ORGS 2010 – Organizations and Environments
This web page was created to assist students in ORGS 2010 to find the resources that you will need to research an organization based on the assignment outlined in the Organizational Analysis Guide.
The powerpoint slides used in this session are available here.
Before beginning your research let’s review some research fundamentals.
Q. There are a lot of resources available. How do you know which are the best resources to use?
A. It is never a good idea to use only one source. If possible you should compare information obtained directly from an organization’s publications or website with information retrieved from an authoritative source such as a database, e.g. Financial Post Advisor or Mergent Online, etc that include company information based on company filings and researcher analysis.
Q.How do you know what information provider can be trusted?
A. Searching Google is a start but if you cannot identify the source of the information, do not use it. Google is a place to start but not to finish. Be sure to include library resources which are chosen for their authority and reliability. Apply critical thinking to all the information your gather whether it is from an organization’s website, from a database or from articles published in magazines, trade, publications, scholarly journals or newspapers, from advocacy groups or on the Internet.
Q. What questions should I be asking myself?
A. There are a few simple questions you should ask yourself about the information you find.
- What is the source, i.e. who produced/wrote it?
- Who is the target audience?
- How long ago was it written and is it still relevant?
- What is the point of view?
Public vs Private vs Nonprofit Organizations
Public companies are traded on stock exchanges or over-the-counter and are subject to regulation by securities commissions/authorities. They are required by law to report publicly and to provide annual reports to shareholders. You will find lots of information on public companies including a mission statement, company profile and history, the executives and officers of the company, a business description, brief product descriptions, stock information, financial statements and ratios, recent developments, career information, community relations/corporate social responsibility statements, etc.
Private company information is much more difficult to find. You may find a profile, contact information, senior executives, brief business description, date of incorporation, and sometimes broad annual sales/revenue estimates that are self-reported.
Nonprofit organization information is also limited but they must report to the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency so there is a little more information available. Also because they often rely on volunteers, their web pages have more information about their philosophy, activities, career or volunteer opportunities, etc.
Organization Web Sites
Most organizations have web sites. You can do a Google search to find these or follow the link in the library’s company databases. This may be all you will be able to find for a private company although you may be able to find articles written about the company.
Public Company web sites are a wealth of information. However be sure to apply critical thinking when gathering information from these web sites. For e.g.
Note the bold orange branding. This bank’s parent company is located in the Netherlands and orange is the national colour. But what does the colour signify to the average person visiting this web site? It is clear this is a financial institution from the information provided on this page. By delving more deeply into the web site you will find additional information. When you click on the “About US” tab you will find “Who we are”, “How to bank with us”, “In the community”, “Careers”, etc.
By clicking on Who We are you will find information about the history of the bank, the Board of Directors, “what we’re up to” etc. By clicking on In The Community you will find information about their philosophy, their community activities, the charities with whom they are involved and a “public accountability statement”.
Public Company Filings
All companies that report to the Canadian Securities Administrator, e.g. those listed on the TSX, must file annual reports, quarterly statements, management discussion and more on SEDAR . Similarly companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges must file their documents on the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) EDGAR database. Please note annual reports on EDGAR are actually 10-K documents and not the traditional annual report. They contain much more information. If you are looking for annual reports for companies outside of North America, Mergent Web Reports is recommended.
Databases of Company Information
If you were to search for this company in a database such as Mergent Online you would not find it because it is a subsidiary of ING Groep. You will find information about the parent company in Mergent Online. You might want to think about questions such as how much independence does a subsidiary have and how do individual country laws, e.g. labour laws, affect the operations of a subsidiary. For companies listed in Mergent Online you will find a company overview, a history, a description of their business, subsidiaries, a list of senior executives, and more. This database provides information on public companies worldwide. Other useful databases are Infomart (Canadian public companies only) and Hoovers (international in scope) . Marketline Advantage also has company information. When the database loads, choose “Companies” as your entry point. Search by company name to retrieve information such as business description, history, key employees and biographies, key competitors, major products and services, case studies (only some companies) and a SWOT analysis (note that SWOT analyses are not available for all companies).
Private Company Resources
As was indicated earlier it is much more difficult to find information on private companies. Company websites, if they exist, are a good starting point. Hoovers provides limited information on private companies. Within the Infomart is a database entitled Profile Canada which also have limited information on private Canadian companies. In addition there are print directories which you will find in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room, e.g. Canadian Key Business Directory – HG 4090 Z5 C3 and Scott’s Business Directories – T 12.5 C22.
