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This case can be used in teaching business ethics, organizational behaviour and human resource management. More specifically, romance in the workplace, discrimination, absenteeism, sneaking and cyberloafing in the workplace.

This case can be used for both undergraduate and postgraduate students particularly for business ethics, organizational behaviour, human resource management and leadership courses. Students/participants are challenged to identify the major issue in the case and help the decision maker to make a decision.

This case demonstrates the unethical behaviour of Natacha and Noman Ali. Natacha refused to comply with the company’s code of conduct and breached the company’s rules and regulations. Natacha used the company’s resources to carry out her personal business and also cheated on her attendance records, and the Director of Enforcement and the Inspectorate Division, Noman, continued to back and support her. Madam Siti Hajar had consulted and advised her many times, but Natacha did not pay attention to her advice. Madam Siti was in a dilemma: whether to report this unethical situation to the top management or to tolerate this situation and remain silent.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: to identify and describe major issues related to workplace unethical behaviour; to provide examples of the concepts of commitment, dedication, fairness, discrimination and ethical leadership; to identify and analyse individual and organizational factors that may affect individuals’ unethical behaviour; to instruct students of the scientific methods involved in making decisions; and. to help students to think thoroughly, deeply and critically to make decisions that can solve the problem at hand.

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 6: Human Resource Management.

The learning outcomes are as follows: identify and evaluate the impact of risk factors for health-care organizations during crisis; evaluate the role of different organizational factors in building resilient health-care organizations; define organizational resilience in a health-care context; and apply the effect-strategy-impact resilience framework.

September 2022 found Ranjan Thakur, the Hospital Director at Manipal Hospital, Jaipur (MHJ) reflecting on MHJ’s resilience toward future health-care crises. MHJ was established in the capital city Jaipur of the Indian state of Rajasthan in 2014, as a 225-bed multispecialty unit of the nationally renowned Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd. As the Hospital Director, Thakur had been responsible for navigating his team and the hospital through the multiple health-care related challenges exacerbated by the multiple waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in a large Indian state with a sizable rural and semiurban population. Though Thakur and his team of doctors had worked through the vulnerabilities of their health-care ecosystem, mapping the risks and mitigating the same, Thakur asked himself if they had done enough. He wondered how a health-care institution such as theirs could sustain effective health-care delivery during future crises situations to deliver high-quality health care to the vulnerable communities. Had they effectively mapped MHJ’s vulnerabilities and built resilience into the hospital’s functioning? The backdrop of the case is public health in the state of Rajasthan (Jaipur), and the case is rich in detailing social factors such as behavior issues of patients, doctors and nurses; operational factors such as standardization of treatment and standard operating procedures, availability of resources, clinical concerns; leadership and management of the hospital through the pandemic. This case can be used by instructors to teach organizational resilience building in the health-care context.

Graduate- and executive-level courses in managing change during crisis in health-care context; health-care management/leadership.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

Human Resource Management

Postgraduate business students, particularly MBA students.

This case examines the working environment of Fritz Publishing, a small independent South African publishing company. Fritz Publishing was established in 1960 by Nick Fritz. After his retirement, ownership passed to his son, Martin. In 2011, Martin Fritz decided to sell the company to the Prys Group, an international publishing house headquartered in Germany. February 2011 saw the arrival of a newly appointed CEO for Fritz Publishing, Vadim Arshavin, who had already experienced excellent financial results as the head of another publishing house. In the wake of his arrival, the company experienced several changes. The case highlights the challenges at Fritz Publishing that have resulted in a growing sense of dissatisfaction. After Martin Fritz sold Fritz Publishing, the organisational culture shifted quite drastically which created challenges for managers, employees and customers alike. Employees, including some members of management, are de-motivated, disengaged and frustrated because of the leadership style and behaviour of the new CEO Vadim Arshavin and consider their psychological contracts to have been breached. The case explores factors that have helped create this situation. It considers challenges to the sustainability of the organisation given recent events including an internal employee engagement survey and feedback from key customers. The case further examines the potential dangers that toxic leadership creates within organisations and encourages discussion on ways this form of destructive leadership can be handled.

