Study Skills for Effe ctive Learn ing
Case Studies
European Case Clearing House
Case studies offer descriptions and data of organisational situations. When you undertake accounting exercises you practise accounting. When you work with case studies - individually or in groups - you appraise situations, analyse problems and use a range of ideas and models in doing so. You develop solutions and practice - in safe, low-risk ways.
" No problem is so large or complex that it can't be run away from" (Charlie Brown in Peanuts Cartoon)Unfortunately Charlie Brown did not have to face the consequences of bankruptcy too often.
Case studies may be paper-based - fictional or real When on placement or on a visit, live case situations present themselves. Case studies present themselves each time you read the Business press, have a row with an associate, buy a new pair of jeans, eat out in a restaurant.
Some case studies are simple (one paragraph). The complex Harvard-type case covers corporate situations with many elements and data to analyse.
How to tackle a case study?
- Read it thoroughly - making notes of key points. Use a highlighter pen! Read early to absorb the issues of the case study and give yourself thinking time.
- Discuss it with colleagues - have a meeting on it.
- Chart the key issues - using a white board or flip-chart. This enables you to stand back from the situation. Everyone in the group can "see" what has been covered.
- Keep your objective in mind - ie the case study will be preparation for a class discussion, an assignment or the focus of a presentation you must make.
The Classic Problem Solving Approach
- Weigh up the situation - the background to the case/problem
- Consider the information you have and don't have
- Compare "should" with "actual" - research information on similar organisations/ situations
- Define the problem precisely and verify the problem (test for causes)
- Define objectives: musts and desirables
- Identify resources/techniques helpful to opening up the case study
- Generate ideas or alternative solutions
- Choose "best fit" from alternative solutions
- Decide on an action plan for implementation of chosen solution
- Consider what might go wrong with the action plan and how to monitor the success of implementation
Weigh up the situationProblem-solvers must generate data and information about the situation and problem. Separate the problem elements, determine the most important and their relationships.
Make sure you understand the background - how the situation has developed over time and through what stages. Analyse the trend, the priority/urgency and the magnitude of the situation.
Use SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and PEST (political/legal, economics, social and technological) analysis
Other Approaches
- Force Field Analysis (identify the pushing/driving forces and the restraining forces),
- Value Analysis or Value Engineering to reduce costs to increase value,
- Structured Analysis: 5M (Manpower, machinery, methods, materials, money),
- 7S (Structure, strategy, systems, super-ordinate goals, skills, style,staff).
- Analogy and metaphor - imagine what the problem resembles,
- Diagramming: Draw a map of the elements of the situation as a system (mind-map or spider diagram)
Compare "should" with "actual"
One aspect of information gathering involves reviewing (or stating) what the standards are. What should be taking place? How should it be occuring? What are the original targets/requirements? Were these realistic? Have the goal-posts moved?Compare "internal" standards to externally-defined ones.
Get the facts on such issues. Distinguish between objective/concrete facts and relationships and those that are subjective - based on value judgments. Establish whether the value-judgments are biased, uninformed opinions.
Query assumptions e.g. the "normative statements" being made - are these safe assumptions?
Define the Problem
Ensure clarity between what IS the problem and what IS NOT the problem. Look for things that have changed in the situation - added to it or taken away.Distinguish between symptoms and underlying problems. Always ask yourself
"Is it really a problem?" Who says so?
Remember Pareto's law (80/20 principle).
the "law of the trivial many and important few". Are you certain you are focusing on the important few or are the trivial many (the irritants) clouding the issue?Think of inputs and outputs (GIGO and HIHO)
Recognize that there is not an automatic, one to one, relationship between input (resources and efforts) and output (results). GIGO is "garbage in garbage out", HIHO is "heat in heat out"
Although many factors may be at work, quite often only a vital few are problematic or have pay-off possibilities.
Define the objectives and appraise the resources available!Generate solutions to a problem
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible and wrong."
H.L. Menken
- Use Brainstorming and identify obvious winners/losers.
- Question the real value of the "DO NOTHING" approach.
- Find the maximising solution and then the minimising solution.
- For each part of the solution ask
- will it work - why - what could possibly go wrong
- who will do it, are they capable, who else might be, who might block
- when, timing, sequence
- how and how much - cost it out. Where are the pay-offs/savings?
- Question the sequence of solution stages. Appraise the resources needed to support the solution. be realistic, hard-nosed. Avoid naivety.
Choose among the alternative solutions"To put ones thought into action is the most difficult thing in the world."
Goethe"Plans are only good intentions unless they translate immediately into hard work."
Peter Drucker
Pitfalls of case study analysisFailure to
- identify the real problem, focusing on symptoms and missing key underlying problems and issues.
- not separating the strategic management issues from the operational nitty-gritty.
- identify who owns the problem
- insufficient examination of possible alternatives
- presenting a realistic, well-resourced implementation plan
Study Skills Index
© This resource was developed by C. Jarvis.