Search results

Laura Green, Director of Event Planning at the Nova Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, had been through the hiring process many times. She was comfortable with Nova's selection and behavioral interviewing processes. They had only interviewed two candidates for the open senior event manager position, yet they had been discussing what decision to make for two and a half hours. Normally, these kinds of meetings wrapped up in 30 minutes with a clear consensus. Today, they were gridlocked, unable to agree on a path forward. Green suggested that they all “sleep on it.” They would get together first thing in the morning, when they were fresh, and decide what to do.

The data for this case were collected via personal interviews with employees of the hotel and from information on the company's website, other company resources, and publicly available information about the company. Only the hotel's name, parent company's name, and people's names have been disguised to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the individuals. The author has no relationship to the host organization or protagonist.

This case is appropriate for an undergraduate or graduate course in Human Resources Management, Organizational Behavior, or Recruiting and Selection.

This case may be used to illustrate, analyze, and evaluate the selection process and interviewing approaches (e.g. behavioral interviewing). The importance of selection, best practices for selection, candidate assessment methods, best practices for candidate interviews, and common biases which affect the fairness of selection processes are reviewed.

Decision making, behavioural decision making, heuristics, optimistic bias, confirmatory bias, anchoring bias, ready mix cement (RMC) business in India.

Post graduate management course, executive training program in the subject areas.

Arco is a Projects and Infrastructure-sector company. Some of its key officials, believing that entering the RMC can be beneficial for Arco, plan entry into the manufacturing of RMC but order a feasibility report. The report confirms the hunch and Arco starts the business under the aegis of its associate, EG Ltd (EGL) which is into equipment rental business. At this time a new dimension of reality opens up but the senior officers refuse to accept a revised proposal which is adjusted to the new realities. After a few months and some losses, EGL closes down the RMC plant and rents it out.

This case study is developed with a purpose to provide a basis to discuss how decisions are taken in real life and how various behavioural elements affect the quality of decisions that affect not only the decision makers but many others and their organizations. Focus is especially on prejudice, heuristics and bias that creep into important organizational decisions such as venturing into new business.

Teaching note.

The learning outcomes are as follows: introduce the concept of the decision-making process, decision-making unit and hierarchy of effects and marketing strategy; identify the critical aspect of segmentation, targeting and positioning; and highlight the critical element of pricing and communication media.

In early January 2017, Mr Ashish and Mr Rahul, co-founders of Biziga, a company engaged in training through simulation for management education, was at crossroads. Keeping in view the challenges of the emerging Indian market, Biziga envisioned creating participant-centric business learning simulations. The initial responses and feedback received from several top B-schools were promising. However, the euphoria did not last long. Biziga retained only a few of its initial clients from the Tier-1 B-schools who had adopted the product. But the response received from other categories of B-schools was not very encouraging. Acquiring new clients from these institutes was the major challenge. The founders of Biziga had differences in their thought about the strategic path they should pursue to achieve future growth. There were several options to achieve the goal of a target revenue of INR 1bn in the next five years and be known as a virtual gamification company with a complete bundle of business simulation products. They had to finalize for the financial year 2017-18 the most feasible and promising option/s that would have a long-term impact on the company’s future growth and success in the upcoming meeting scheduled in the last week of February 2017.

Postgraduate students and executive students.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This case is the second of a three-part series that follows the managerial, strategic, and communications decisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, the flagship programme of the Government of India to eliminate the practice of open defecation (i.e., not using a toilet) from 2014 to 2019. As of 2014, 550 million people in India practiced open defecation. This problem posed a massive public health hazard and economic drag for the country as well as a threat to global health. Written from an insider's perspective, the cases centre on the decisions made by a new Secretary of India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, who was hired to manage SBM, and the team he assembled. Case B discusses the start-up challenges for SBM, including implementation in India's complex federal system, workplace culture, and the deep-rooted behaviour of open defecation in rural India and the managerial and communication strategies formulated to address them. The case concludes by framing the difficulties with slow-moving states and monitoring rigour that the leadership SBM, with a new team, strategic focus, and early momentum, faced as the mission entered its final two years.

