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Organizational Theory Case Analysis Overview

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Business 5301 – Organizational Theory
Winter 2014
Memorial University of Newfoundland

Case Analysis

A case analysis method of study provides experiential education—learning by doing. Therefore, the amount of learning students receive from an individual case is directly related to the amount of work they put into it.

A major goal of the use of cases is to allow students to gain experience in problem solving.

Cases help students learn to:

• Develop an understanding of problems • Learn how to dissect various factors relevant to problems • Learn how to think creatively about solutions to problems • Learn to critically and thoroughly evaluate alternative solutions • Learn …show more content…

It helps to identify potential alternatives and then use the situational analysis to assess those alternatives. To help differentiate relevant from irrelevant information, students should confront each piece of information with the following question: does this provide support for or ammunition against a recommendation and if so, how? Key strengths and opportunities generally provide evidence to support alternative courses of action while key weaknesses and threats provide evidence against. Hint: think like a trial lawyer – facts!

3. Alternatives This section should identify three or four viable alternative solutions to the problem and discuss the positive and negative outcomes for each. For example, one possible alternative for nearly every problem is to do nothing. What will happen if nothing is done? Will the company continue to face declining sales? Will a competitor or the government take legal action? Will the competition continue to erode our market share? While it is difficult to thoroughly discuss more than a few viable alternatives, students should be encouraged to identify ALL possible alternatives before weeding them out or combining them.
Be Creative!

Consider the alternatives that appear at first to be a bit ridiculous. What would happen if you do that? Are there any reasons why it might work? Many instructors would much

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