| Course | CSR 610 Business Ethics and Culture |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 6 |
| Paper type | graduate milestone analyzing stakeholders and corporate social responsibility |
| Length | About 1,000 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | MS Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for CSR 610 Module 6
Stakeholder Analysis and Social Responsibility Commitments
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
CSR 610: Business Ethics and Culture
Milestone Two
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Stakeholder Analysis and Social Responsibility Commitments
Introduction
Milestone One found that the company's culture puts output ahead of quality and that people fear raising concerns. This milestone asks to whom the company owes what. It identifies the company's stakeholders and their interests, ranks them, sets out the company's responsibilities at four levels and proposes four commitments. Freeman (1984) urged managers to reckon with everyone whose fortunes are tied to the firm's choices, in either direction, and for a maker of products people swallow every day, that circle is very wide indeed.
The Stakeholders
Consumers take the company's products daily, often on a doctor's advice, and cannot test what is in them; their interest is in accurate labels and safe ingredients. Retailers sell the products under their own names, bear the legal and reputational risk and want reliable quality and on-time supply. The 640 employees want safe work, fair pay and the ability to raise concerns without fear. Regulators, chiefly the federal agency that inspected the plant in March, want compliance with manufacturing and labeling rules. Suppliers, several overseas, want steady orders and fair terms. The private equity firm that bought a majority stake in 2022 wants growth and expects to sell the company within about three years. The neighborhood around the plant is affected by truck traffic, odors from the gummy line and wastewater. And the communities where employees live, across Weber and Davis counties, depend on the jobs.
Ranking the Stakeholders
Stakeholder salience
| Stakeholder | Power | Legitimacy | Urgency | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retailers | High | High | High after inspection | Definitive |
| Regulators | High | High | High | Definitive |
| Private equity owner | High | High | Moderate | Dominant |
| Consumers | Low individually | High | Moderate | Dependent |
| Employees | Moderate | High | Moderate | Dependent |
| Suppliers | Moderate | Moderate | Low | Dominant or discretionary |
| Neighborhood | Low | Moderate | Low | Discretionary |
Mitchell et al. (1997) proposed ranking stakeholders by these three attributes, with those holding all three demanding attention first. The ranking explains why the company responded quickly to the retailer's paused orders. It also shows the risk in the ranking itself: consumers and employees, whose interests are at the heart of the inspection findings, have little direct power. Their claims depend on the company choosing to honor them.
The Company's Responsibilities
Carroll (1991) stacked a firm's duties in four tiers: staying profitable at the base, keeping within the law above that, then conduct that a fair-minded observer would expect even where no rule requires it, and finally giving back to the community at the top. For this company, economic responsibility means growing for its owner and employees. Legal responsibility means meeting federal manufacturing and labeling rules, which the inspection showed it was not fully doing. Ethical responsibility goes further: consumers are owed products that contain what the label says through the end of shelf life, ingredients tested by the company itself rather than accepted on a supplier's paperwork, and a workplace where people can stop a line without fear. Philanthropic responsibility, such as the company's support for a local food bank, matters less than getting the first three right.
Four Commitments
First, product integrity: every batch will meet its label through the end of shelf life, verified by stability testing, with a target of zero batches found below label in retailer audits. Owner: the quality director. Second, supplier testing: every new supplier will qualify with three lots tested by the company's lab, and certificates will be verified by testing at least one lot in five from every supplier. Owner: the quality director with procurement. Third, line safety: the gummy line's injury rate, now about double the plant average, will be halved within two years. Owner: the plant manager. Fourth, packaging waste: the company will cut plastic per bottle by 15 percent within two years and offer retailers recycled-content bottles. Owner: the operations director.
Commitments and measures
| Commitment | Measure | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Product integrity | Batches below label in audits and stability checks | Zero |
| Supplier testing | Share of new suppliers qualified with three lots | 100% |
| Line safety | Recordable injuries on gummy line | Halved in two years |
| Packaging waste | Plastic per bottle | 15% less in two years |
What the Company Does Not Owe
Not every claim is equally strong. Some neighbors have asked the company to fund a new park; while worthwhile, that is a voluntary contribution rather than an obligation arising from the company's operations, and it should not displace the commitments above. Suppliers would like guaranteed volumes, but the company's duty to them is to deal fairly and pay on time, not to guarantee their business. Retailers have asked the company to absorb all costs of their extra audits; the company owes them cooperation and honest records, while the cost of audits is a commercial matter to negotiate. Drawing these lines helps the company focus on responsibilities that come from what it does, especially the integrity of its products.
