Case help

          Nature is full of infinite causes.

               ~ Leonardo da Vinci

The major shift in thinking beginning this week is the reliance upon management theories and principles as the basis for your analysis and conclusions.  Use theory and principles from the text (Carpenter et al., 2011) rather than your personal experience or opinions.  Your opinions (conclusions) come after analysis that relies heavily on management theory for its arguments.  Your opinions about what to do (recommendations) are clearly based on management principles.  

   Use this worksheet for case analysis papers:  CaseAnalysisWksht.doc    Download CaseAnalysisWksht.doc.  (Download the Word file and use it for all case analyses in this course.)  See the Lecture on Ethical Analysis for more on how we will analyze the ethics of recommendations. Watch the video (below, Massey University), which explains in detail the process we will use.  See the rubrics in the case analysis assignments for details on how these are evaluated. 

Following are answers to FAQs about the case analysis papers. 

· See the assignment descriptions for more information. 

· See the Grading Rubrics for the evaluation criteria and use the case-analysis video (embedded below), on which the rubric is based.  They are your guides to the case-analysis process we will use in this class.  

· Use the case-analysis worksheet (above) to document your analysis of the case.

· No, there is no sample analysis to look at.  There are, but in my experience they are more constraining than helpful ("we have to make ours look just like that!").  The case-analysis video and grading rubric give the guidance you will need. 

· Questions?  Ask, either publicly in my Office or by private email. 

This how-to video details the case-analysis process we will use: Analysing Case Studies | Massey University (Links to an external site.)

Our case-analysis process consists of identifying symptoms/problems, determining causes, and connecting causes to theories/principles so you have a better sense of cause-and-effect in the case.  Use all relevant management principles to explain the symptoms and causes of the case. Management theories are those we've been studying in the textbook.  They are not "POLC."  That is a system of organizing theories into like groups of management activities: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.  Also, symptoms are not POLC.  Symptoms are the problems the people in the case are facing. 

     Also note!  On the worksheet, the theory column is the one that gives students the most trouble.  In this analysis process (see the difference between summary and analysis in the Course Orientation), theory is chosen from the text for its explanatory value.  That is, theory explains the cause(s) and effect (symptom).  We are working backward in this process from each easy to see problem (symptom, also the effect), to its proximal and distal causes (surface and underlying), to one or two theories that explain this cause and effect. 

     Theory will be used to craft recommendations when you get there.  Do not list recommendations for improvement in the theory column.  Management science shares a rigor with all sciences, that is, it relies on cause-and-effect theory statements that have been tested over time.  Recommendations must be based on theory.  Otherwise, they are merely personal opinions--which is what managers are famous for, to the detriment of their organizations. 

     Conclusions are two or three (or four) main themes that are present in the case analysis.  Recommendations circle back to the theories used in the worksheet analysis and look forward. Aim for creativity here, but rigorously based on theories/principles of management from the text.  Why?  Because these have been scientifically tested over time, so the probability the relationships hold (if this happens, that will likely follow) is higher than merely guessing or "following my gut." 

     The ethical analysis must use a detailed explanation of the Markkula process used to evaluate your recommendations.  The idea is that management decisions are analyzed using this process beforehand, so changes can be made.  If your analysis suggests the recommendations could be improved, suggest those modifications in the ethical analysis section. 

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Student Question: Case Analysis Hi Professor Ball, I'm still a little hazy on this process. Just for clarification, the underlying cause is based on the theoretical basis? Also, when it comes to the conclusion, are we just elaborating more on why the theoretical basis is the root of the symptoms?      ANSWER: We kind of work backwards in real life, from messy symptoms to theory that explains them.  So, a theory is a cause-and-effect statement, e.g., because the earth rotates on its axis, the sun rises in the east every day.  The symptom is the sun rising in the east.  The cause is the earth's rotation. In day-to-day management work, problems/symptoms are readily apparent.  What's harder to see are the underlying causes, which are often embedded.  In Japanese quality management is the technique of "seven whys."  For each cause ask and answer "why" seven times until the root cause is uncovered. Once cause-and-effect (the symptom) are known, a search for theory to explain that helps point to the remedy.

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Example of Surface and Underlying Causes.

Causes can have causes, surface and underlying, respectively. 

Symptom: I got a speeding ticket. Surface cause: I was driving too fast. Underlying cause: My speedometer was not accurate.

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Student question: Case analysis is a little confusing to me. Are we researching theories or do we have to find them all in the textbook? I found a few in the book but not all relate to the case unless. Can concepts can be used as a theory (information in the book but not labeled as a theory)? Are we conducting any external research? Does the whole chart have to be filled out or is it okay to have a few rows blank?

Answer: Theories are from the textbook, the principles (theories) of management that we have been studying. No additional research on the organization in the case is needed. Rows can be added or deleted as needed. What's important is to identify the important symptoms (problems) in the case--and devote one row to each of them. Also note, these cases are complex, like the real world. So one or three symptoms is woefully inadequate.      Theories/principles are generally in the form of cause-and-effect statements. On each worksheet row, they serve the purpose of explaining each symptom (effect) and its causes. Then, theories are used in developing forward-looking recommendations below the worksheet.