1. What is a Case?
A case is a partial historical and
clinical study of a situation which has
confronted a managerial group. It is
a narrative, meant to involve
students, that gives both substantive
and process data necessary for the
analysis of a specific situation for
developing multiple alternatives for
action.
2. Cases are descriptions of
representative, usually real-life,
situations, that may (a) include
problems, solutions attempted, results
and conclusions (research cases) or
(b) conclude with a decision-point or
dilemma faced by the organization or
some of its members (cases for
study).
3. • A case study presents an account
of what happened to an individual,
a business or industry over a
number of years.
• It chronicles events that a manager
has to deal with.
• Each case is different because
each organization is different.
4. Analysis of a case
• Define the problems in the case.
• Analyse the reasons for the
problems.
• Outline alternative courses of action.
• Analyse implications of each
alternative.
5. Why Cases?
1) The participant 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.
2) They provide the participants
opportunities to participate in
discussions and gain experience in
presenting their ideas to others.
6. 3) Dialectical Approach to Decision
making
You have to organize your views
and conclusions so that you can
present them to the group. The
other participants might have
analyzed the issues differently. You
will have to argue your points before
they accept your conclusions.
7. 4) If you work in groups, you will learn
about group processes involved in your
joint work.
-it is often difficult to schedule your time
-allocate responsibility
-manage members who shirk their
responsibilities
-try to dominate group’s analysis
-strategic management takes place in
groups
8. Management, like anatomy, involves
knowledge which must be learned. A
closer analogy would be to clinical
medicine, which is a skill that must
also be practiced. The enhancement
of skill involves active participation.
This is what a case method relies
on.
9. The whiteness of the rice
comes not from the rod but
from the friction among the
grains
10. Objectives that are realistic
• To increase participants’ sensitivity to
human and organizational aspects of
administration and their skills in dealing
with them
• To increase participants’ skill in
understanding and dealing with
interpersonal behavior: superiors,
colleagues, subordinates, customers
and others.
11. • To increase the ability to think about
organizational components of a
situation they are dealing with. This
involves such matters as the range of
data to take into account in dealing
with management issues; questions of
authority and responsibility & channels
of communication.
• To help them become more proactive
in handling management problems.