Nonprofit Organizations Resources
Nonprofit organizations/ websites are good starting points. In addition the Associations Canada database provides basic information and contacts. There are two research guides that provide links to more resources:
All organizations registered as charities must file public documents. To view these documents search the Canada Revenue Agency’s Charities and Giving database.
Video Collection
Another useful resource is the streaming video collection. There are many topics that are relevant to your assignment. You can watch these online. From the Libraries home page search Films on Demand to find this collection. Limit your search by selecting from the subjects on the left navbar, e.g. organizational behaviour to find streaming videos on topics related to this assignment. Another option is to use the videos available via Books 24×7. Use the right-hand menu options to navigate to 50 Lessons Topics and Leadership Channel Topics.It is possible to engage in keyword searching of video transcripts.
Career Resources
The career sections on the company website provides information supplied by the company. Companies also use online resources such as Eluta, Workopolis and Monster.ca to advertise positions available and they include information about the company.
The annual reviews of the best companies to work for describe why they are rated as being the best.
The Corporate Knights : Magazine for Responsible Business published by the Globe & Mail, has issues on the best corporate citizens.
Company Organization Charts
This website provides links to organization charts for over 7000 companies. You can search these alphabetically and also by country and by industry.
Corporate Social Responsibility
A valuable resource is Sustainalytics aka Jantzi Social Index. The database provides comprehensive analysis on corporate ESG performance (Environmental, Social and Governance). About 1500 US companies and about 200 Canadian companies are included in this database. The US companies are drawn from the top 1000 companies and include the S&P 500 index companies. The Canadian companies are drawn from the TSX composite.
For most performance issue areas, aboriginal relations; community involvement; corporate governance; employee relations; environment; and human rights are included. The framework calls for a complete examination of each company’s performance record in that area, as well as an evaluation of each company’s record in these areas overall.
The Controversy section of the company report is an added feature. Categories in the controversies section of the database are ranked from 1 to 5 – 1 to 2 or considered minor, 3 is moderate and 4 to 5 is high risk. This section is updated on a monthly basis.
Union Contracts and Collective Agreements
Negotech , a Canada Human Resources and Skills Development provides access to union contracts and collective agreements.
Article Databases
In addition to the resources mentioned above, searching for articles in newspapers, magazines, trade journals and occasional scholarly journals can broaden your research horizons. Before searching in the recommended databases, take a few minutes to review the guide on Finding Business Articles and also these tips on developing an effective search strategy.
Tips for searching in article databases
- Avoid natural language i.e. do not type a sentence as you would speak it. Think about the terms as keywords that may be used to describe your topic.
- So that you are not overwhelmed with results, use the advanced search instead of basic search in most databases.
- Keywords should reflect distinctive concepts, i.e. a person/company name; search term such as leadership, etc.
- If you get too many results use “and” to narrow your search, e.g. Galen Weston and Loblaw; corporate culture and leadership
- If you get too view results to expand your search use “or” to combine synonyms or like terms, e.g. employee or personnel or staff; human resources or HR
- Use truncation symbols (most often *) to find relevant variants of a word, e.g. strateg* will search strategy, strategic, strategies
- In most of the databases the convention is US spelling, therefore use behavio* to find behavior and behaviour
- To search from a phrase containing more than two words use quotes, e.g. “chief executive officer”
- Always check either above the results list or on the right or left sides of the results lists to find suggestions for improving your search.
Newspaper Databases
Factiva provides access to newspapers and a few business magazines worldwide. Published in the language of the publication.
Canadian Newsstand provides access to articles published in the main Canadian regional and national newspapers.
Journal/Magazine/Trade and Popular Articles Databases
The following are a selection of abstract and full-text article databases that are relevant for searching business subjects.
ProQuest Business : This link allows you to access the 5 preselected ProQuest business databases. The 6 databases are ABI/Inform Global, ABI/Inform Trade and Industry, CBCA Business Complete, ProQuest Asian Business and Reference, ProQuest European Business. These databases contain citations and abstracts for business and management publications, many of which are available in full-text or full-image.
Citing Business Resources
You should always cite the source of the information regardless of whether it is from an article, a company database, a company website or wherever. Click here if you would like to learn more about Academic Integrity and Plagiarism.
The Bronfman Business Library has prepared a How To Cite Business Sources In MLA that is based on the resources available to York University students. Here is a guide to Citing Business Sources in APA style.
RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic management tool (citation manager) that allows you to create a database of citations or references to resources (books, journal articles, web sites, etc.). It facilitates the insertion of citations within a research paper as in-text references, footnotes, or endnotes, and the creation of a formatted bibliography using a citation style of choice. All major citation styles are supported (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
Created by Elizabeth Watson YUL/BBL/August 2009 Revised October 2012.
