Undergraduate - UnitAZA2040 - Issues, crises and social responsibility management

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	South Africa School of Social Sciences
Offered	South Africa Second semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Ms Melisa Moswa

Synopsis

The aim of this unit is to explain the management of issues, public affairs, risks and crises in the external and internal organisational environments. The processes involved in issue management and crisis communication preparation are outlined. The unit also addresses debates and aspects of corporate social responsibility, corporate philanthropy and community involvement programmes. Social responsibility is contrasted with concepts such as cause marketing, corporate societal marketing and corporate social investment. Case studies are used to enhance understanding of the application of the topics in public relations practice.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit, students will be expected to be able to:

Debate different views regarding social responsibility, cause marketing, corporate societal investment and corporate philanthropy.
Comprehend, interpret and reflect on the role and purposes of issue and crisis identification in modern organisations;
Identify issues, risks and crises that organisations face in the external and internal environments;
Research and develop issue and crisis management plans;
Prepare for crises and crisis communication;
Explain corporate social responsibility and philanthropy;
Demonstrate an understanding of community involvement projects.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 70%
Exam: 30%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Rose-Marie Bezuidenhout

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Public relations practice

Prohibitions

ATS2433, ATS3433, COM2025