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Supplements the (A) case.

Judy was a high-performing professional manager who was with her company for 15 years and was a manager for six. She was a confident, positive, and happy person but recently lost her confidence in herself and her abilities. She dreaded going to work because she never knew what she would face from her boss, Dennis. Dennis was a brilliant man who was recently promoted to Senior V.P. He was condescending, and he humiliated people in public. Complaints to the CEO and a harassment claim produced no results. Dennis did the CEO's dirty work and served a role needed in a fast-paced and profit-driven corporate culture. Judy enrolled in an MBA program to build her resume and her self-confidence. She faced a critical juncture in her career. Should she quit, transfer, complain to HR, or confront Dennis?

After a massive storm hit the northern Illinois service area of electric utility Commonwealth Edison on July 11, 2011, more than 900,000 customers were left without power during a hot, humid summer. ComEd crews and reinforcements from more than a dozen other states worked for days afterward to restore service. Meanwhile, the company's months-old social media strategy faced its first major test. The eChannels social media team, part of ComEd's customer operations division, worked around the clock to respond to posts from customers on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. At a time when the company faced public debate and criticism over its plan to raise electricity rates, in part to invest in smart-grid upgrades, engaging directly through social media was a way to strengthen relationships with customers and the general public, consistent with an important corporate goal: “Keep the lights on and information flowing.”

After discussing the case, students will:

• Develop an appreciation for the role social media can play in shaping a company's reputation

• Understand how companies can use social media to engage customers directly in order to protect their reputations

• Understand the role these interactions with customers can play during a crisis situation

• Recognize the added reputational risk when a company's core business is directly impacted by a natural disaster

Develop an appreciation for the role social media can play in shaping a company's reputation

Understand how companies can use social media to engage customers directly in order to protect their reputations

Understand the role these interactions with customers can play during a crisis situation

Recognize the added reputational risk when a company's core business is directly impacted by a natural disaster

After the company's first aviation fatality, Southwest Airlines's CEO is faced with new and difficult decisions. The alacrity and compassion that characterized the company's response serves as a paradigm for any organization facing a future crisis situation.

To teach students how to manage a crisis situation.

Supplements the (A) case.

The case deals with comparison of two events namely Bhopal Gas Tragedy and BP Oil Spill Tragedy. Specifically, the case compares the negotiation process and its outcome. In other words, the case compares how negotiation was carried out on behalf of victims of these tragedies and resulted in optimal outcomes in one situation and sub-optimal outcomes in another situation. It case also provides insights into cross-cultural issues in negotiation process as one of the events took place in emerging economy (India) and other one in a developed economy (USA). The case gives insight for individuals on how handle communication process during the course of negotiation.

This case study allows students to appreciate the value of standard operating procedures in customer management. This case study emphasises the role of employees in delivering superior customer experience. This case study explores many facets of customer experience, reputation, social class membership and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Students will be able to apply theories of customer experience, behavioural psychology and service dimensions relevant to the airline industry. After completing this case study, students will be able to do the following:1. Evaluate the value of SOPs in Customer ManagementThis case study refers to the need for adhering to SOPs to deal with complex situations. Students will be able to evaluate whether compliance to SOPs could have helped Air India avoid the crisis or was it possible that a culture of absolute commitment to customer wellbeing could have prevented the crisis.2. Apply the theory of defensive attribution in customer grievance handling. Discuss if reducing customer effort in getting their problem solved can result in superior customer service.The victim had attributed the blame for not insisting on filing a complaint to the crew. Air India crew had defended their actions or lack of it by stating that they had followed the rule book. Students will be able to appreciate the need for a swift redressal mechanism to protect the self-image and self-esteem of the person/group involved. They will also understand that customer service interactions designed to solve customer problems swiftly and easily can be a very simple dictum to guide all employees in their decision-making while handling a customer complaint.

3. Evaluate the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer experience and examine the value of net promoter score (NPS) to study customer satisfaction.

Air India Airlines was catering to varied customer groups such as the Indian diaspora, large student population pursuing education abroad, first-time flyers and the rising middle class with travel aspirations. Customer expectations vary across segments and change over their lifetime. Airline staff must trace customer corridors and deliver on customer expectation across the touch points that matter to them to ensure meaningful and relevant service delivery. Students will have an opportunity to evaluate the NPS in measuring customer satisfaction and debate whether it is a sufficient metric to guide the organisation on delivering and monitoring customer experience.

4. Examine why reputation risk management and not crisis management should be the focus of Air India in delivering superior customer service because nearly 70%–80% of market value for a company comes from its intangible assets such as brand equity and reputation.

