The term “case study method” refers to an interactive approach to the teaching and learning of a practice or profession. The teaching act is at the very heart of this method. Management schools use this educational approach to give students insight into the real world of organizations and to help them acquire skills of analysis, synthesis, and decision-making based on actual situations that require their reaction, interaction and reflection.
In order to take full advantage of the didactic potential offered by such real-life situations, the professor seeks to build on the students’ desire to learn, their contributions, their readings of published material, as well as their intuitive and rationalized knowledge of how organizations work. This is not to mention the special teaching skills that professors who use the case method are expected to possess. While the case study method refers to a specific pedagogical approach to learning based on experience and practice, one of its main components is the case study itself, which serves as the starting point for the learning process.
In management schools, a “case study” is a pedagogical document that is used, not only to ensure the transfer of knowledge, but also the acquisition of learning and skills based on professional management practice. It is a document that represents a “slice of reality” of an organization or a management experience, presenting either a management problem or issue requiring a solution in the form of a decision or plan of action, or a description that lends itself to analysis for the purpose of identifying a specific management issue, proposing a diagnosis, establishing a prognosis, etc. A “case study” can take different forms and correspond to a variety of teaching objectives, which is precisely what makes this such a rich method. The term “case study method,” then, refers to a set of research and teaching tools at the centre of which is the production of documents dealing with practical situations that serve as a basis for in-class discussion, practical training and examination exercises. However, in order to qualify as a “case study,” the document must possess a number of very specific characteristics.
A case can not be a mere compilation of newspaper clippings, a crude transcription of interviews, or a simple consultation or research report. While such materials may fulfill a useful function in the classroom, they do not, strictly speaking, constitute a case. To qualify as a case study, a document must have undergone the following steps: conception in response to a pedagogical objective or to a need for field research; definition of pedagogical choices; processing of the data gathered within a company or from extraneous sources; planning of the presentation; choice of medium; writing and production; refinement in class; production of the teaching notes accompanying the case, etc. Finally, it is important to mention that all cases registered with the Centre for Case Studies must be of impeccable linguistic quality. Obviously, this does not preclude transcribing quotations that reflect the language level of the persons interviewed.
As regards their form, cases are generally produced as paper documents. However, with the increasing role of visual and virtual reality in daily life, more and more cases are making use of film, video, CD-ROM and the Internet, with the DVD-ROM on the near horizon. The printed text is therefore no longer the only means of creating, reproducing and distributing cases, and cases are no longer what they used to be. The Centre for Case Studies is open to new technologies that offer the potential for different, more current and richer content, media and pedagogical uses.
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The real world of organizations. Since the purpose of the case study method is to give students insight into the real-life experiences of organizations, it is a generally accepted principle that cases are constructed using actual situations as their basis. In keeping with tradition and convention, therefore, any pedagogical material that lays claim to the label of “case study” should have as its main source the real-life experiences of companies as they can be observed, described and reconstructed. At the same time, one of the constant concerns of the instructor, and one of the central objectives of the Centre, is the richness of the teaching act and of the learning inspired by a real-life situation.
The learning of skills. For decades, company and market simulations, skill-development exercises, critical incidents and role-playing games have all been used in the spirit of the case method based on the recognition of their value and effectiveness as learning tools. The “in basket” is an example of an exercise that is useful both as a training and recruiting tool. These simulations, exercises, games and incidents can be produced based on an actual situation or they can integrate elements of several real-life situations. However, they are also partly the product of the imagination of a team of creators whose aim is to produce teaching documents that are authentic, realistic and effective in terms of the learning derived from them. Experienced teachers are able to create highly relevant and learning-intensive case studies based on their intimate knowledge of the reality of organizations.
Recreating reality through fiction. In today’s highly visual, multimedia world, marked by the increasing professionalization of communication, we must not be afraid to take advantage of the professional expertise and various media available in order to produce credible content for our clienteles, in forms that correspond to those present in the daily lives of our regular students and our participants in training and development activities. The use of scenario writing and animation in case production must not be ruled out.
While it is true that, for reasons of practicality, habit, or familiarity with the written text, we have mainly called on research assistants and professional writers for case production up to now, this should not prevent us from making more frequent use of the services of script-writers, actors, stage directors and professional directors to produce “cases” in the future. Such cases are generally inspired by real-life situations or facts, but since they are fictional, they are often more realistic than reality. Experiences of this type are still relatively rare, for the simple reason that they are longer, more difficult and more expensive to produce. However, it is important that we acknowledge their validity and that we encourage and assess them on their merits.
