This book explains how to approach and answer case studies.
Cases provide the student with more than rote memorisation of facts. They give the student background, so that when placed in similar circumstances, he/she will know how to effectively evaluate the situation and arrive at a potential solution. Case analysis helps students to acquire two skills:
The case method is therefore a learning tool in which students and instructors participate in direct discussion of case studies, as opposed to the lecture method, where the instructor speaks and students listen and take notes. In the case method, students teach themselves, with the instructor being an active guide, rather than just a talking head delivering content. The focus is on students learning through their joint, cooperative effort.
Assigned cases are first prepared by students, and this preparation forms the basis for class discussion under the direction of the instructor. Students learn, often unconsciously, how to evaluate a problem, how to make decisions, and how to orally argue a point of view. Using this method, they also learn how to think in terms of the problems faced by an administrator. In courses that use the case method extensively, a significant part of the student’s evaluation may rest with classroom participation in case discussions, with another substantial portion resting on written case analyses. For these reasons, using the case method tends to be very intensive for both students and instructor.
Case Studies therefore prove valuable in a course for the following reasons.
As said earlier, instructors also may assign an individual, but more commonly a group, to analyse the case before the whole class. The individual or group probably will be responsible for a thirty- to forty-minute presentation of the case to the class. That presentation must cover the issues involved, the problems facing the company, and a series of recommendations for resolving the problems. The discussion then will be thrown open to the class, and you will have to defend your ideas. Through such discussions and presentations, you will experience how to convey your ideas effectively to others. Remember that a great deal of managers’ time is spent in these kinds of situations, presenting their ideas and engaging in discussion with other managers, who have their own views about what is going on. Thus, you will experience in the classroom the actual process of what goes on in a business setting, and this will serve you well in your future career.
If you work in groups to analyse case studies, you also will learn about the group process involved in working as a team. When people work in groups, it is often difficult to schedule time and allocate responsibility for the case analysis. There are always group members who shirk their responsibilities and group members who are so sure of their own ideas that they try to dominate the group’s analysis. Most business negotiations take place in groups, however, and it is best if you learn about these problems now.
So, a case study helps students learn by immersing them in a real-world business scenario where they can act as problem-solvers and decision-makers. The case presents facts about a particular organisation. Students are asked to analyse the case by focusing on the most important facts and using this information to determine the opportunities and problems facing that organisation. Students are then asked to identify alternative courses of action to deal with the problems they identify.