The learning objectives to be drawn from the case are: to assess the impact of leadership on organisational culture; to analyse how leadership impacts the psychological contract; to identify the cross-cultural factors at play in an emerging market organisation and to understand the way a toxic leadership style can detrimentally affect a high-performance workplace. In addition, there are further learning objectives that can be explored. These are: to examine the change process and associated challenges with the introduction of new leadership into a family-type organisational culture; to understand how breach can be avoided and/or how the psychological contract can be reconstructed.

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 6: Human Resource Management.

This article, written in case format, has been written to assist the novice case writer in case research and writing. The article covers all aspects of case writing including: idea generation and sources of cases, working with primary and secondary case sources, obtaining client releases, writing the case story line, developing a catchy ‘hook’, using the past tense, providing supporting exhibits, and providing a bibliography for the case. The teaching note (or instructor's manual)is also covered in detail including: an overview of the case, learning objectives, course placement and targeted audience, instructional methodologies, case questions and answers, the epilogue, and the bibliography. Appendix A includes a discussion on case publishing and includes a list of journals and conferences which accept cases.

This case covers the scandal that occurred in 2008 at Société Générale when one trader, Jérôme Kerviel, lost the prominent French bank nearly €5 billion through his unauthorized trading. The case describes Kerviel’s schemes as well as SocGen’s internal monitoring and reporting processes, organizational structures, and culture so that students reading the case can identify and discuss the shortcomings of the firm’s risk management practices. The case and epilogue also describe the French government’s and Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s reactions to the scandal (e.g., imposition of a €4 million fine and increased regulations), prompting students to consider the role of government in overseeing that healthy risk management practices are followed in key industries (such as banking) that are highly entwined with entire economies. Finally, the case encourages students—during class discussion—to critically consider whether it is truly possible for one rogue trader to act alone, which elements in a work environment enable or even encourage risky behavior, and who should be held accountable when such scandals occur. Interestingly, this case highlights a story that is not unique. Prior to Kerviel’s transgressions were the similar scandals of Nick Leeson at Barings Bank and Toshihide Iguchi at Daiwa Bank, yet history has repeated itself. This case gives students a vivid example of the dangers of internal, self-inflicted risk on organizations, and it opens a discussion on how to avoid it.

After completing this case, students will be able to:

• Identify shortcomings in a firm’s risk management practices (i.e., processes, systems, structures)

• Evaluate the role and interests of governments as well as peer firms in overseeing healthy risk management practices in an industry

• Understand the dangers of self-inflicted risk and consider the elements in an organization (e.g., leadership, compensation structure, incentives, recruiting) that impact its risk environment

Identify shortcomings in a firm’s risk management practices (i.e., processes, systems, structures)

Evaluate the role and interests of governments as well as peer firms in overseeing healthy risk management practices in an industry

Understand the dangers of self-inflicted risk and consider the elements in an organization (e.g., leadership, compensation structure, incentives, recruiting) that impact its risk environment

Doris, the Executive Director of the JCC, had a Board of Directors that lacked the requisite skills, perspective, behaviors, and willingness to change policies and practices in order to meet external environmental opportunities and threats or to address internal competencies and competitive capabilities. Changes in the external environment were exacerbating the JCC's internal deficiencies. In addition, the Board created impediments to the professional staff's efforts to implement good managerial practices and policies. The current management team was acutely aware of the changes in the external environment, how these changes impacted the JCC's operations and what the JCC needed to do in order to meet these challenges. The management team was frustrated by a Board that did not provide leadership, fulfill their responsibilities, hold each other accountable and undermined management by intervening in day-to-day operations. The staff was passively hostile to the Board and to the management team. As consumers, the members' expectations were higher and more demanding. Doris and her management team had to resolve a myriad of strategic and operational issues that confronted the organization.

▪ Students learn how an educational institute impacts water resources on the campus and its surrounding community.

▪ Students acquire knowledge on how decision-making, related to natural resources, is influenced by the institute’s obligations towards surrounding communities and the long-term sustainability of the resources.

▪ Students become acquainted with the decision-making process adopted by an educational institute for achieving resource-efficient development on the campus.

▪ Students learn how to design evaluation methods for investments related to water conservation at an educational institute.

▪ Students become proficient with the payback method specifically when evaluating water-enhancing projects at an educational campus.

