Ernst & Young Corporate Social Responsibility

This assignment examines the contributions of Ernst & Young (EY) to society through its engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The research investigates the benefits EY has reaped from its CSR activities, focusing on stakeholder involvement, reputation enhancement, and profit generation. Data collection methods include interviews with stakeholders and analysis of EY's public statements and reports on CSR initiatives. The findings highlight the positive impact of EY's CSR efforts on its image and relationships with stakeholders.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND PLANNING
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Table of contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Part 1................................................................................................................................3
1. Project definition...........................................................................................................3
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Problem statement...........................................................................................................3
Project strategy................................................................................................................ 4
Objectives........................................................................................................................ 4
Objective with respect to Time, Cost and Objectives.......................................................4
Deliverables..................................................................................................................... 4
Scope...............................................................................................................................4
Included scope.................................................................................................................5
Excluded scope................................................................................................................5
Success criteria................................................................................................................5
Assumptions.....................................................................................................................5
2. Implementation plan.....................................................................................................5
Work breakdown structure............................................................................................... 6
Timeline............................................................................................................................6
3. Project process............................................................................................................ 8
Communication plan........................................................................................................ 8
Part 2................................................................................................................................8
A research carried out for meeting the aims and objectives............................................8
Part 3..............................................................................................................................11
Data analysis..................................................................................................................11
Quantitative:................................................................................................................... 11
Qualitative:..................................................................................................................... 15
Recommendations......................................................................................................... 17
Reflection....................................................................................................................... 18
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 18
Reference list................................................................................................................. 19
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Appendices:................................................................................................................... 20
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Introduction
Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) is an approach where the corporate take the
responsibility of discharging their duties towards the environment. Several companies
have incorporated this approach as an inseparable part of their organization.
Involvements in such movements are also beneficial for the company in terms of
revenue and reputation as well. The company Ernst & Young is highly involved in
activities like providing educational support to different sections of the society. It has
made a considerable investment in this field. In this study the aspects of CSR and the
involvement of this company in this field will be explored in details.
Part 1
1. Project definition
Introduction
This project is aimed at evaluating the importance of corporate social responsibility for
the competitive advantages and meeting the objectives regarding sustainability. This
complete project is divided into three sections. The first section is the plan for project
management where the scope and objectives of the project will be discussed in details.
In the second part research will be carried out for meeting the objectives and in the third
section, the analysis of the data received will be done and conclusions will be drawn
from the same.
Problem statement
With the increase in the competition in the market, it has become essential for all
companies to gain a competitive advantage in the market and with the concept of
globalization, the company Ernst & Young have realized the need to get engaged in the
CSR activities so that they can contribute to the society.
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Project strategy
The strategy of the project is to evaluate the contribution of the chosen company in
CSR. This has been chosen in order to understand the necessity of maintaining
sustainability through CSR.
Objectives
 To identify the CSR involvement of Ernst & Young
 To do an evaluation of the effect of CSR involvement on the business
 To recommend suitable steps regarding this
Objective with respect to Time, Cost and Objectives
According to Choi and Moon (2016, p.1518) in order to carry out any project, the time
duration and the cost of the project need to be determined in advance so that the
project can be planned and commenced accordingly. This project will be completed in
duration of 7 weeks. All the activities are to be done within this time constraint. All
possible efforts will be made to complete the project within the allocated cost and the
performance will also be kept at an optimum level.
Deliverables
This project will be able to deliver knowledge on the corporate social responsibility taken
by this company and their influence on the performance and reputation as well. Having
received this knowledge, the company will be able to evaluate its position and create
strategies for further development.
Scope
The scope of this project is to carry out a research with the use of proper research
methodologies so that the importance of CSR a can be clear. The project will deal will
the collection and analysis of data within the allocated duration. The project will also be
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able to provide suggestions for increasing the value o0f the business with reference to
the stakeholders as well as customers.
Included scope
The views of the people regarding the company and its CSR have been included to
understand the impact on the customers. In addition this, parameters like time and cost
have also been included in this. The risks and limitations have also been identified
which will be beneficial for this project.
Excluded scope
The personal details of the employees have not been included and the project is done
within a specific area. The survey will be done on a limited number of people which is a
limitation to the scope.