This case is the second of a three-part series that follows the managerial, strategic, and communications decisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, the flagship programme of the Government of India to eliminate the practice of open defecation (i.e., not using a toilet) from 2014 to 2019. As of 2014, 550 million people in India practiced open defecation. This problem posed a massive public health hazard and economic drag for the country as well as a threat to global health. Written from an insider's perspective, the cases centre on the decisions made by a new Secretary of India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, who was hired to manage SBM, and the team he assembled. Case B discusses the start-up challenges for SBM, including implementation in India's complex federal system, workplace culture, and the deep-rooted behaviour of open defecation in rural India and the managerial and communication strategies formulated to address them. The case concludes by framing the difficulties with slow-moving states and monitoring rigour that the leadership SBM, with a new team, strategic focus, and early momentum, faced as the mission entered its final two years.

Upon completion of the case discussion, students will be able to: identify the enablers of a mental skills coaching process and the broad outcomes as a result of a coaching intervention; understand the contributing factors towards creating greater psychological safety in a team and the impact this has on team performance; and identify positive leadership strategies to create an environment in which meaningful work and goal achievement increase engagement.

Leanne Redding was the mental skills coach for Maccabi, a professional league soccer club in Johannesburg, South Africa. Redding had worked with the club’s players using mental techniques, the ultimate aim being to improve performance. Redding’s work was based on the premise of trust, lived values, self-respect and reflection. She believed that a strengths-based approach grounded in sports psychology and aligned with mental contrasting enabled resilience. Her process of holding individual and team sessions helped with sustaining motivation, overcoming limiting fears and encouraging focus on the greater good of the team. The result was Maccabi’s promotion to the professional league of soccer. However, not all of her broad stakeholder group had bought into the value of sports psychology coaching. The case explores Redding’s process and her belief of the importance and buy-in from all players of the team values which should inform behaviour. The case concludes with Redding contemplating what she should do to gain greater acceptance from the rest of the coaching staff for her work.

This case can be used in graduate and postgraduate level courses such as an MBA, in management development programmes or in short executive education courses focusing on organisational behaviour, leadership and human capital development and sports management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This case is the first of a three-part series that follows the managerial, strategic, and communications decisions of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission, the flagship programme of the Government of India to eliminate the practice of open defecation (i.e., not using a toilet) from 2014 to 2019. As of 2014, 550 million people in India practiced open defecation. This problem posed a massive public health hazard and economic drag for the country as well as a threat to global health. Written from an insider's perspective, the cases centre on the decisions made by a new Secretary of the India's Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, who was hired to manage SBM, and the team he assembled. Case A sets the stage for addressing open defecation in rural India and discusses the human resources and strategic challenges to implementing SBM from the vantage point of the new Secretary. It ends with strategic dilemmas related to what the new SBM team should do once they had sized up the challenges to eliminating open defecation by 2019. The case provides an opportunity to deliberate the managerial and strategic decisions of a globally relevant public behaviour change and rural infrastructure development program as well as different forms of public sector implementation in the Indian context.

Gloria Chen, an American educated Chinese management consultant, was asked by China Mobile, a leading telecommunication company, to deliver training on career management. Following her own training in the USA, the consultant developed a three-day training program that focussed on deep reflection of who you are and what legacy you want to leave. Much to her surprise, participants reacted strongly to the training with emotional reactions and expressed desires for career change. The consultant, therefore, had to reflect upon the design of the training program and the disconnect between the approach and the context across international borders. This case, written on the basis of first-hand experience, presents a dilemma in training and development where western concepts meet an eastern audience and cultural incongruence brings up new challenges. It is intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are taking training and development courses or international business courses with regard to cultural differences.