Dr Ajit Parulekar, Director at Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa, India, was evaluating options to improve the sources of water at GIM at the beginning of 2021. He was reviewing the projects proposed to meet the water requirement at the campus for the next five years (2021–2025). The projects were recommended by consultants (ENV Consultants Pvt Ltd) who proposed a total expenditure of US$68,667 which involved storage enhancement and water table upgradation (See Case Exhibit 11). The maintenance department had studied the plans but their projections showed that the execution of these projects and initiatives would still lead to a deficit of water in the future. Dr Parulekar reviewed the reports and weighed the expected tangible and intangible benefits from the proposed projects. The projects had to be carefully selected, keeping in mind the multiple objectives to be met: an increase in water supply within a short time, a financially optimum investment and a minimum impact on the surrounding community. The selected projects had to meet the long-term sustainability objective of resource efficiency at the campus.

Students studying finance, project appraisal, campus sustainability at graduate or postgraduate management programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental Management.

The case describes the dilemma faced by Meera Nair, chief manager at PhoenixWay – a consultancy firm that has successfully grown over the years. There is a silent conflict in the personalities, work styles and attitude of Meera Nair and Mohit Dubey, her contemporary looking after client relationships. Nair finds inconsistencies in the words and actions of Dubey that have started to impact the work and motivation of her team. Her unsuccessful attempts to draw the attention of their boss Shekhar Sinha to these variances have left her unsure and demotivated. Sinha overlooks Dubey's fallacies and shows no signs of paying attention to the discrepancies and contradictions.

Organizational change.

Undergraduate and Masters level management programmes, particularly in management accounting, public sector accounting or organizational change.

This case study reflects organizational changes when Fijian Post and Telecom Company (FPTL) made a transition from a government department to a corporate entity. The focus of this case study is to examine some of the intra-organizational or micro-level changes that took place at the company. While the impetus for change may have originated in the Fiji Government's policies of public sector reform, the objective here is to outline the often slow pace of intra-organizational change within FPTL.

FPTL is a sole provider of postal and telecommunication services in Fiji. The organizational actors faced tensions and initially resisted the change to private business routines. However, with wider education and training on the change process, the resistance was reduced. At FPTL, a management team was set up to introduce commercial norms which were subsequently stabilized by the team through the ongoing process of educating employees on the benefits of changes and routinisation of new practices.The learning outcomes are to understand the difficulty of the change process and be aware of some of the resistance that may persist owing to cultural and political circumstance of a specific country.

Teaching note.

The case study aims to provide students with an understanding of child labour in India and how the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) movement is facilitating the eradication of child labour in India. The key objectives are to understand the challenges of eradicating child labour in India, assess the approaches to rescue and rehabilitation for the protection of a child in India, analyse the personality traits of a leader and evaluate the charismatic leadership of a leader.

The case study discussed child labour and the movement started by Kailash Satyarthi to protect children through the BBA or Save the Childhood Movement in India. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his contribution to creating an environment to abolish child labour. Headquartered in New Delhi, BBA was established in 1980 to eliminate child slavery and violence against children (BBA.org.in, 2017). Satyarthi’s effort brought regulatory changes in the Indian constitution in the form of “Education as a fundamental right” (The Novel Prize, 2023). As per census 2011, more than 10 million children were involved in various industries in India (Drishtiias.com, 2019). Satyarthi and his BBA were far behind the mission they were to achieve. How should he move to eliminate child labour from India? Will he be able to create any impact on citizens, society and government through his new approaches?

The case study is ideal for courses on understanding strategy, leadership, personality traits and labour laws. This case study is designed for use in undergraduate and graduate early-stage programmes. The main purpose of this case study is to be used in programmes leading to a Master of Business Administration or a Bachelor of Business Administration. This case scenario focused on the BBA movement in India and its aim to eradicate child labour in India. It discussed the child labour scenario in Indian industries and how Satyarthi started the BBA movement to protect the future of underprivileged children in India. The case study discusses the challenges faced in rescuing and rehabilitation of children in India. The authors applied the big five model to analyse the personality of Satyarthi in the case context. The authors also used the concept and components of charismatic leadership to evaluate the traits of charismatic leaders from a case perspective. This case study will benefit students by focusing on traits related to personality and charismatic leadership concepts. Students will get the opportunity to explore the practical and theoretical concepts that interplay in this study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.