COMM1180 1
COMM1180 T1 2024
Assessment #2 Part 1
Individual Milestone
Learning objectives
Students are asked to submit a written report in full paragraphs and with suitable sub-headings,
appropriate in-text citations and a reference list in which they …
• Critically analyse statements and actions of companies;
• Research, analyse and reference appropriate sources of information;
• Analyse ethical dilemmas from the world of business;
• Apply the stakeholder frameworks to corporate actions and contrast their evaluations of the
same situation.
Process and timeline
In the individual component of the term project, each student selects a public company of their choice
subject to the following constraints:
• The company must be publicly listed on a major exchange (e.g., ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE,
HKEX).
• The company name must start with the letter H through P.
• Annual reports must be available in English. Ideally, pick a company that includes some
information on mission statement/values in their reporting. The more information, the better.
Australian companies and larger companies are best suited.
• You should be able to find some quality news coverage (not just paid press releases).
• The company has not yet been selected by one of your peers in your tutorial group. Once you
are sure which company you want to cover in your report, you post the name of the company
in a forum in the Assessment #2 tab. First come, first serve.
Note that there are several submission steps involved. Students are required to …
1) submit a draft of their report to Studiosity (UNSW’s new and free online writing support
service; see information on Moodle) by Wednesday of Week 4 at the latest.
2) upload a) your draft and b) the feedback provided by Studiosity to Moodle via the Moodle
quiz link provided by Friday of Week 4 (11:59PM).
3) incorporate the received feedback into their final individual report and make the final
submission to the Turnitin link provided by Friday of Week 5 (11:59PM).
The first 2 steps of the assessment are formative in that neither the quality of your draft nor the
content of the Studiosity feedback do affect your mark. You are however required to upload your
Studiosity feedback and the draft in time to gain access to the submission link for the final written
report. Not doing this will mean that your final submission may not be marked, and you have a risk of
COMM1180 2
receiving ZERO in this assignment. Students should aim to have a well-developed draft by Week 4 to
maximize the usefulness of the feedback. All tasks are based on material covered in Week 1. Thus,
students are encouraged to begin this assessment early.
Tasks: Purpose, Actions, Value Creation
Address the following tasks in your written report:
1) Description and Personal Appeal
Briefly describe the company and its main lines of business. Also, provide a personal reason why you
chose it.
[Guidance: 100-150 words]
2) Mission Statement and Business Purpose
Locate and summarize the company’s mission statement1. It may not be explicitly stated as such, but
typically the annual report (or website) will contain the relevant language in a prominent spot.
Extract “the why”, i.e., why does the company exist (in sense of Edmans and Sinek)? How specific is
this statement to the company? (HINT: Could a different company use the same language?) Can you
find evidence that these words correspond to some concrete actions taken recently by the company?
Evaluate how authentic the company is in its purpose and provide evidence for your judgement.
[Guidance: 250-350 words]
3) Key stakeholders and trade-offs
If you had to pick one, which stakeholder group seems to be addressed most directly in the company’s
mission statement (this can be subjective). Explain your reasoning and be diligent in defining the
stakeholder precisely. Has the relationship of the company to this stakeholder changed over time?
How does the company currently create (or destroy) value for this group in its normal course of
business? Do those same activities affect another stakeholder in the opposite direction?
[Guidance: 300-350 words]
4) Analysis of corporate action
Identify and clearly delineate a particular action that the company has taken (or is taking) that is in the
spirit of their mission statement (but not the same as their core business). Analyse this action under
a) the 6 CSR criteria discussed in the lecture, b) “Shareholder Primacy”, and c) “Grow The Pie”, and
judge whether either framework supports or rejects this action being taken.
[Guidance: 300-400 words]
Submission format of the final submission
• Report must be in full paragraphs. Bullet points are inappropriate in almost all instances. Use
suitable headings to provide the reader with some structure. DO NOT repeat the text of the
question or task before answering it.
1 We shall use the terms corporate mission statement, vision, purpose, values synonymously here.
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• Total 950-1250 words +/-10% (excluding titles, headers, and reference list).
• Students should include in-text citations for all references used.
• Reference list in Harvard format is required.2
• Must be 1.5 line spaced, 2.5 cm left aligned margin, 12-point font (Times New Roman or Arial)
and the footer must have ZID and page numbers.
Academic Integrity
As a student at UNSW, you are expected to display academic integrity in your work and interactions.
Where a student breaches the UNSW Student Code with respect to academic integrity, the University
may take disciplinary action under the Student Misconduct Procedure.
To assist you in understanding what academic integrity means, and how to ensure that you do comply
with the UNSW Student Code, it is recommended that you complete the Working with Academic
Integrity module before submitting your assessment task. It is a free, online self-paced Moodle module
that should take less than an hour to complete.
Writing in the age of ChatGPT
ChatGPT and related tools can be useful companions for interactive and self-paced learning, provide
big picture context and even help with idea generation, but it should not be relied upon in the later
writing stages of a written report assignment. We reserve the right to meet with students (individuals
or groups) to ask about specific aspects of their assignments when there are hints that AI tools have
been used to produce any portion of the final submission. Your Week 4 draft and the feedback
provided will serve as evidence of organic growth and development in your assignment.
Regardless of AI use, markers will be on the lookout for general, superficial statements that could
apply to any company at any time and will penalize the lack of specificity in your answers. Where
possible, focus on and analyse those aspects that are unique to your company.
To emphasize that you have done your own research, you must make use of in-text citations that
directly correlate to the point at which you place them. Where you refer to the company’s annual
report, you must provide a page reference. Try to find recent news articles from reputable sources
(Wikipedia or Investopedia etc. are not admissible references). Note that fake references will result in
an automatic FAIL.
2 https://student.unsw.edu.au/harvard-referencing