This case was based on the author's first-hand experience of delivering training and development programs to China Mobile, with supplemental information including company background and executive quotations provided directly by the client. Video recording of the training program as the author experienced it is available for review and clips from the video may be used to assist teaching this case.

This case is a Training and Development Case written for use by undergraduate students in Human Resources (HR) Management classes. It can be used more broadly in international HR, International Management, or International Business where cultural differences might be a sizable component. For the topic of training and development, the students are expected to have learned about identifying training needs, theories of learning, different training approaches, and started to explore transferring the learning into international context. For the broader topic of cultural differences and international business, the students are expected to have learned about the different manifest of culture, especially social norms related to expression of emotions, as well as inter-cultural experiences for business people working overseas.

Learning styles and training approaches. Learning styles refer to the various ways of learning particular to an individual, that are presumed to allow that individual to learn best. Most people prefer an identifiable method of interacting with, taking in, and processing stimuli or information (Ackerman et al., 1989; Pashler et al., 2009). Based on this idea, successful delivery of training needs to take into consideration the learning styles of participants involved.

Marketing management, brand management, brand loyalty, brand consumer behavior.

MBA program or the Executive Education program.

Anubhav Jain, Marketing Head of Digamber Industries, is concerned about the national launch of Surya Gold tea. The brand had been doing well in Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh, India) with almost 20 per cent market share. However, market reports suggested that retailers primarily pushed the brand and consumers had little loyalty for Surya Gold. Owing to lower repeat purchases, Jain had to spend large amount of money on consumer acquisition. For the national launch, a large base of loyal consumers was critical for business growth. He understood brand loyalty but found it a difficult proposition to relate from consumers' perspective. Market consultants were hired to conduct a qualitative research based on Susan Fournier's work on consumer-brand relationships. The case gives an account of conversations with professed lovers of tea to understand consumer behavior toward tea, including why people drink tea, how they choose their brands and what makes them re-buy or change brands. The case makes certain propositions around brand loyalty, which Jain had to decode to understand tea consumers in India, how brand loyalty develops and changes over time, and hence, how should he plan his marketing strategy. The case attempts to help students critique traditional definitions of brand loyalty, understand and evaluate the concept from consumers' perspective and highlight its importance in marketing strategy planning by explaining evolution, various types and intensity of brand loyalty.

The broad objective of the case is to strengthen participants' understanding of brand loyalty concept and also appreciate the importance and role of brands in consumer's life. The case can be used for MBA or executive education in brand management or consumer behavior courses. The specific objectives of this case are to help students appreciate the variations in brand loyalty across consumers and critically assess the traditional definition of loyalty, highlight the connection between the consumer personality and the brand attributes, help them understand how the concept of brand loyalty and brand relationship affects consumers' attitude and behavior, help students understand as to why brand loyalty develops and how it can be maintained and expose students to qualitative unstructured data and give them an experience of using it for managerial use.

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

On the evening of December 29, 1972, Eastern Air 401 (EA401) was on a routine flight from New York to Miami. Despite EA401 flying one of the most advanced aircraft at the time (the Lockheed L-1011), it crashed in the Florida Everglades killing 101 of its 176 passengers. Drawing from various first-hand accounts (cockpit voice recorder) and secondary evidence (news reports and online sources) of the tragedy, this teaching case provides a detailed account of the key events that took place leading up to the accident. The case describes how the pilots on EA401 were confronted with a simple scenario, a landing gear bulb not working in the cockpit, and through the distraction that ensued made a series of errors. Through many of the quotes in the text, readers gain an understanding of the impressions and perceptions of the pilots, including how they felt about many of the critical decisions and incidents during the last minutes of the flight. The case concludes by highlighting the main findings of the NTSB report.

Depending on individual course objectives, this case can take two or one day to debrief. Specifically, if this case is used in an organizational behavior course, most of the case questions could be discussed in one day. However, if this case is used in a capstone HRM or group dynamics type course on teams and team training and performance, a second day could be used to develop documentation outlining training design or performance evaluation designs.