Case Studies

2. The case study method as a learning tool

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:

• Applying theories to real situations
• Generating solutions to real problems.

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.

• First, cases provide you, the student, with experience of organisational problems that you probably have not had the opportunity to experience firsthand. In a relatively short period of time, you will have the chance to appreciate and analyse the problems faced by many different companies and to understand how managers tried to deal with them.
• Second, cases illustrate what you have learned. The meaning and implication of this information are made clearer when they are applied to case studies. The theory and concepts help reveal what is going on in the companies studied and allow you to evaluate the solutions that specific companies adopted to deal with their problems. Consequently, when you analyse cases, you will be like a detective who, with a set of conceptual tools, probes what happened and what or who was responsible and then marshals the evidence that provides the solution. Top managers enjoy the thrill of testing their problem-solving abilities in the real world. It is important to remember, after all, that no one knows what the right answer is. All that managers can do is to make the best guess. In fact, managers say repeatedly that they are happy if they are right only half the time in solving strategic problems. Management is an uncertain game, and using cases to see how theory can be put into practice is one way of improving your skills of diagnostic investigation.
• Third, case studies provide you with the opportunity to participate in class and to gain experience in presenting your ideas to others. Instructors may sometimes call on students as a group to identify what is going on in a case and through classroom discussion the issues in and solutions to the case problem will reveal themselves. In such a situation, you will have to organise your views and conclusions so that you can present them to the class. Your classmates may have analysed the issues differently from you, and they will want you to argue your points before they will accept your conclusions; so be prepared for debate. This is how decisions are made in the actual business world.

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.