Analysis and critics of a professional service compagny's corporate social responsibility report

The thesis explores a topic that has been insignificantly addressed in Corporate Social Reporting (CSR) literature: CSR within professional service companies, more specifically the quality of CSR reporting within a professional service company. Considering that Sustainability and CSR have become hot topics in the recent years, it is with no surprise that CSR reporting, which measures and reports sustainable impacts, has become a worldwide mainstream business practice. Companies engage in CSR for several reasons, such as for competitive advantage, to be an attractive place to work in or to reduce cost. However, considering that CSR is not mandatory in many countries and for all companies, many still drag their feet in implementing CSR. PwC UK is one of the rare PwC firms within the PwC Network to publish a CR report. Using a Grid Analysis specifically created for the purpose of this thesis, the analysis performed on the report shows that the company produces a qualitative CR report in terms of content and quality. However, to be able to provide its stakeholders with the best CR report, the company should add certain factors, which have not been found in its CR report, include more details and update certain information disclosed. Improvements, such as updating its vision statement to include the company’s environmental concern, revising its objectives to be measurable, implementing an economic, social and environmental risk assessment and reporting on the results, are part of the thesis’ recommendations. Moreover, the thesis suggests switching to an Integrated Reporting method, in order to provide the company’s stakeholders with a broader view of the value creation, and encourages the company to take advantage of its leading position to be a “catalyst for change” (Appendix 1: 3) and engage its customers and employees to embrace sustainability. Finally, to raise the overall quality of its CR report, the thesis proposes to the company to be critical in its CR report and to offer a balanced CR report to its stakeholders