2. Professor Des Doran
DEVELOPING YOUR CASE STUDIES

3. Scope of this workshop
WP2 - Develop and utilise Case studies in Teaching

4. What constitutes a successful case study?
Interesting and contemporary
Aligned to the module and its learning aims and outcomes
Relevant – the student sees the relevance and learns from the content of the case
Well structured

5. What is a case?
“A case is a description of an actual situation, commonly involving a decision, a challenge, an opportunity, a problem or an issue faced by a person (or persons) in an organization.” (Mauffette-Leenders et al., 2007: p. 2)

6. Essential features of a case
An empirical portrayal of a phenomenon in a real-life context
Illuminates a decision or set of decisions faced by real managers
A focus on historical phenomena (a story)
Multiple sources of evidence
Allows you to “step into the shoes” of the decision maker, to become involved with the situation and even “feel the pressure” (Mauffette-Leenders et al., 2007)
Allows students to become a decision maker (using the learning from the class exercises)

7. What makes a good case? Individual – e.g., business owners or leaders
Change processes – for example, the introduction of new technology, a new service, altered processes, cultural change..
Decision processes – many organisations face change and your case may explore a change which requires students to make decisions based on the case data
Relevance to the student learning outcomes

8. Case Study Questions
Case studies work well where it is important to understand how the organizational & environmental context influences/impacts on strategic decisions and performance outcomes.
New or emerging processes or behaviour
Where focus is on ‘the unusual’ as opposed to ‘the typical’
Capturing emergent & changing properties
Exploring informal, sensitive or secretive activities
Everyday practices to inform an organisational outcome or performance
Comparisons of different actors or stakeholders
Causes for failure as well as success
Lends itself to the study of complex ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions and what to do

9. Analysing the cases
Please read each of the cases and assess in terms of the following:
1 – How clear is the case story?
2 – Does the case clearly demonstrate the relevance to the module?
3 – If you were a student would you be excited by the case?
4 – how would you improve the case?