Page 9 - General Cases 1

There is, as a result of these developments a paradigm shift,

a growing trend towards the development and use of short

business case studies. These short cases need to reflect

effective sound-bite encapsulation of an idea or concept,

and also the need for a readjustment not only of the use of

cases on business courses but also their development,

architecture and delivery mechanisms. That the switch to

short rather than long is straight forward and easily
achieved? However, this may be more illusory than real and

an instance of market driven rather than market driving.

Where the traditional case study requires time to teach,

these changes impact their efficacy and as such need to be

addressed. The solution may be to develop more focused
cases targeted at a specificity not easily achievable in the

‘noise’ of a traditional case. Short cases have the potential to

ensure case content is fresh, varied, properly prepared and
served up in the right portions thereby ensuring a

memorable learning experience that may be more readily

transferred to the learner’s own work situation.

So, what is a short case study, what purpose does it serve

and what are its objectives? Are they simply short for short’s

sake, pithy, focused and directed or are they a substitute for

in-depth thinking and analysis, construction effort, and hard
research? Or perhaps they are a response to the demands

of falling teaching contact hours and the need to provide

learners with easily comprehended, less demanding and

digestible teaching material? Or perhaps it is all of these?