5 Task 1: Analyze the Case and Identify Challenges
Christina Page
Learning Objectives
By the time you complete this task, you will have:
- Applied a systematic approach to reviewing your case study
- Identified key challenges that you observe in the case
How to Read a Case Study
- Review the key concepts you have explored in the course so far and the topics coming up. A good way to do this is to use the names of each of the chapters as your key concepts. These concepts are the lens you will use to explore the case. To do this, make a mind map of key organizational behaviour concepts and how they are related
- Read the case study, and record what concepts and principles from your course might be relevant to the case. Make a note of these in the margins or on a separate sheet of paper.
- Ask yourself questions to understand the case better. Who are the main players? What are the challenges, constraints, resources, and opportunities? Each case usually has a range of information that you need to identify, including: What is known? What is unknown? What pressures exist? What is the context? What assumptions are being made? What problems are evident? What needs to be done, decided, or resolved? What biases are evident?
- Consider multiple perspectives. What might this case look like through different points of view.
- Analyze the issues to identify the most relevant challenges to research and discuss in your assignment.
Brainstorm your initial ideas about the case. You will bring these ideas to your group meeting in Task 1, where you identify challenges.
Step 1: Brainstorm key course concepts and make a mind map
Mind mapping which is also called “clustering ideas”, is a way of collecting ideas around a particular topic and defining connections. In the assignment process, you use mind mapping to brainstorm ideas, and to determine how these ideas are related.[1].
Below you will find an example of a mind map. To make a mind map for this assignment, consider Organizational Behaviour as your central topic. From there, create branches for each subtopic or area that you have studied so far in the course.
Step 2: Read the Case
With your mind map beside you, read the case study. In the margins, note any relevant concepts that connect to the case.
Step 3: Ask Questions
Create a chart like the one below with some key questions to help you think analytically about the case:
| Who are the main players? | |
| What are the challenges? | |
| What resources are available? | |
| What are the opportunities? | |
| What do you know? | |
| What is unknown? | |
| What are the pressures? | |
| What problems are evident? | |
| What needs to be done? | |
| What assumptions are being made |
Step 4: Consider multiple points of view
In order to generate additional ideas, consider how the case might be viewed by different stakeholders. How might Eva view the situation? How might the board view the problem? What might be the viewpoint of longtime employees?
Step 5: Analyze and Identify Relevant Challenges
Now that you have considered the case through multiple angles, identify what you think might be key challenges. Beside each possible key challenge, write the relevant concepts in the course that you have learned, and that will form the basis of your research. You will bring your analysis to your group meeting. As your group combines the ideas, you will develop a shared list of key challenges based on the strongest ideas.
| Key Challenge | Course Concepts that Relate to this Challenge |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 |
- Buzan, T. (n.d.). What is a mind map? Retrieved from http://www.tonybuzan.com/about/mind-mapping/ ↵
