Case studies

This case aims to assist students to learn about leadership theory and leadership effectiveness in terms of organizational change. It is best suited for undergraduate courses in leadership development, organizational behavior and specific teaching modules in Master in Business Administration courses.

Leadership and leadership effectiveness; organizational change.

This case is about a decade (2010–2020) of a transformation journey of the School of Business at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). Dr Durnin has been the first female Dean of School of Business in Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) who made this transformation possible and continuing on. With listening ears and a supportive heart, Dr Durnin first moved faculty and staff members out of a “sick” office building and then created a supportive and collaborative culture to build the consensus among faculty and staff members to change for good. It has been her personalized influence, charisma and extraordinary upward negotiation that lead the School to shape its collective effort toward a multi-year Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business accreditation process since 2014. When dealing the uncertainty caused by the 2020 global pandemic, her autonomy-supportive approach once again connected people meaningfully together to excel the challenges brought by COVID-19 pandemic.

This case provides an example of female leader in higher education to illustrate a successful transformational leadership (TFL) example in the USA, as well as its implications on gender issues and leadership effectiveness. Upon completing the analysis of this case, students should be able to: – understand the TFL concepts, theory and its behavioral implications on gender and leadership effectiveness; and – assess and evaluate effectiveness of TFL styles in organizations.

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CSS 6: Human resources.

Transformational leadership, Organizational change, Gender and leadership effectiveness

To understand the strategic importance of location selection within the organization. To analyze the constraints in decision-making for selection of location. To analyze the alternate options for a location selection. To understand the usage of the factor rating method.

Due to a countrywide anti-encroachment drive, Mr Mughal loses his shop. He had just received a notice that his shop including those of others near him was established on one of the amenity plots. The structure was declared as illegal and was to be demolished in 24 h. He had to vacate the shop and his display center to avoid the loss of his items. He along with other shop owners approached to Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) to stop this demolishing act and to prove that these shops belonged to them for decades and that they had already paid the price of shops at that time. However, the SCP rejected their appeal straightforward and the anti-encroachment drive was carried out. Now, Mr Mughal had to find out an alternate location to establish his display center and to resume his business operations.

Undergraduate.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

The case describes the origins of money, touching on the gold standard, the Fed’s 1942 purchase of US debt to fund the “war effort”, Bretton Woods (1944), Nixon’s 1971 pulling the currency peg and descent of money from gold to fiat. It also touches on theories of inflation and deflation, quantitative easing (QE) post the 2008 crisis and the “swamp” of (unorthodox) modern monetary theory (MMT). Aside from providing a brief history of monetary policy and economics, the case study seeks to widen students’ understanding of key economic issues including: fiat money, QE, government funding mechanisms, taxation, economic stimulation, inflation/deflation – and of course, the need for an ombudsman to limit excess.

In May 2020, South Africa’s deputy finance minister David Masondo announced that he would support the South African Reserve Bank’s lending to the government. This statement followed President Ramaposa’s earlier announcement of a R500bn COVID-19 stimulus package. The case explores the economic history of money, from barter to gold to cryptos. The case examines the origins of central banks’ printing of money, initially to support the Second World War effort and more recently the 2008 global financial crisis and now the COVID-19 crisis. In particular, the case raises the question of central bank independence – “democratically elected governments always need money, is it appropriate for central banks provide it? And are there limits?”

MBA and Executive Education

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 1 Accounting and Finance.

Operations Research and Operation Management.

Undergraduate/MBA/Postgraduate.

The case depicts an opportunity for students to be exposed to optimization techniques using linear programming (LP). This case intends to: generate the LP model (identification of objective function and constraints); apply MS-Excel solver to arrive at an optimal solution; analyse manufacturing scenarios; and plan decision dependencies.

