measures) for the firm to mitigate these SR issues - Up to 1000 words. 

Note: You will do well to use one of the key models (e.g., sustainable value chain, Triple Bottom Line, or ISO 26000 guidance/principles) in framing your strategy discussion. I'd like to ask you to discuss how specific measures recommended are embedded within the Strategic Plan. 

Guidance: 

You should consider the following when preparing your submission:

Assessment Submission 

To submit your work electronically, please go to the 'Assessment and submission' area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload the assignment deliverable. The deadline for this is 11.59 pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. Please note that Essays and text-based reports should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents (.doc or .docx), or as guided within the assignment. Please access the following guide to submitting assessments. 

Written work submitted to Turnitin will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software. Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its proprietary database. Please access the University of Northampton's Plagiarism Avoidance Course (UNPAC) to learn more. 

When you upload your work correctly to Turnitin, you will receive a receipt, which is your record and proof of submission. If your assessment is not submitted to Turnitin, rather than a receipt, you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission. 

N.B. Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked. 

Grading: 

Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in a way relevant to this assessment. You will be assessed on your ability to successfully address specified module learning outcomes, with marks allocated based on what is called a grading rubric. 

The rubric is a table that has different statements for how well each learning outcome has been met, and is used as a standard benchmark so that all assignments are marked equally against. Please see the grading rubric on NILE, or see the final page of this document for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed, presented in the grading rubric. 

Further Assessment Guidance: 

Please access the following document for more general information about the assessment process, including anonymous marking, submissions, and where to find feedback and grades. 2023 UON Standard Assessment Guidance.

STRM075 Marking Rubric