Accounting for Sustainable Management Assessment Two: Business Report
Assume that the CEO is satisfied with your report (Assignment One) and within Assignment One you have recommended Evolution Mining to produce sustainability reports to external stakeholders. To follow up, the CEO commission your business to complete a business report.
(Note: Evolution Mining is a real-life entity. All of your research, analysis, discussions and recommendations relating to this case study should be based on real-world information and condition. Submissions of your case study on companies other than the selected case company will result in zero marks.)
Content requirements
The CEO of Evolution Mining asks you to complete a business report to address his following requirements.
- Why should Evolution Mining provide sustainability report?
- To whom should these reports be addressed?
- What information should be reported?
- How should the information be reported?
Within the report, the CEO also asks you to apply one theory into your discussion to explain and justify your recommendations as to why, to whom, what and how information should be reported in the sustainability report.
Submission requirements
Submitted:
Group (three or four students in a group), individual assignment is not accepted for marking. Please refer to Group Work and Group Submission details.
Due Date:
By 11.59 pm, Sunday 19 September (late submission attracts 4 marks per day deduction; late submissions after five days will be awarded zero marks).
Word Limit:
Maximum total of 2,600 words (not including executive summary, table of contents, references and appendices). Word count includes every word in the body of text (from your Introduction section to the end of Conclusion section, including figures, tables, headings, etc). Every 100 words above the word limit attracts 0.5 marks deduction of available marks.
Font size
12 for body text; 12 and/or above for headings; choose ‘justify’ to apply to the whole document margins.
Weighting:
40%
Group Work
This is a group assignment. You must organise yourselves into groups (max 4 students). Each group will appoint a group leader. The group leader has the following responsibilities:
- Ensuring the group is correctly registered in canvas;
- Submitting the assignment on time via canvas;
- Ensuring that all group members’ names and student numbers are included on the assignment cover page;
- Contacting the tutor or coordinator if the group requires assistance or extension.
It is necessary for the group leader to register their group in canvas using the following steps:
- Select “People” from the left-hand side menu on canvas, then select “groups”.
- Click on “Assignment Two” and select one of the available groups.
- Join the group.
- Communicate the selected group number to the other group members so they can also join the group.
- Confirm that all group members are successfully registered in the group.
- Ask the tutor if you need help.
Groups can determine their own approach for completing the assignment (working collaboratively, dividing up the questions and tasks between group members, etc.) – it’s up to your group to decide. Every group member is expected to have a fair share of the workload. If you are unhappy with your group member’s work, you are expected to communicate your concern to your entire group at its earliest stage so that to allow you and your group members to work out the way forward. Leaving issues at the last minute does not constitute a good group work practice and often impair group performance. Regardless of how to proceed, please remember to adopt good collaborative group work practices, including:
- Upholding RMIT principles of inclusion and respect;
- Good communication practice (including cross-cultural awareness and solving disagreements);
- A mutual ethical commitment to maintaining academic integrity in all areas of their work.
Please remember that all members of the group will receive the same feedback and grade for this assignment.
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Group Submission:
Electronic copy, via Canvas with in-built Turnitin report.
How to register group and submit the group assignment:
Step 1: Form into a group of three or four. The best way to form a group is in your class. In addition, Canvas ‘Discussions’ tab has a session designated for you to introduce yourself.
Step 2: Self register your group via Canvas à People. Every member of the group needs to register yourself into a group.
Step 3: Your group decide on a group leader. The group leader will submit your assignment on behalf of the group.
Step 4: Every member provides your details on the assignment cover page, and sign on the cover page as required (see below part a.).
Step 5: Submit your group assignment on Canvas by your group leader only.
Your submission should include:
- Cover page includes the course name, assignment name, each of your group members’ names, each of your group members’ student number, lecturer’s name, and word count (excluding executive summary, table of contents, references and appendices). Submitting a group assignment requires an Assignment Coversheet completed and signed by all members of that team as evidence of all group members verify and authorise the submitted work. The cover sheet should include a statement that all group members contributed to the group work equally as well as individual group member’s feedback within the group regarding the group work.