VBK Fibreo Tech Industries was a manufacturer of fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) products for industrial and domestic applications. Despite being a new entrant, it managed to exhibit great performance and attract a loyal base of customers. This case brings to light the problem that the company was facing that is demand exceeding capacity. The protagonist of the case Madhav, the Production Manager, was tasked to solve the problem of “product mix”. He was in a dilemma on how to fulfill customer orders while minimizing losses for his company. He knew that while losses were inevitable in the current scenario, they could be minimized with appropriate planning. Students are expected to use data and facts from the case and exhibit to formulate LP, by identifying the objective function and the constraints. They are also encouraged to use MS-Excel solver to find the optimal product mix and understand the decision dependencies.

This case can be used to teach LP in an undergraduate/postgraduate-level course on operations research. Students are exposed to the creation of a mathematical model for optimization and along with devising the implementation plan.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

Learning outcomes of this paper are to analyse, record and classify financial transactions; prepare unadjusted trial balance; record the adjustment and closing entries and prepare post-closing trial balance; and prepare financial statements.

The case aims to induce users to draw up financial statements from the details provided. The complete accounting process is covered through solving the case. The case follows a start-up company from its first set of financial transactions to preparing the first set of financial statements. The case will help in application of accounting concepts, principles and the processes for recording transactions and preparation of financial statements.

The case is best suited for senior undergraduate- and graduate-level students of management/business schools in the courses of introductory financial accounting, intermediate accounting and financial reporting.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: accounting and finance.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the situation of Accurate and then to consider possible options for Accurate to face competition in future. Several opportunities are also linked with certain drawbacks and hence by studying the entire mechanism, the decision makers of Accurate may decide on its future direction and how to go about it.

Accurate Weld Arc was established in New Delhi in 1993, his son. The company focused on manufacturing wire drawings and selling to niche customer segment. Due to this, they were operating at a modest turnover. At this juncture, the organization took two critical decisions, first, to enter the welding electrodes market which had a bigger target segment, and second, to hire a Marketing Head who conducted an extensive marketing research to recognize the need of customers and to identify differentiating factors for the organization. Later, the company made further investment in middle-gauge welding electrodes and its turnover climbed in the first year. After that, the company had set up a manufacturing unit in Raipur, Chattisgarh which generated huge profit and is now looking forward to spread its wings in other parts of the country.

This case may be used for postgraduate students, who are doing their specialization in finance and accounting.

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CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

After a thorough briefing, classroom discussions and de-briefing, the students should be able to appreciate issues of leadership; understand challenges related to managing an organisation; and understand the aspects of organisational politics and power.

This real-life case study is based on a leading management institution of central India. The institute was quite successful in establishing its brand central India during 2011-2017 and is still going strong. The case here captures a change of leadership and the challenges/opportunities it posed to faculty and staff members. The case also intends to address the power struggle that ensued in later years of its functioning. The case is also about how the present leader would finally deal with it all. Students would be able to generate insights in leadership style, power and politics, employee retention, organisational decision-making and concerns in recruiting culturally fit employees.

Graduate level.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

The case of Bertelsmann China: Supply Chain for Books (A) focuses on one the world's leading media companies to illustrate a widespread problem in the supply chain strategy in extremely fast growing markets. Students learn about the basic challenges of supply chain strategy in an international context. The case covers important fields of management theory. Supply chain designs well as cost and performance drivers are revised by the use of frameworks.

The case of Bertelsmann China: Supply Chain for Books (B) is situated in China in the beginning of 2006. Bertelsmann Direct Group, the Chinese subsidiary of the worldwide Bertelsmann AG, is one of the leading book retailers in the country. Supply chain management is essential for success in retailing, which is why Bertelsmann puts a lot of effort into the optimization of its supply chain design. As costs are paramount to importance in the low-margin book retailing sector, linear programming methods are applied to optimize the network

This case study has been developed to facilitate discussion about current supply chain management issues and potential solutions. The scenario presented in this case is very representative of the pressures experienced by supply chain managers. Namely, the need to reduce costs while maintaining quality and customer service. This case presents some unusual challenges and constraints that are unique to the cruise line industry. These constraints can provide an opportunity to explore new supply chain paradigms.