Success criteria
This project will be considered as successful if the company is able to bring about
enhancements in the activities related to CSR. Another factor to be considered is the
satisfaction of the stakeholders which needs to be improved.
Assumptions
It has been assumed that the data collected from the people will be a genuine reflection
of their thoughts and they will not provide the response at random. Moreover, it has also
been assumed that the managers will share their plans ad views in proper context and
will not provide any fake answers.
2. Implementation plan
The project will begin from the next week. Prior to the advancement of the project, the
resources required for the project will be identified. The basic requirements for this
project are time and money. Questionnaires need to be prepared for the survey as well
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as interviews. The research will be carried out o\in offline mode and the data will be
analyzed after collecting the data. Thereafter, the recommendations will be provided.
Work breakdown structure
Figure 1: Work Breakdown structure of project
Source: Created by self
Timeline
Steps Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Choice of topic
Requirements specification
Selection of Research
methodologies
Data collection
Analysis
Recommendations
Conclusion
Final compilation
Table 1: Project timeline
(Source : Created by author)
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3. Project process
There are several processes involved in this project. The main process are conducting
surveys, conducting interviews, collecting the data through these and analysing the data
to find conclusions.
Communication plan
In order to carry out the project effectively, there needs to be effective flow of
information so that this information can be used for making improvements. As said by
Caillaud et al. (2016, p.1567) there must be specifications which define the authorities
of different people related it the project regarding the access to the information. The
people who will be chosen for the survey will be properly explained about the reason
behind conducting this survey. There will not be misleading. After having selected the
methodology of the research and determining the requirements for the project, it will be
communicated to the management. However, the information regarding the data
collected will be communicated at the end of the project after having done the complete
analysis. The managers to be interviewed will be provided with this information in
advance so that they can share the time of interview as per their schedule.
Part 2
A research carried out for meeting the aims and objectives
A research is to be conducted to identify the CSR activities performed by Ernst & Young
and identify their impact on the customers. Moreover, the views of managers of this
company regarding this topic also need to be determined.
Research philosophy
The research philosophies are classified into three types. These are named as
positivism, interpretivism and realism. In case of realism, the data obtained by the
researcher is evaluated on the basis of different aspects which do exist in reality. In
case of the interpretivism, the data which is obtained is interpreted by the researcher as
per the perception he or she is able to draw. According to Porter et al. (2017, p.23) the
positivism philosophy believes that the data can only be analyzed on the basis of facts
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which already exist in the real world. In this study, the positivism is used as the data will
be analysed on the basis of existing facts.
Figure 2: Research philosophies
(Source: Karp et al. 2016, p.440)
Research approach
There are two different approaches which can be used for carrying out any research. It
is essential to make the selection of the approach judiciously because this has a direct
impact on the outcomes of the research. As per Karp et al. (2016, p.440) the two types
of approaches are named as inductive approach and deductive approach. Inductive
approach deals with the creation of theories on the basis of the observations made. In
case of the deductive approach, the conclusions are deduced from the existing theories
and then the genuineness of these theories. In this case the researcher basically makes
an attempt to do the validation of the existing theories with the help of the collected
data. In this study, the deductive approach is considered as this research deals with the
existing facts and no new theories or facts are created.
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Research Design
The research design can be three types which are explanatory, exploratory and
descriptive. In the explanatory design, the data is gathered from various sources and
the analysis is done. In this case, the pros and cons of these data are not evaluated. In
the words of Vaioleti (2016, p.23) the exploratory design does involve exploring different
aspects of a research. However, this is unable to provide any conclusions for the
research. The descriptive design, as the name suggests, deals with a descriptive study
of the data collected in order to draw proper conclusions from the research which can
be used for finding the solutions to the problem for which the research is done.
Therefore, this research design is used for this study.
Data collection
In order to do a research, the main step is the collection of data as the research cannot
be carried out without data. The collection of data can be done in two different ways
which are known as primary and secondary method of data collection. Primary data
refers to the data which have collected by a researcher in person with the help of
surveys and interviews. As mentioned by Silverman (2016, p.36) the secondary data
can be collected from the literary work done by the researchers in the past. There are
further classification of the primary data collection methods which are known as
qualitative data and quantitative data. The qualitative data is collected with the help of
interviews and quantitative data can be collected by surveys which may contain open
ended as well as close ended questions. The quantitative data can be represented with
the help of charts and graphs. In this study both the qualitative as well as quantitative
data is collected and evaluated.