Students will discuss crisis management i.e. handling the threat to reputation after it has occurred and reputation risk management i.e. proactively managing potential threats to its reputation by taking timely actions to avoid or mitigate it. There are three factors (reputation reality gap, changing beliefs and expectation and weak internal coordination) that determine reputational risks. Students can evaluate this model to determine if Air India should address these three factors to manage its reputation proactively.

This case study is set around an incident that happened on 26 November 2022, on Air India flight bound for Delhi from New York when an inebriated 34-year-old man had peed on a 72-year-old woman. The perpetrator of the crime had walked free, and the victim was left dissatisfied with how the cabin crew had handled her ordeal. Air India Airlines was launched in 1932 by industrialist JRD Tata and nationalised in 1953. In 2021, Tata Group acquired the 90-year-old Air India from the Government of India for $2.4bn (INR 18,000 crore) and appointed Campbell Wilson as chief executive officer and managing director. The incident brought to the fore the customer management issues that Wilson had to address. First on the list of Air India’s turnaround plan was delivering “exceptional customer experience”. How was it going to achieve it because the Indian aviation ecosystem lacked infrastructure such as airports, airspace, competition and customer preference-based services? There was also shortage of pilots, engineers, technicians, air-traffic controllers and technocrats to occupy positions within security agencies and regulatory bodies. With Air India’s acquisition, the Tata Group had to find innovative solutions to deal with decades of internal neglect, non-performance and labour union problems. This case study is relevant to address real issues of customer experience, consumer psychology, reputation risk management and standard operating procedures in service management.

This case is suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate level students of business management. It can also be used for training service personnel of aviation industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing

The case is written for MBA or senior undergraduate courses on communication global strategy, leadership or strategy implementation.

The case is written for MBA or senior undergraduate courses on communication global strategy, leadership or strategy implementation. The case can be taught towards the end of a communications course to learn about crisis communications and the importance of understanding the local institutional and socio-political contexts, including the media during a crisis. For a strategy implementation class, this case can be used in the segment focusing on action and leadership.

An extremely difficult situation arose for Uber Cab, a US-based company operating in India, on December 8, 2014, when its taxi services were banned by the Delhi government due to growing anger over the suspected rape of a 27-year-old female executive by one of its drivers. Uber Cab claims that it offers the “safest rides on the road”, but this episode proved otherwise, as the accused was identified as a repeat offender. Initial interrogation by the police highlighted the negligence of the company regarding background checks and police verification while recruiting driver partners. The police further revealed that the driver did not have a Delhi Transport Authority-issued license. Furthermore, the company was not able to provide a call log to police, as such information was said to be gathered at the company’s headquarters in New York. To handle this situation, Uber Cab suspended its operations until the company could apply for a fresh registration and trade license. What was the significance of this incident to a brand like Uber Cab? Could its effect on the regulation of taxi services have been anticipated? How and when should the brand have reacted? Looking forward, what contingency planning would be appropriate? Should brand management, customer service management or the human resources department have been held accountable, or did the responsibility lie elsewhere in the organization?

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to understand how institutional differences can create unintended consequences for an multinational enterprise working in an emerging market (early-stage institutions); to understand the critical role of a country manager in mobilizing the local organization and the headquarters to respond to a crisis; also, the role of the headquarters to provide flexibility and support to the local executive; and to understand the inevitable role of the local press in an organizational crisis, and the need for business leaders to deal with the press effectively.

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 case describes the events following an incident of a rape in a taxi associated with Uber, by its driver. Uber was an application based taxi operator. The events raised several issues for government systems and processes, such as need for regulation of new formats of business like application based taxi services, integrated databases, checks against forgery and holistic approach towards women safety. The case also brings out how an e-commerce business raises regulatory concerns.

This case involves a real-life Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Sir Allen Stanford, a man who bribed Antiguan regulators and a certified public accountant firm to perpetuate his scam. The case includes the process of making victims whole, which involves a court-initiated clawback process: taking back payouts to investors or charities to redistribute the funds to other fraud victims who did not receive their fair payout. Students apply theory learned in an upper-level fraud or forensic accounting course. Finally, the case addresses the aftermath of a fraud scheme.

Ponzi schemes – one of the most common types of investment fraud – have caused investors to lose billions of dollars. Because of the prevalence of Ponzi schemes and the ramifications to investors, it is important for business students to understand the nature of these schemes and to learn how to recognize them. As future business professionals, students will be charged with recognizing a Ponzi scheme early and uncovering it before investors lose their investments.

This case is designed for upper-level undergraduate students or graduate students taking a fraud or forensic accounting course, which is best introduced after professors cover Ponzi schemes and also these concepts: fraud triangle, fraud diamond and fraud red flags.