Management 383 - Writing Case Studies

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Management 383 - Writing Case Studies

• References
• Writing Case Studies
• Kenneth Harling and Emmy Misser
• Wilfrid Laurier University, 1998
• Case Research The Case Writing Process
• Michiel Leenders and James Erskine
• University of Waterloo, 1989

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Outline

• Why write cases?
• Who Writes Cases
• The Benefits

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Why write cases?

• Researchers
• Lecturers
• Managers

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Researchers

• A means to an end - cases are well reasoned
  descriptions of real world situations.
• To develop propositions which provide the basis
  for further quantitative research.

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Instructors

• Use cases to expose their students to relevant
  and timely issues

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Managers

• By participating in the case writing process
  gives them a chance to record their experiences
  and reflect on what really happened, and see
  their experiences crystallize into lessons for
  themselves.

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Writing the Case

• Background
• Preliminaries
• Prewriting
• Writing
• Wrapping up

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Background

• The goal of case writing is to produce clearly
  and vividly written documents.

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Stage 1 Preliminaries

• 1. Deciding when to write a case
• 2. Getting leads
• 3. Establishing contact

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1. When to write the case?

• Impetus for writing a new case can come from
  classroom needs(present cases are old) and/or
  business situations(new economic realities).

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2. Getting Leads

• Leads come from businesses, stories written in a
  newspaper, and even students

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3. Establishing Contact

• Establish informal contact with someone within
  the company
• is there a case to be written
• will the company participate
• Try to contact people at the top - information

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3.1 Meeting with Contact Person

• first meeting -
• formal approval
• clarify what the case will be about
• what participation is required from the company
• what will be done with the case

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3.2 Confidentiality

• information will be held in the strictest
  confidence
• that the only information released is in the case
  itself
• submitted to the company for review before for
  use in teaching.

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3.3 Approval to Proceed

• establish a working relationship
• a time line for the case writing process
• an overview of the information needed
• a list of the people the case writer wants to
  talk to

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Stage 2 Prewriting

• 4. Collecting data
• 5. Organizing the material

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4.1 Collecting Secondary Data

• collecting relevant secondary data from numerous
  sources, including the business press, trade
  magazines, television and news reports.
• the company's size, history, location, products,
  competition, etc.

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4.1.1 Benefits of Secondary Data

• Interviewed managers - important enough to do
  preparatory work
• ask intelligent, probing questions
• control of the interview

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4.2 Collecting Primary data

• collected directly from the managers involved in
  the interview
• primary data must be collected to support the
  application of particular concepts

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5.0 Organizing the Material

• Organizing the material depends on a number of
  factors
• Choice of Decision
• Selecting the Central Character
• Selecting the Appropriate Data

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5.1 Choice of Decision

• Selecting material to include in the case is a
  function of the focus and the point of view
  taken.

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5.1.1 Focus

• The focus is provided by the choice of decision
  and the decision-maker

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5.1.2 Point of View

• the stage of the decision-making process
• whether the decision-maker is anticipating the
  decision

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5.2 Selecting the Central Character

• Typically the central character is the person
  making the principal decision in the case, and
  the situation is described from his/her point of
  view

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5.3 Selecting the Appropriate Data

• the focal decision and the point of view -the
  writer selects the data that reflect these
  choices
• The data provided in the case fall into two
  types organizational context and the decision
  itself

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5.3.1 Organizational Context

• provides students who are outsiders with a sense
  for the context within which the decision is
  being made

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5.3.2 The Decision Itself

• Sufficient data - students can discover patterns
  that make the case coherent and allow them to
  perform the desired analysis.

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Stage 3 Writing

• 6. Writing the case
• 7. Writing the teaching note

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6.0 Writing the Case

• The parts of a typical case is an
  introduction, contextual data, the body and a
  conclusion.

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6.1 Introduction

• includes a clear statement about the decision
  from the perspective of the decision-maker, the
  principal character. The student is assumed to
  take on the role of this person. The introduction
  also provides a brief overview of the context in
  which the decision-maker operates.
• Provide a sense of direction, and give the
  student a point of reference when reading the
  rest of the case.

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6.2 Contextual Data

• Describes how the decision maker operates
• The student will read this necessary though less
  exciting material when it is placed near the
  beginning of the case and before the dramatic
  action unfolds.