Sampling technique
A sample needs to be selected for the purpose of collecting data from the people. There
are some defined techniques for the selection of sample and any of these techniques
can be selected as per the requirement of the research. As stated by Leary (2016, p.36)
there are two types of techniques known as probability and nonprobability sampling.
The probability sampling is done on a random basis and all the people have an equal
probability of being selected as the sample. In the non probability sampling, the sample
is selected on the basis of certain criterion which is predefined. In this study the sample
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is created by probability technique so that there is no discrimination while selecting
them.
Sample Size
For the commencement of this study, the questionnaire was distributed to 50 people out
of whom 35 were found to be complete and others were incomplete. Therefore, the
incomplete responses were ignored and the analysis was done on the 35 samples. For
the qualitative research, three managers of Ernst & Young will be interviewed.
Ethical consideration
A research deals with interacting with people and collecting their views and responses
on a certain topic. Therefore, it is essential to follow some ethics which are laid down for
this purpose (Hovorka, 2016, p.10). The data for this research were obtained by
following all these considerations and there was no use of unfair means. The people
were completely aware of the use and purpose of the information provided by them and
they were not given any money in exchange of the data. They were not forced to fill
these questionnaires; they did it on their own will. Also, the data is presented as it was
found and there are no manipulations done in the received data. The questions were
framed taking into consideration that they do not hurt the sentiments of any individual.
Part 3
Data analysis
After having fetched the data, it was analyzed and the representation was done with the
help of graphs. The analysis is as follows:
Quantitative:
Q1: Do you know that the company Ernst & Young is involved in CSR?
Option
s
Total Respondents No. of received respondents % respondents
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Yes 35 20 57%
No 35 15 42%
Table 2: Awareness of CSR
Source: created by self
Yes No
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Awareness of CSR
Figure 3: Awareness of CSR
Source: created by self
Analysis:
As per the responses received, it has been found that the majority of people are aware
of the CSR activities carried out by this company. This has been possible due the
effective advertisements made by the company in this context.
Q2:How far are you satisfied with the social activities of this company?
Options Total Respondents No. of received
respondents
% respondents
Highly satisfied 35 11 31%
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Satisfied 35 12 34%
Neutral 35 7 20%
Dissatisfied 35 4 11%
Highly Dissatisfied 35 1 2.8%
Table3: Satisfaction with CSR
Source: created by self
Highly
satisfied Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Highly
Dissatisfied
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Satisfaction with CSR
Figure 4: Satisfaction with CSR
Source: created by self
Analysis:
As per the data received, it can be established that the maximum of the people are
satisfied with the social activities of this organization. Some people have provided
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neutral response and the people who are dissatisfied are negligible in numbers. This is
an evidence of the fact that the company has been able to create a positive impact on
the mind of people. This has helped in enhancing the reputation of the company.
Q4: Do you agree that these activities should be increased?
Options Total Respondents No. of received respondents % respondents
Agree 35 20 57%
Neutral 35 10 28%
Disagree 35 5 14%
Table 4: Satisfaction with CSR
(Source: created by self)
Agree Neutral Disagree
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Increase in CSR activities
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Figure 5: Satisfaction with CSR
(Source: created by self)
Analysis:
A question was asked to the people to know about their views about increasing the CSR
actions. In accordance with the received data, maximum of the people provided a
positive response. This is an encouragement to the company to create further plans in
this context.
Qualitative:
Q1: What are the CSR activities of your company?
Operational manager Marketing manager HR manager
“We are involved in
education sector ”
“We hold several
training programs”
“We basically aim to contribute
to the society through education
”
Analysis:
In the interview, the managers were asked to throw some light on the CSR practiced by
their company. The managers responded to this question with utter excitement and
went on to say that they had several involvements in the educational sector. They are
working in association with teachers and students to help them to achieve their
educational goals by providing them the adequate support. They have held several
campaigns to provide an opportunity to the students to enhance their skills for building
their career.
Q2: what the advantages of CSR to your company?
