The Case Study Approach

It is widely recognised that one of the most effective ways to study Business and Management is through the use of case studies.

A typical case study is a description of an actual business situation facing a company or manager wihtin the company. The case is the result of research carried out by the case-writer into the company, which has agreed to make information available for educational purposes. The case study is an attempt to get "closer to reality" and will tend towards the practical rather than the theoretical/conceptual aspects of the module.

In order that you should be able to make the maximum use of the case studies presented to you, this brief statement attempts to do two things:

To outline the possible benefits and limitations of the Case Study Approach.
To indicate the way in which you should approach a case study, both collectively and individually.

Before concerntrating on those two points, however, please ALWAYS BEAR IN MIND that in evaluating the case, there is no unique right or wrong answer, although some approaches and solutions may be better than others. Indeed your judgement on the case may be no less valid that the tutor would make, or the judgement which was actually made by the company itself at the time. Tis doesn't mean of course, that some ideas cannot be dismissed as illogical or impractical.

Possible Benefits and Limitations of the case Study Approach

A good case provides simulated experience of management problems and situations. A case is flexible in terms of the way it is handled and the objectives you can achieve from its use.

Most importantly however, a case can provide an excellent environment for "discovering learning - you can analyse data, sythesise it, evaluate it and excercise judgement on it. THe use of cases can improve your analytical ability, and your ability to co-operate with others and articulate your views

Case studies inevitably contain too much or too little information. Even when a case contains a lot of information, some important information may be missing. You will have to develop the ability to filter out the relevant from the irrelevant, and to make reasonable assumptions where neccessary. A successful manager must be able to take decisions on the basis of incomplete data, and so the use of case studies with inadequate data or inconsistencies may add to the realisim of the excercise.

However, a case study will not have the full reality of the in-company situation and will not turn you into a throughly competent manager. A good manager has many attributes including the ability to motivate people to get things achieved, drive and determination and analytical ability. Case studies may help to develop the latter attribute. It may be frustrating if after careful study of a case you have no opportunity of knowing what happened next in the company. However, knowledge of what happened to a company 'post-event' may lead you to the selection of an inappropriate strategy. Remember, the case writer may have deliberately gone into a company because the strategy actually adopted may have been inappropriate. Don't worry therefore, if you cannot find out what actually happened.

How you should approach a case study

You will sometimes be working in small sydicate groups or, on other occasions will discuss the case with the whole course group. But before you can participate fully in a group, each memeber must be familiar with the content of the case and have carried out somme analysis on it. The following approach is recommended:

Read the case study quickly to form an overall impression.
Read the case a second time more carefully - use a highlight pen, make notes where necessary, do not ignore the appendicies. Attempt to establish the key facts of a situation, and distinguish these from background material.
Try to work out the major problem(s) facing the company. Try to expose the underlying issues, ie not "what should be done in this situation" but "why did this situation develop, what caused it?".
Postulate alternative courses of action.
Weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative.
Decide which course of action you would recommend.

You should now be sufficiently familiar with the case to meet with the rest of your syndicate to bounce ideas off each other and come up with an aggregate view

Wihtin the classroom you may be required to make syndicate or individual presentations. Even where no syndicate presentation is required it is strongly recommended that each syndicate group should still meet briefly to dicuss informally the problems of the case and the approaches to it.

Remeber - there is no right answer. So do not be concerned if the tutor does not try to enforce a particular solution to the problem.

During syndicate and class disucssions you should bear in mind the following points:

Try to understand the ideas and views of others. Do not try to put over your own views as being unquestionably correct - offer them as contributions for consideration.
Try to mould the discussion into a meaningful whole, not just a series of "hotch-potch" scraps, ie try to build on what has already been discussed and relate your views to it.
Try not to burst in with a new topic until the topic under consideration has been adequately explored.
Help to create a challenging and stimulating atmosphere, (but not a hostile one) by questioning people's assumptions, and pinpointing the faults in logic.
Sessions where one or two people "hog the discussion", or alternatively make no contribution at all, are nearly always less successful than they should be.

After discussion and class sessions, try to find a few minutes to review the case and try to work out what you have learned from the various activities associated with the case. Make a few final notes.

Beware of:

Inadequate definition of the problem.. AS in "real-life", time used identifying the problem is well spent.
Use of generalities - "get in a consultant", "something needs to be done about communications".
"If the situation were different...." This is the "I wouldn't start from here" approach. Yet management so often involves sorting out other people's muddles.
"Narrow vision" analysis. Try to relate your ideas to the organisation's objectives, culture and performance, and it's changing environment. Often detailed information or incidents are indicative of broader problems. Similaly problems are more frequently "generic" (recurring and linked) rather than "unique".
Answering the wrong question. Many cases, especially the long ones, can be used for a variety of learning objectives. Your tutor will normally indicate the aspects of the case which he/she want emphasising. Yes, business and management problems should be seen as multidisciplinary, but you won't get much credit if you mostly analyse the information systems of a firm when considering a marketing communications case.