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6.3 The Body

• the major part of the document because it is here
  that the decision situation is developed.
• Several different logical patterns can be used
  for grouping material in this part
• Provided by conceptual structures and models
  found in the various management disciplines.
• structures the material according to issues that
  may in turn be divided into sub-issues or smaller
  problems.
• a series of critical incidents, each of which
  builds toward the crisis because of its
  consequences.

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6.4 Conclusion

• a brief summary of the situation and the options
  available or the issues the central character
  feels need to be tackled. By ending the case this
  way, the case writer provides the point of
  departure for the class discussion in effect, a
  call-to-arms.

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6.5 Fine Tuning the Case

• To create a fast-flowing story is essential to
  developing a sense of drama.
• The danger of overwriting a case is ever present
• The material which the writer decides to use for
  the case is best ordered chronologically whenever
  possible
• The final aspect of fine tuning material is
  arranging data so that the students are drawn to
  their significance.

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6.5 Fine Tuning Continued

• To avoid encoding unintentional bias, the writer
  is careful not to interpret data in the writing
  process
• Using characters breathes life into the material,
  turning it into a story.
• Characters also add the human side of management
• Verb tense is an aspect of style that the case
  writer must consider when deciding how to present
  the story.

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7.0 Writing the Teaching Note

• The teaching note is a document that complements
  the case. It presents lessons students can learn
  from the case and explains how the instructor can
  develop these lessons through class discussion of
  the case
• The teaching note can be broken into eight
  sections

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7.1 Where and when to use the case?

• This section suggests the type of courses the
  case is suitable for and where the case fits best
  in those courses (whether early or later on),
  what particular conceptual understanding it
  requires, and how parts of the case may be
  simplified so that it can be used in a variety of
  situations.

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7.2 Lessons supported by the case

• Some lessons may simply be the application of
  conceptual models, and achievement of these is
  readily apparent.
• Other lessons are less apparent as the case is
  taught but plain to see once exposed.
• Most challenging are lessons that go beyond and
  above the events in the case and yet grow out of
  reflection on aspects of the case.

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7.3 Introductory Comments

• Knowing why a case is relevant helps the
  instructor select a case.
• The instructor may choose to use this information
  either when assigning the case, or at the start
  of the case discussion to sell the students on
  the importance of what they will be examining.

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7.4 Synopsis of Case

• This summary of the case can be used by the
  instructor as a preamble to discussing the case
  in class.
• Identifies the decision-maker, what his or her
  task/concern/problem/dilemma is, and why the
  situation has arisen

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7.5 Study Questions

• Questions that help students analyze the case and
  prepare for a discussion.
• The specificity of the questions depends on the
  sophistication of the students. If they are seen
  as less sophisticated and less experienced, the
  questions tend to be numerous and specific.
• With more sophisticated and experienced
  students, the questions can be as simple as,
  "What do you recommend the decision maker do and
  why?"

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7.6 Teaching Strategy

• The detailed description of teaching strategies
  may start with a set of questions that will be
  used during the class discussion.
• These may differ from the preparation questions
  that had been assigned, but they are the same in
  principle because their purpose is to direct
  students toward the lessons of the case and to
  provide a flow to class discussion.

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7.7 Optional

• This section can include articles that expand on
  the concepts and analyses applied to the case, or
  further illustrations of the situation presented
  in it.

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Stage 4 Wrapping up

• 8. Obtaining a case release
• 9. Test teaching the case
• 10. Revising the case and the teaching note

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8.0 Obtaining a Release

• A release is a signed statement that says that
  the case has been reviewed and can be used as a
  public document. The person signing the statement
  is usually the formal contact person in the
  organization the case has come from.
• To protect the confidentiality of the company

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9.0 Test Teaching the Case

• This is the only way to know whether the case
  works as intended
• Revisions to the case may be necessary

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10.0 Revising the Case and the Teaching Note

• The writer takes the deficiencies noted while
  test teaching the case and modifies both the case
  and the teaching note
• Changes to the case include adding or deleting
  data, clarifying points that leave students
  confused or uncertain (unless the intent is to
  have them uncertain of the particular point),
  adding more clues and further processing
  information so that the students arrive at the
  desired lessons