I've put this book together to fill a void that I think exists in the field of case teaching. There are not enough intermediate-length cases, especially in organizational behavior and management. Most cases available for the classroom are long, messy cases requiring total commitment to 'the case method.' There is rarely enough time to review and discuss theory or to include classroom exercises. The alternatives are the short cases at the end of the chapter in the textbook. These cases are usually fictional or gleaned from an article, such as found in the Wall Street Journal, not from direct contact with the organization and the people. They require very little thinking from students, with the 'problem' and 'right answer' clearly drawn from the chapter in question. These end-of-chapter cases provide little challenge for students.
The intermediate-length cases in this book are messy enough that students have to think to analyze them, yet short enough that the instructor can include other teaching methods such as lecture or classroom exercises. The cases are real—the facts of the case have not been altered to make it more illustrative or plausible. Consequently, many of the cases have strong emotional undertones, which draw the students into the case and help them relate to the key characters. Students care about what happens to the people and the organization. Classroom discussion is lively. Students gain mastery of the course content because they have used course-pertinent theories and concepts, along with their own reasoning and relevant experience, to approach genuine organizational problems.
Where Can You Use This Book? Courses in management or organizational behavior
I've included a detailed matrix referencing each case to 18 different subject chapters. There are numerous cases that would-be ideal for human resources management classes, as well. The teaching notes outline questions and teaching plans that are appropriate for undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels.
As a reference book for entire business programs
The range of material in the casebook makes it an ideal reference book for many courses in a bachelor's or M.B.A. program. Cases could be used in courses of management theory, principles of management, organizational behavior, human resources management, communication, negotiation, international management, power and politics, managing change, managing diversity, ethics and social responsibility, entrepreneurship and small business, and managing conflict.
Training programs
The prepared real-life cases and teaching notes meet learning objectives that improve organizational performance. Organizational development professionals and consultants will find a ready-made source of training materials available in the Casebook and Instructor's Manual of Case Teaching Notes. Since the cases are intermediate length, the training group can read the case during the session without prior preparation.
Support resources
Fully developed teaching notes including detailed answers, analysis, and an explicit teaching plan for long and short teaching sessions are included in the Instructor's Manual Case Teaching Notes, Volume 2. The instructor's manual is indexed by topic so that lesson plans can be quickly organized. Inexperienced case teachers will find it ideal to help them learn how to teach the case. Busy professors, or ones who like to offer spontaneous activities in the classroom, will find the planning in the teaching notes very useful. This high level of support for instructors is unusual for case teaching notes.
