Case studies
Case studies are a great learning tool and a major part of the PRAD curriculum at DePaul University's College of Communication. I had the opportunity to work on many case studies during my program. The cases cover areas like corporate social responsibility, corporate communication, crisis communication and communication law and ethics. Here are some of the case studies that I completed in collaboration with other team members.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
"Corporate Governance and the Parable of the EpiPen" is a case study that examines the important role that corporate governance plays as companies try to build trust and credibility and ensure fairness to all their stakeholders. A final team project submitted for my Corporate Communications class, it takes a look at the crisis faced by Mylan after it continuously increased the price of its life-saving EpiPen and the remuneration of its CEO. The situation led to public outcry and a congressional hearing in September 2016.
The study poses questions about the role of the CCO in corporations. It focuses attention on what corporate communication professionals could do to help the C-Suite to better align corporate decisions with avowed corporate governance and ethical principles.
ETHICAL AUDIT
"Coca Cola and the undisclosed funding of the Global Energy Network" is an ethical audit of the Coca Cola company from the perspective of the controversy it faced due to its conduct of obesity research and its approach to corporate advocacy. A team project for my Communication Law and Ethics class, the study takes a look at the quality of the company's response to the crisis, and its usage of image restoration techniques.
The study evaluates the company's conduct of its research and advocacy through GEBN by applying the ethical baselines of advocacy (Fitzpatrick, 2006). It also tried to find out, by using the modified Potter Box (Watley, 2014), whether the company lived up to its prima facie duties to all its stakeholders while resolving its challenges.
corporate social responsibility
This case study titled, "Out of the Shadows, Making the Invisible, Visible," is a team project from my PR Foundations class. It takes a look at the Allstate Foundation's Purple Purse campaign and how it brought the issue of domestic violence to global attention. With 1 in 4 women likely to experience domestic violence in their lifetimes and over 10,000 requests for help from survivors unmet annually in the United States, the Foundation leveraged its relationships and used social media to create awareness and boldly insert itself into the conversation.
Working with its nonprofit partners, a celebrity and several influencers, it was able to raise over $3 million in just one month to support survivors and bring the issue of domestic violence and financial abuse out of the shadows.
