Dear Dr Reddy:
Whatever you have sent has been communicated before.
Is there something specific you are trying to say?
From my experience, the interest of students in case method is limited. Also, very few teachers are interested and/or comfortable with case method of teaching, unless they are inclined to follow the methods of Harvard Business School. These would include IIMs Ahmedabad, Indore and Bangalore, XLRI and also some other schools.
Faculty should not merely teach cases written by others but should also be inclined to develop/write cases. For this, keeping eyes and ears open for case development/writing is extremely important. For this qualities of imaginativeness, innovativeness, creativity, thinking ability, argumenting abilily, etc. are also very important.
Cases are not merely accounting problems like preparation of a balance sheet, cost accounting problems like arriving at variances, statistical and mathematical problems. If cases are limited to these, they are unlikely to hold interest for long.
Regards to all.
Satya Prakash Agarwal
On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 10:33 AM, 'Dr. Pratap Reddy S' via Management Teachers Consortium, Global <join_mtc@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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A case study is a description of an administrative situation/problem involving a decision to be made or a problem to be solved. The situation/problem could be real or fictional, could be something that actually happened or has been simulated just as described, or could be that certain dramatis personae have been disguised for reasons of privacy. The readers/participants takes the place of the real/fictional manager and discuss, deliberate and decide while the instructor moderates.The single greatest value in learning through "case method" is that one acquires incisive critiquing, lateral thinking, and analytical reasoning. Reading a sentence (or between the lines) require constant attention. This is, as experience would tell us, not an easy task. Navigating paragraph by paragraphs requires focus, attention, concentration, continuous analysis, raising and fulfilling expectations, and resolving ambiguity when a word/phrase can serve more than one denotation. This ability to reason critically is as important and as beneficial to a manager as it is to the lawyer parsing sections of a law, or the mechanic diagnosing an engine problem, or a doctor diagnosing an illness.Case study gives a critical perspective on human affairs, dilemmas, and conflicts. Closer and incisive study of a case reveals plenty of examples in decision making vital to a professional manager. It takes MBAs to dig deeper than just to skim news, tweets, and SMSes, ad infinitum. It forces them to look into world unseen and, at times, unknown. It compels them to think on the toes, play a survival game, and take decisions. But 26 alphabets don't allow appreciation of how rare true good decisions or completely bad decisions are, nor of the peril of one-dimensional thinking and uncompromising conflict resolution (adapted from http://www.commercialappeal.com/).Case study emphasizes debate and controversy because "reading with absorption" and enjoyment and talking, even arguing with others about what we read are not opposed but rather deeply interdependent activities. All of us most fruitfully read a book (or watch a film, look at a painting, or, indeed, experience almost any event) when our attention is directed and intensified by our awareness of others' responses .In fact, we would argue that we need this awareness of others' responses to inspire us to make our own contributions to the ongoing discussion. Thus the case study emphasizes controversy - not just conversation - because controversy, increasingly, is the contemporary discourse.Under-graduate students coming to college from families and neighborhoods where book review and intellectual discussions are not every day events are shy and silent and feel intimidated during the case discussion. These students may be advised "Never mind how the elite react, tell the moderator how you feel". Remember, it's not about "how" you talked or "how much" you talked but about "what" you talked. And the reasoning behind what you talked. If you don't open up then you are only going to widen the gulf between you and those who "talk the talk"/"walk-the-talk". They will get the A's and are destined for better professional career tracks leaving the shy far behind!Learning by controversy in a case discussion offers not only a practical solution to the "hidden meaning/problem" but also an effective response - not reaction - to the debate. Exposure to pertinent critical controversies in a class room helps greatly to dispel initial fear and confusion. (Adapted from Gerald Graff & James Phean-adventres of Huckleberry Finn-Pub Bedfor/St.Martin's).EpilogueCase method, like any other method has its merits and demerits. Definitely, it scores several points compared to the traditional methods. But what is disturbing is that it has become a kind of fad. It is fashionable for many to claim that they too are using case method, notwithstanding the efficacy of teaching or effectiveness in the given context with respect to learners and their learnability.No two situations are similar in the firmament of managing a firm; hence a solution can never be applied ipso facto to another seemingly similar situation. The Case study method will not be a panacea to learning "controversy/conflict resolution". There could be an extension of this wonderful pedagogic tool where an impending or "yet-to-occur" problem could be prevented from occurring through sagacious prognostication using simulation and other methods.This avoids treatment as well as the consequent trauma undergoing the trreatment. Prepare to deal with the unknown and preempt, if possible from its happening.Peter F.Drucker is right in saying "management enables future happen now!"Dr S Pratap Reddywith Dhruva Consulting Team
MTC GLOBAL- Educate, Empower, Elevate
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