- Executive Summary. Include the purpose, what you have covered in the report, and your findings/recommendations.
- Table of contents
- Introduction (including purpose, scope, limitations, and assumptions)
- Discussion section (addressing the CEO’s requirements). Suggest four headings to coincide with four of the CEO’s questions.
- Conclusion
- List of References (at least 20 references that are not included in the textbook is expected, within these outside-of-textbook references minimum 10 academic refereed journal articles should be listed)
Name protocol of your electronic copy:
Before submission, rename your file name follow the naming protocol:
- the last names of each member; For example: Butler Chan Dean
Suggestions and expectations from the Course
Coordinator: Assignment Two
Assignment Two is a Business Report which is different from Assignment One Case Study Analysis in terms of report format. Please follow the instructions in the above section ‘Your submission should include’ for details of the Business Report format.
In terms of your writing, quality (how well you communicate your work and how well the arguments are formed) is more important than quantity (the number of words written) – this is particularly important for business report writing. The readers often are the senior managers, they have limited time to read the report. That is, your writing needs to be clear and straight to the point. Business reports are used to assist in decision-making and your report is used to persuade the readers to adopt your idea or a particular approach. To achieve this, you will need to collect relevant information, identify problems and most importantly, make suitable recommendations to solve these problems.
Your writing, in general, should always provide logical reasoning. You are expected to demonstrate professionalism by presenting a high quality written document and adhere to the referencing style that is detailed in the RMIT Business reference guide.
Assignment Two has a focus on external reporting and applying a theoretical framework to sustainable management. To successfully complete this assignment, your readings should start with, but not be limited to, the Component Two materials (Topics 4-6) of the course. You need to search for materials that are outside of prescribed texts and these materials form the base of your assignment.
Your recommendations on the sustainability report are expected to be supported by one theory (i.e. legitimacy theory, institutional theory, the ethical branch of stakeholder theory, or the managerial branch of stakeholder theory) that you have studied in Topic 4. To apply a theory well, it is suggested that you explain the theory first. Applying more than one theory is not recommended as you will need to justify why one theory is not sufficient and explain the second theory well (this will take up your word limit).
The theory that you choose to apply should be explicitly applied to your discussion on all of the four questions asked by the CEO. That is, the chosen theory and the relevant concepts need to be explained by referring to relevant literature from academic journals, then linked to the case company’s specific sustainability issues (addressing Q1); the chosen theory will direct discussion in identifying the users of the report, then identify the case company’s intended users (addressing Q2); and the associated expectations and information needs of the users identified (addressing Q3); and, the adopting of a specific reporting guideline need to be justified by the chosen theory (addressing Q4). Please note that different theories will derive different answers of the questions. The link between your theory and your answer (i.e., the way you apply the chosen theory) to each question needs to be explicit and specific.
To further address Q3, a reporting materiality matrix can be developed at the end of Q2. Please note this matrix is developed for reporting purpose which should be different (although there might be some overlapping topics) from the strategic materiality matrix that we developed in Assignment One. If we intend to use GRI Standards or IR then the matrix needs to be consistent with the chosen reporting guidelines regarding materiality.
To demonstrate your problem-solving skills, it is strongly suggested that you link your analysis and argument specifically to Evolution Mining. Avoid being too general. Using the findings from your Assignment One, identify specific sustainability issues that Evolution Mining is facing as well as providing recommendations on how to report these issues. The most important skill that you are expected to develop from this task is your reasoning skill and application skill. That is, you are expected to justify your arguments in the
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context of Evolution Mining.
Read carefully the marking rubric (next page), and understand how your work will be assessed.
