Page 14 - Articles Written by JGJ EF DPS

CRITICAL EVENT ANALYSIS

Students normally come to the case method fresh with little or no
exposure to this form of teaching and learning. Their first experiences
can often be traumatic as they are confronted with an unstructured body
of work against which they have to bring some form of order by
systematising its component parts. From this process some form of
prioritisation is attempted as the student tries to rationalise the
information he/she has before them. At this point the student is still
engaged in surface learning as linkages have not yet been made.
However, once the linkages between the individual elements in a case
are established the holistic nature of the case study begins to emerge
e.g. juxtaposing a time-line of events against share price movement
allows critical event analysis to begin (Diagram 3).

From the critical event analysis the student should be able to appreciate
the fact that the new CEO has overseen the launch of a new product into
both the US and Chinese markets but has experienced negative reviews
within the industry and is facing a battle with its competitors for the
industry standard of production. The outcome is that share price has
dropped by nearly sixty percentage points indicating that the market
does not have confidence in the new product becoming the industry
standard. Subsequently however, the share price rallies indicating
perhaps, that some form of alliance has been made with its competitor?

It is therefore, the responsibility of the lecturer to provide the milestones
and directions for the students to follow especially at the start of their
journey. Recognition of this by the lecturer is crucial as the test of a case
study lies with the instructor, the situation and its setting. The test of a
case lies with the instructor, the situation and its setting. If the case
produces an exciting and provocative learning experience for those

participating in its use then that is a good case. It emphasizes synergistic
collaborative learning [Boehrer & Linsky, 1990]. Perhaps at this point the
role of the lecturer should be clarified. He is part of the learning
equation. He has to provide as a minimum a working solution that
enhances the students learning process. Current wisdom says that
there is no standard form for a business case study. Business case
studies will vary in length, style, format, and data presentation. However,
the common feature of the case study is the route to understanding and
arriving at a resolution for it. This resolution is simply a process, driven
not by the search for answers per se, but rather, by continually asking
questions such as,