Page 342 - The Case Lab Book

Furthermore, if the lecturer’s objectives are to be achieved then co-ordination between case
development and case analysis must be addressed. Here pedagogy is the lubricant facilitating integration.
It starts with what is the case study about and ends with what has happened, what is likely to happen, and
what recommendations for solution resolution may be made.

Collaboration
Collaboration is multi-faceted. It is easy to see collaboration between the lecturer and the target
company when developing the case study but it is also more subtly the collaboration between the delivery
platforms, the research basis and environments in which the case study is grounded.

Co-operation
Here, if the case study has been developed as an e-resource then by definition the student is accepting
responsibility for self-directed learning and self-progression. This may mean that the lecturer has to build
in a more open access to his teaching methodology. Likewise it is inevitable that the target company will
be approached for co-operation in its development. This also impacts on co-operation with in-house
specialists such as video interviewing and editing, software development such as Dreamweaver, Flash,
Flipping Book etc. construction

Much has been said about the student but the lecturer also experiences fear and trepidation with the
development and use of case studies their analysis and use. After all, in the eyes of the student body he or
she is judged by the quality of the experience they take away with them. For the lecturer analysis and
delivery is the yardstick. However, if the e-resource integrates lecture notes as an embedded resource,
self-assessment tests and worked analysis this will go some way to aiding the university in its objectives of
providing students with more flexible and deliverable course materials.

At this point the decision was taken that it was appropriate to marry the elements of producing an
electronically delivered interactive e-resource case study and its analysis with that of the ice breaker case
study in the hope that useful lessons might be drawn out as an exemplar for the case methodology.

Taking the time to think about what was going on in the classroom especially the introductory class,
sparked the recognition that case analysis can at first sight be a daunting, if not a frightening prospect to
the student and no less so to the lecturer. In case analysis the students are given the facts and the tools of
analysis and are expected to apply them. The problem is the expectation of the lecturer who often assumes
that the intellectual light bulb will spark and the student will make the intellectual leap to a justifiable solution.
This is not the case. More often than not when asked by students what diagnostic tools should they use the
answer given becomes written in stone and the student does not expand or explore additional or alternative
applications. For example, students will often use a SWOT analysis, filling in the segments but failing to
give the rationale for their inclusion. Moreover, the tool is static. In a sense they fail to appreciate the cause-
effect-performance-consequence relationships and the changes in strategic direction, consequence
relationships and the changes in strategic direction.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that business case studies have no definitive solution. Each person
will arrive at his or her solution based on the intellectual and experiential baggage that they carry with them
when trying to analyse a case study. As Saint Jean & Lapierre [Saint Jean & Lapierre 1993] commented:
“One of the epistemological factors of the case method is the affirmation of the relativity of knowledge…
knowledge is relative…not only is knowledge relative, but the organisation is a highly complex system
where all components interact sensitive to the interrelationships.”
Learning by doing; increased familiarisation with the application of analytical techniques and
appreciation of their implications; exposure to a number and variety of cases and their solutions; will help
hone analytical ability. Likewise, exposure to peer group solution generation and lecturer driven solutions
will also enhance the learning process.

CRITICAL EVENT ANALYSIS