EG7036 International Business, Organisational Management Coursework Assignment

Question 1: Corporate Social Responsibility

This coursework covers 100% of the marks for the entire EG7036 International Business, Organisational Management module. The word count for this assignment is in the region of 3000 words, in addition to Appendices and labelled diagrams / sketches.

Presentation: The quality of the presentation, cross-referencing of materials/images and references cited will be awarded 5 Marks.

Questions

1. Corporate social responsibility has grown in importance over the past 10 years. Discuss the underlying principles and practice of corporate social responsibility and its importance and impact on companies operating in the international construction market.

2. The University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seriously considering a tender received from an Indian contractor for the construction of a new science park on their campus. Tenders were received from UAE, Chinese, Indian, and Turkish contractors. The project budget is US$95 million. Local UAE design companies produced the architectural and engineering design and are responsible for cost management. The contractor from Turkey was the lowest bidder, submitting a tender of US$78 million, the second lowest tenderer was at US$88 million. The client’s consultants are concerned that the price is too low. The Turkish contractor has no experience of working in the UAE.

Discuss the issues that should be investigated by the Client’s consultants before accepting the Turkish contractor’s tender price.

3. The government of Ethiopia has invited interested contractors to submit a tender for a new export centre for goods at Addis Ababa international airport. The project value is around US$50 million, with a project duration of 20 months. The project involves a public open tender. Each contractor must submit a document outlining their policy and procedures on ethics, bribery and corruption as part of the tender submission.

Assume you are working for a construction contractor operating from a country of your choice, describe what items must be included in the document to be submitted as part of the tender. State the country of choice in your answer. 

4. Shangri-La Group with headquarters in Hong Kong, are planning to procure design and construction for a new US$100 million five-star international standard hotel project in Mauritius. They are very keen to ensure that the construction of the project is as environmentally friendly as possible. This will be Shangri-La’s Hotel’s third hotel in Mauritius. They are concerned that local Mauritian contractors are of insufficient size and experience to deliver such a complex and high-quality project; their previous projects in Mauritius have not gone well. A Hong Kong based architectural and engineering practice has undertaken the concept design, which is very futuristic. The intention is to novate the designer to a design and build contractor.

A state owned Chinese engineering and construction contractor with an annual turnover of US$10 billion has expressed interest to negotiate a fixed price design and build contract to undertake the work in joint venture with a local Mauritian contractor, who has an annual turnover of US$20 million.

Describe the issues to be considered when procuring the project from the perspective of Shangri-La Hotels Group appointing the Chinese and Mauritian joint venture team to deliver the project using a design and build agreement.

5. Local content is defined as benefit brought to a host nation to improve capacity building through:

a) workforce development: employment and training local workforce, and

b) supplier development: procuring supplies and services locally and developing local supplier capacity.

Some international forms of contract used for the procurement of construction work have local content clauses requiring a minimum percentage of the project value to reflect local content.

Discuss the benefits and disadvantage of having local content clauses in a construction contract for a project in a developing country.

6. Public Private Partnerships (PPP) projects for infrastructure delivery are being used increasingly for road projects in African countries.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of PPP arrangements for road projects from the viewpoint of both the project sponsor (client) and the members of the construction delivery team.