Assignment Two Marking Rubric (40%)
| Scoring level | The depth and quality of the research undertaken by you | The application of the research to the task | The ability to apply appropriate accounting theories to the context of the task | The ability to synthesise information into a coherent and engaging report | The ability to correctly acknowledge sources using the Harvard Referencing system | Score
|
| 8 marks | 14 marks | 8 marks | 6 marks | 4 marks | 40 | |
| 4-
Accomplished High Distinction
|
• Materials referred to are highly relevant and
• References are drawn from a wide variety of sources and • References support the arguments presented and • Research is current and from a reliable source (6.5-8 marks) |
• The report discussion clearly addresses the issues raised in the task and
• The discussions are very relevant and • The report clearly outlines the major findings, and customised detailed recommendations in the body text and appendix (11.5-14 marks) |
• You have managed to make clear links between their research and current accounting theories and
• You have explained these links with clarity and applies these links to the task (6.5-8 marks) |
• The report is professionally presented and
• All grammar and punctuation is correct and • The report is written in an appropriate style and • The report is highly engaging and easy to read and • All sections of the report have been included and correctly constructed (5-6 marks) |
• You have used the RMIT Business referencing guidelines to clearly and accurately record all cited sources in the report and
• You have provided a list of references which is correctly formatted in the RMIT Business referencing guidelines (3.5-4 marks) |
|
| 3- Highly
Competent Distinction/ Credit
|
• Most of the materials referred to are highly relevant
• References are drawn from a range of sources • References generally support the arguments presented • Research is mostly current and from a reliable source (5-6 marks) |
• The report discussion addresses most of the issues raised in the task
• The report is mostly relevant to the needs of the client The report clearly outlines the major findings, and customised detailed recommendations in the body text and appendix (8-11 marks) |
• You make links between your research and current accounting theories but at
times these links lack clarity • You have mostly managed to explain these links and apply these links to the task (5-6) marks)
|
• The report is professionally presented
• The majority of the grammar and punctuation is correct • The report is written in an appropriate style and • The report is engaging and fairly easy to read • All sections of the report have been included and correctly constructed (4-4.5 marks) |
• You have used the RMIT Business referencing guidelines to clearly and accurately record all cited sources
• You have provided a list of references which is correctly formatted but • Some minor errors in the citations and/or list of references (2.5-3 marks) |
|
| 2 –
Satisfactory Credit/Pass
|
• Some of the materials referred to are relevant
• References are drawn from one or two sources • There is a lack of cohesion between the references cited and the topic being discussed • Research is mostly current and from a reliable source (44.5 marks) |
• The discussion addresses most of the issues raised in the task but lacks some clarity
• The report at times lacks relevance and/or some of the conclusions drawn are erroneous • The report outlines the major findings, recommendations, but lacks clarity in linking to the tasks (7-7.5 marks) |
• While some attempts have been made to link accounting theories to your
discussion lack clarity • You have not managed to explain these links clearly and apply these links to the task (4-4.5 marks)
|
• Improvement is needed in the presentation
• There are some errors in grammar and punctuation • The report is mostly written in a style appropriate for the client • The report is not engaging and/or is not easy to read • All sections of the report are included but there are some errors in these sections (3-3.5 marks) |
• You have used the RMIT Business referencing guidelines to record cited sources in the report but have made some major errors in these citations and/or
• You have provided a list of references but there are errors in the construction of this list (2 marks) |
|
| 1-
Unsatisfactory
|
• There is a lack of evidence of relevant research
• The research presented is too narrow • The research presented does not support the topic |
• The report discussion fails to address most of the issues raised in the task and the discussion lacks clarity
• The report lacks relevance in the discussion and/or most of the conclusions drawn are erroneous • The report major findings lack of details to offer value |
• Little or no attempt has been made to link accounting theories to the discussion and /or the links made are incorrect
• You have not managed to explain these links and apply these links to the task |
• Major improvements in the presentation of the report is needed
• There are many errors in grammar and punctuation which need correction • The report style is inappropriate, the report is not engaging and/or is not easy to read • Not all sections of the report have been included |
• You have not used RMIT Business referencing guidelines to record cited sources in the report and/or
• Not all sources are cited and/or • No List of references or serious errors in the construction of this list |
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