The CaseStudy Method

1
The Case-Study Method

• How good is it, and Does it Cross Cultural
  Boundaries?

2
What is it all about?

• Not the Hokey Pokey
• Very popular because it brings the real world
  into the classroom, so that students can critique
  how actual problems were solved (or not).
• Especially popular in the What Went Wrong
  category (9/11, Katrina), and In Search of
  Excellence.
• Prevent the bad, and learn from the good.

3
Where did it come from?

• Well, it is sort of obvious really
• Harvard has pioneered this, and makes much money
  from selling the case studies to other
  institutions. It is one of the perceived
  strengths of the Harvard MBA.

4
Case Study Basis

• The thrust of the C-S method, is that it brings
  classroom learning into a real-world
  environment in which decisions must be made, and
  problems solved within the construct of a real
  institution.
• But how similar are institutions?
• Do firms have their own culture? Does this differ
  across nationalities?

5

• There are gaps in the information and data, just
  as there are in real life, and so this method
  highlights the need to proceed in varying degrees
  of uncertainty
• But how important is personality? Bad managers
  are quite capable of wrecking an institution
  through personality disorder, intimidation,
  substance abuse

6
But Consider This

• Are case studies ideographic or nomothetic,
  which means, can one derive a general lesson from
  the case of a particular enterprise at a specific
  time in possibly irreproducible circumstances.
• Does it have strong descriptive value, but little
  analytical value, like so much Comparative
  writing?
• ?? Baker ??

7
Methodology

• Does the case-study approach have a solid, common
  methodological basis, or is it just loosely
  defined as a form of investigative journalism?
• Are you describing success and failure or
  understanding them?

8
Is Everything Repairable?

• If you looked at a Case Study, such as Katrina
  what happens if you discover that everything was
  as it should be but human error, denial,
  corruption or whatever, produced the eventual
  catastrophe despite our knowing what would
  happen?
• How do you deal with human weakness, like
  appointing Brown to FEMA

9
The Titanic

• Case-Study in Point The Titanic Lord knows, we
  have examined what happened from every
  conceivable anglebut does it have any value as a
  case study? Well yes it does and it did. The
  lessons learned would include a) small failures
  can have huge consequences (would lookout Fleet
  have saved the ship if he had binoculars as he
  was supposed to have?) b) That, with the best
  technology in existence, human error can bring
  down the house, so dont disregard itbuild it in
  to your scenarios c) Know where the ice is (the
  Ice Patrol was established) and build in
  procedures so that the warnings cannot be
  ignored, as they were

10
The Titanic, 2

• d) Question the rulesthe number of lifeboats was
  based on the largest ship that could be built
  when the rules were made (10,000 tons). The
  Titanic was close to 60,000 tons laden, but had
  the lifeboats for a 10,000 ton ship e) Be
  prepared for the worstthe Titanic never had even
  one boat drill to simulate an accident at sea
  f) Technology is the result of science, not of
  faith, and nothing is unsinkable g) New
  routes for the liners crossing the Atlantic were
  made further south of the ice h) Ships with
  radio had to have the radio manned 24 hours.
• Did we learn about learning, or just the mistakes
  we made?