How To Tackle Case Studies

Steps to Follow in Analyzing a Management Case
1. Identify the central issues: Focus on what seems to be key problems.

Separate superficial issues from the key problems. The superficial issues are
usually just symptoms of deeper, ingrained problems. Use the planning,
organizing, actuating and controlling framework to assist in identifying the
central issues. Also decide on the management problem-solving approach to
follow.
2. Organize the pertinent facts: Utilize the central issues as centres around
which substantiating and relevant facts are organized. Put the facts in different
format if this will assist in their understanding. Charts and matrix forms, for
example, are helpful.
3. Determine the alternatives: There is always more than one possible

answer. Think and imagine until at least three or four possibilities are evolved. In
some case studies alternatives are quite clear, while in others some deep
thinking and probing are required.
4. Evaluate the alternatives: Basically this involves relating certain important

facts in support of a certain alternative and repeating this for each alternative.
Some facts will support a given alternative; others will indicate preference for a
different alternative. Also some facts will suggest the consequences of choosing
one alternative over another. Judgement and experience will also assist in
evaluating the alternatives.
5. Select the alternative recommended: All things considered, what appears

to be the strongest, most appropriate and most feasible alternative is selected
and recommended. This selection is a natural out-growth of step-4. By this
means the case solver is aware of the strengths as well as the limitations of a
choice.
Questions for Case Study Analysis

What is going on here?
Is there a problem at all?
What precisely is the problem?
What has caused it?
Are we looking at causes or symptoms?
What are the main issues?
Why are these issues important?
Whose problem is it?
What precisely are his objectives?
What should he try to do now?
What possible courses of action are open?
How realistic is each of the actions/solutions proposed?
What are their possible effects?
Tackling Case Studies – A Descriptive Thought for OB /
HRD
A case study is a concise description of a situation which exists or a series of events
which have taken place in an organization. This description may be drawn from
actual events in a particular organization or it may be a fabricated description which
draws its inspiration from several parts of the author’s experience. Whatever its
source, this description [perhaps with organization charts and tables of data
included] is the scenario which you will be asked to analyze. Often these scenarios
describe a number of things which have gone wrong or indicate things left undone
which should have been done and sometimes illustrate effective and sometimes
ineffective practice and management.
Usually you will be given questions to answer or a course of action to comment on or

you will be invited to make recommendations which have to be supported by
argument and analysis.
This method of learning from case studies has long been the core of most business
schools teaching. Students learn by ‘participating’ actively in the business case,
rather than ‘passively’ studying the theory behind it.
In the conventional business school the treatment of case studies usually falls in
several parts:
1. The students individually analyze the case and prepare their own comments
on the situations they discover, together with some possible solutions.
2. They may then discuss the case, formally or informally, as part of a team of
students.
3. They will then attend a classroom session during which the various ideas
developed by the individuals and groups will be tested against each other. The
professor’s role in this session will be to ‘chair’ the discussion ensuring that the
students fully develop their own ideas.
4. At the end of this classroom session the professor will summarize the principal
learning points that emerged from the case.
The most important part of this treatment is [1], the individual analysis. You will gain
a lot from this element. Your task will be to identify the relevant principles and
concepts from the course and shoe how they are indeed useful in understanding the
situation and generating recommendations. To do this, you will not need to know the
technicalities of the selected industry or organization. Indeed, if you do have some
expert or inside knowledge it will be a disadvantage, unless you can resist the
temptation to dwell on technicalities rather than on the central issue(s) involved.
Elements [2] and [3] must inevitable be less immediately available since usually
‘participation’ occurs less often than one might imagine. With a typical class size of
50 or so, a few individuals will almost certainly dominate the discussions. Despite
the best intentions of the professor, many, if not the majority of the students will be
spectators, not active participants.
You will be provided with the full range of opportunities in working on some of the
case studies in this course but for some of the case studies that may not be the
case. For these, we may provide the professor’s view in the given case study but it
is important to note that, like real life, there is no correct solution; there is one
opinion among many. The value in each case lies in your developing your own
opinions which might, quite justifiably, be totally different.
There are techniques that can make reading and analyzing a case study somewhat
easier, and certainly faster. They are, incidentally, techniques that can be applied
almost as productively to the textual material that you are required to study in this
course but they are particularly applicable to the case studies.
The first technique is to annotate the case study material. The best way is to use a
highlighter, or fluorescent marker, to emphasize the words and passages you think
are critical, or at least are relevant to the questions being asked. In addition you can
use an ordinary ball-point pen, preferable red, to add your comments in the margins.
By these means you can most easily, and immediately, see which elements of the
case study to concentrate on. The text may contain a few ideas, albeit often
unintentional, that can offer insights into how the company really works; in any case
it will still be meaningful in providing the overall context for the material critical for
the analysis.
This leads to the second technique, which is to top read the material several times,
with different priorities each time. The first read should be quick ‘skim’, so that you
can put the second more detailed reading into perspective. It is often fatal to get too
quickly immersed in the details at the beginning of the case study, without knowing
what comes later. The later material may give you a totally different perspective.
The first ‘skim’ should also allow you to rule out the most obviously irrelevant
material, and may already allow you to highlight certain of the key elements.
The second read should be more studies, though it will not now cover the irrelevant
material, and should attempt to abstract all the key points.
The third, and subsequent, reads can then home-in on those key points to begin the
analysis proper.
These techniques can be applied to the statistical material just as much as to the
textual matter, and it is sometimes worth reworking the key elements of tables into
ratios that you find more meaningful. But, once more, beware that this can easily
absorb a great deal of time and is not usually necessary.
Finally, conduct your reading and subsequent analysis with regard to the questions
you are being asked.
ANSWER THE QUESTION POSED AND NOT ONE THAT YOU INVENT.

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Steps to Follow in Analyzing a Management Case

1. Identify the central issues: Focus on what seems to be key problems.

3. Determine the alternatives: There is always more than one possible

4. Evaluate the alternatives: Basically this involves relating certain important

5. Select the alternative recommended: All things considered, what appears

Questions for Case Study Analysis

Usually you will be given questions to answer or a course of action to comment on or

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