Reporting
The company will report progress on the four commitments twice a year to its retailers and employees, and annually in a short public statement. Reporting matters because it turns commitments into promises that others can check, and because the culture assessment found that employees rarely hear leaders talk about anything but output.
Tension With the Owner
The private equity owner's three-year horizon creates pressure to grow quickly, the same pressure that produced the culture problems. The commitments are also in the owner's interest, though: a company with clean audits, qualified suppliers and a safe plant will be worth more to a buyer than one with an inspection record and a nervous retailer. Presenting the commitments as protecting the company's value at sale may help win the owner's support, and the board should see the four measures alongside revenue at every meeting.
Conclusion
The company's most powerful stakeholders, retailers and regulators, have pushed it to act, but its deepest obligations run to consumers and employees, who have little power. Four measurable commitments put those obligations into the company's operations, and Milestone Three will consider how to change the culture so they are kept. Without that culture change, the commitments would be one more set of words the plant's reward system overrides.
References
Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business Horizons, 34(4), 39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(91)90005-G
Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Pitman.
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. The Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853-886. https://doi.org/10.2307/259247
What the CSR 610 Module 6 instructions ask for
Milestone Two in CSR 610 usually asks you to analyze the stakeholders of the organization in your final project and to define its corporate social responsibilities. You typically identify stakeholders and their interests, assess their importance using a framework, examine the organization's responsibilities at different levels and propose commitments or initiatives. Strong submissions use evidence about each stakeholder's interests, recognize that some stakeholders with little power have strong ethical claims, connect responsibilities to the organization's actual operations and make commitments that are specific and measurable rather than slogans. Many versions ask you to distinguish responsibilities that arise from operations from voluntary ones, and to say how progress will be reported.
How this CSR 610 Module 6 milestone two example is built
The paper identifies eight stakeholder groups and their interests, from consumers who rely on labels they cannot check to a private equity owner seeking growth before a sale in three years. Using a framework that ranks stakeholders by power, legitimacy and urgency, it places the retailers, regulators and owner as definitive or dominant, and consumers and employees as dependent stakeholders with strong claims but little direct power. It uses a four-level model of responsibility to sort the company's duties and proposes four commitments: product integrity, supplier testing, line safety and packaging waste reduction, each with an owner and a measure for the next two years. It also marks the limits of what the company owes and how results will be reported.
Where the CSR 610 Module 6 rubric puts the points
The Milestone Two rubric typically considers the identification of stakeholders and interests, the use of a prioritization framework, analysis of responsibilities, the quality and specificity of commitments, links to the culture assessment and writing. Strong papers base each stakeholder's interests on evidence, explain why less powerful stakeholders still matter, sort responsibilities clearly and propose commitments tied to the company's core operations with measures. Papers lose credit for generic stakeholder lists, for treating corporate social responsibility as philanthropy alone, for commitments without measures and for ignoring the owner's goals. Instructors also reward papers that say which claims the organization does not have to meet and why. A plan for reporting progress to stakeholders usually strengthens the commitments.
CSR 610 Module 6 help: the mistakes that cost points
Stakeholder papers often list every possible group with a sentence each. Focus on the groups the organization's decisions actually affect, and show their interests with evidence. Use a framework to rank them, but explain why some groups with little power deserve priority on ethical grounds. Treat social responsibility as starting with the company's core business, here the integrity of its products, before turning to charitable activity. Make each commitment measurable and give it an owner. Consider the owner's goals honestly; commitments that ignore the people who control the budget rarely survive. Report progress to the stakeholders the commitments serve.
Get CSR 610 Module 6 written to your instructions
Pass along the CSR 610 Milestone Two brief with your company's details. We rank stakeholders, set out the organization's responsibilities by level and propose commitments with owners and measures. About two days; a first milestone is free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
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CSR 610 Module 6 questions, answered
Where can I find a free CSR 610 Module 6 Milestone Two sample?
This page includes the complete CSR 610 Milestone Two stakeholder and social responsibility analysis for a supplement manufacturer.
What is stakeholder theory?
The view that businesses should consider the interests of all groups affected by or able to affect them, not only shareholders, in their decisions.
What are the levels of corporate social responsibility?
Carroll's well-known pyramid stacks four: earn a profit, obey the law, act fairly where the law is silent and give back to the community, with the third layer asking more than the second.
Why do powerless stakeholders still matter?
Being on the receiving end of a firm's choices gives a group a moral claim even when it has no vote; a shopper trusting a label is the plain example.
What makes a social responsibility commitment credible?
It addresses the company's core operations, has a named owner, a measurable target and a date, and results are reported.