Question 1:

The role of a Spokesperson is highly important because it is dealing with public relationship management. A spokesperson is the one who interacts with the media and the general public on behalf of a company. In other words, he or she should become representative of what the company or entity embodies. At the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, the core values that the company wants to convey to passengers are safety, convenience and punctuality. Spokesperson should be able to communicate these values very clearly to the target audiences. For example, under the adverse impact and threat of the coronaviruses, passengers’ health and safety may be potentially threatened while going out to respective destinations. Then, the spokesperson of the MTRC should immediately make a media exposure through TV, social media channels such as Facebook, youtube, and other channels to assure the public that MTRC has undertaken prompt and tangible actions to address this issue. For instance, passengers are forced to be taken body temperature before checking in the station. Moreover, passengers are also asked to wear masks before entering, Those who refuse to do so will not be allowed entering the station. After advertising and delivering these messages through the mouth of a spokesperson, the general public will be convinced that MTRC has the capability to protect the safety of passengers. It will tremendously enhance the company’s image.

Question 2:

1) To a very large extent, enterprises have the responsibility to protect environment beyond governments’ standards and requirements. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept whereby companies should integrate both social and environment concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with respective stakeholders including governments, local residents, communities, employees, etc, on a voluntary basis. In other words, companies and organizations should have the responsibility to contribute to a better society and cleaner environment. Even though there is lack of accomplished legal terms or government actions in some developing countries such as China in the case study, companies should still behave and function as a responsible member of society. In the case study, even though the local government grants the ABC Chemical a permit to release more water, the company should still process or reduce the amount of waste water before discharging into the river.

To a certain extent, the environment sustainability and conservation measures cannot be described as a kind of “obligation”. According to the definition, enterprises are taking the responsibility on a voluntary basis. In other words, they can choose to make ethical decisions on whether to implement CSR strategies or not.  

2) Mary is fully aware of the serious of environment sustainability and protection. In the case, it seems that she fails to convince Peter, the Plant Supervisor. Mary can possibly have two possible options. First, according to the case study, Mary should go ahead to meet someone in the much higher profile in the company such as the Vice President. Mary should avoid directly reporting this issue to local media or government before offering feedback to the headquarter. But Mary should explain the seriousness of the issue carefully to the VP. For instance, local residents, communities and media may be extremely angry after knowing that ABC is polluting their natural environment. The polluted industrial waste poses a threat on their drinkable water and health. The consequence is that the brand reputation of ABC will be adversely affected. It may further affect the sales performance of the new products. If the company still refused to take prompt action, Mary should quit the company. In fact, Mary should also be very clear that a responsible employee should work in a company which shares the same value, codes of ethics and vision with her. If ABC fails to reduce or process the wasted water, it clearly shows that the core interest contradicts Mary’s own moral values. Then, Mary should resign and look a company which treasures CSR.