How to analyse a case study.doc

HOW TO ANALYSE A CASE STUDY A case is a story – usually a true story, but not always – that illustrates business and management theories and concepts you are studying in a course and/or presents a problem or series of problems for you to solve. A case usually ends with a dilemma faced by a particular character in the case. Sometimes a case will be accompanied by a set of questions, usually theory-based, that your instructor expects you to answer. Some questions will be devoted to figuring out the problems imbedded in the case and the causes of those problems; others will ask you to determine a course of action to take in the future. More complex cases usually contain a variety of types of information, e.g. industry and economic data, financial reports, policies and procedures, market share and pricing data, descriptions of personnel and other resources, job descriptions, individual perceptions, and dialogue. Due to their complex nature, these cases demand your careful, sustained attention; indeed, each case contains subtleties that are likely to be discerned only by several rereading and discussions with other students. WHY DO PROFESSORS ASK STUDENTS TO ANALYSE CASES? Through the process of analysing cases, professors believe that students can learn the value of: responding actively and constructively to the conflicts of organizational life. suspending judgment about personalities as well as about courses of action. differentiating between facts and opinions. graciously giving up an opinion if it is shown to be inadequate. integrating what one learns through discussions with others in order to progress in one’s own thinking. examining the total situation rather than focusing on the most obvious or pressing elements of that situation. gaining multiple perspectives on a situation by using theory, concepts and research findings. understanding the continually evolving interrelationships among the factors in a situation. acknowledging what is not known or unde