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Operational manager Marketing manager HR manager
“It has led to an
increase in the
stakeholder support ”
“ the customers
have become more
in number”
“The employees are getting a
positive feel which has
increased their performance”
Analysis:
As per the operations manager, these actions have been able to impress the
stakeholder to great extent and they have decided to provide further support to the
company. As the company has been involved in a good and a social cause, the
customers have taken it as an opportunity to contribute to the society. Thy have started
taking further services from the company so that the payment they make contributions
to the society. This has also created a positive impact on the employees. They have
become highly motivated and started making their own efforts towards these goals.
Q3: How do you plan to increase these activities?
Operational manager Marketing manager HR manager
“these activities will be
increased and further
investments will be
made in this field”
“ we are planning to launch a
campaign where the
customers will be able to
make direct contributions
through donations”
“The employees are
encouraged to come
up with their own
plans in this context”
Analysis:
The operations manager shared his future plans in this context. As the stakeholders are
providing a positive response of this movement by making further investments,the
company has planned to make more investments in this sector so that they can make
further contributions. The company has decided to launch a campaign where there will
be a direct interaction with the people who desire to provide donations for this purpose.
This amount can be directly transferred to the account which has been specially created
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for this purpose. In addition to this, the employees are encouraged to come with
innovative ideas in this context. They will be rewarded for participating in this
movement.
Recommendations
 The CSR activities must be properly monitored so that the issues if any can be
detected and rectified as soon as possible.
 The stakeholder must be involved in the planning of these actions
 The investment for this purpose should be increased
 A track record needs to be maintained so as to record the impact of these
activities on the business
 More programs need to be launched by this company so that the customers can
be aware of this fact and can provide their contributions towards this
 They should make use of resources judiciously so that there is no wastage
Reflection
The research has been done to establish the importance of CSR for gaining an
advantage in the market and achieving a better reputation as well. The views of the
people on several questions asked to the people have made it clear that these people
are well aware about the CSR involvement of this firm. They have been able to identify
the contribution of this company towards the society and environment. The customers of
this company are well satisfied with these activities and the company has been has
been able to create a positive impression within its customers. The customers are well
in support of the company and encourage the company to increase these activities.
From the interviews it has been found that the organization has received several
benefits from this movement.
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Conclusion
After the successful completion of this study, it has been concluded that the company
Ernst & Young has made considerable contributions towards the society by being
engaged in the movement of Corporate Social Responsibility. The research which has
been conducted has been able to provide an evidence that the participation of this
company in this move has been very beneficial for its reputation as the people are
highly impressed with this company. It has also lead to an increase in stakeholder
involvement which has added to the profits of the firm.
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Reference list
Caillaud, E., Rose, B. and Goepp, V., 2016. Research methodology for systems
engineering: some recommendations. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49(12), pp.1567-1572.
Choi, H. and Moon, D., 2016. Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility In The
Capital Market. Journal of Applied Business Research (JABR), 32(5), pp.1507-1518.
Hovorka, A.J., 2016. Gender resources for urban agriculture research: methodology,
directory and annotated bibliography.
Karp, J.F., Dew, M.A., Wahed, A.S., Fitzgerald, K., Bolon, C.A., Weiner, D.K., Morse,
J.Q., Albert, S., Butters, M., Gildengers, A. and Reynolds, C.F., 2016. Challenges and
solutions for depression prevention research: methodology for a depression prevention
trial for older adults with knee arthritis and emotional distress. The American Journal of
Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(6), pp.433-443.
Leary, M.R., 2016. Introduction to behavioral research methods. Pearson.
Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, E. and Mashiri, M., 2017.
Identifying Research Gaps and Building a Field Research Methodology with Young
People. In Young People’s Daily Mobilities in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 23-64). Palgrave
Macmillan US.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Vaioleti, T.M., 2016. Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific
research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1).
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Appendices:
Figure 6: Approach towards research
(Source: Choi and Moon, 2016, p.1518)
Figure 7: Design of research
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Research
Approach
Inductive
Deductive
Explanatory
D escriptiveE
x
p
l
o
r
a
t
o
r
y

(Source : Vaioleti, 2016, p.36)
Figure 8: Methods used for data collection
(Source : Silverman, 2016, p.12)
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Data
Collection
Primary
Qualitative Quantitative
Secondary
Thematic