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The present case study would help readers to understand paternalistic leadership behavior with its underlying theory. Readers would be able to appreciate the nature of experiences employees may have while working with a paternalistic leader high on authoritarianism. This case study would motivate readers to work out appropriate strategies for working under paternalistic bosses. The teaching note sensitizes readers about the complicated relationship between paternalistic leadership and culture.

Pyramid Globe Management Institute (PGMI) is struggling to generate revenue. PGMI founder, Tugmanshu Lakhani, has to find out new sources of revenue to keep the institute functioning. He constitutes a team of three professors for starting a new academic program with a foreign university. The initial success of the team brings favor from the founder but jealousy from the colleagues reeling under job threat. High authoritarianism and interference of the founder create a problematic situation for the three professors. When the new program starts showing promising results, the founder gets apprehensive about whether the new course may hurt the enrolment in the flagship program of the institute. The authoritarian and erratic behavior of the founder had a demotivating effect on the team working for the new program. Some team members resign under pressure while three professors stay to ensure the launch of the program. The professors have to resolve the conflict between their commitment toward PGMI in a troubled time and a career uncertainty if they continue working for it. Anticipating no change in the behavior of the founder and an uncertain future with PGMI, three professors quit after the start of the new program. The founder may continue losing committed employees if he is unable to balance his authoritarianism with benevolence and moral behavior. It will create more problems for PGMI in the future.

This case can be used in organizational behavior, leadership and team-building courses in the regular Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. The case can further be used in the executive development program, especially for analyzing the leadership problem in higher education organizations.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management science.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students should be able to develop an understanding of how to identify female leadership competencies; analyze social and psychological barriers to developing female leadership; and consider various solutions to build trust in rural settings by overcoming social and psychological barriers.

In 2022, Mrs Anjaria, the Managing Director, and Mr Anjaria, the Chairperson of the Rangoli Group of Institutions in Gandhinagar, Gujarat (India), were facing the challenge of how to empower thousands of females in the preschool venture in the rural area as they could see the impact of their female edupreneurs in the urban area. Both had worked up the ladder in the preschool venture after quitting their professional careers in the corporate world. They now wanted to create female edupreneurs to empower women and bring about social and educational change at the grassroots level. They needed to make an informed decision about how to scale the preschool offerings at rural sites to bring educational change and increase revenue simultaneously; however, they were unsure how to execute this vision into a tangible profit-making social edupreneurial reality. Government preschools (Anganwadis) and social structures in rural Indian contexts were a major consideration. It was important to increase their hiring efforts to empower women with their franchise model. However, issues such as leadership competencies, psycho-socio-cultural barriers, and creating trust in rural economies challenged their vision.

The case is suitable for MBA students or postgraduate-level courses on development communication, business communication, entrepreneurial communication and gender communication seeking to develop female competencies through communication models. This case illustrates how to create trust through communication among female eduprenuers by overcoming social and psychological barriers in rural settings.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship

This case discussion will enable learners to: demonstrate how the adoption of entrepreneurial leadership could aid the overwhelmed youth to successfully bounce back. Summarize various events and challenges faced. Demonstrate mindful entrepreneurial qualities to be effective. Identify various coping strategies in balancing a commercial viable model with a compassionate approach. Establish a roadmap for a healthy sustainable business model.

Ms Rahaf Raef Kobeissi was a 33-year solopreneur, mental health coach and personal development trainer who resided in Dubai. She encountered dilemmas while attempting to offer commercial, as well as empathy and compassion-based services. She tried to strike a balance between her own broken past life challenges and managing her clients’ healing journey. Another challenge was to assess whether she should adopt inductive counseling or deductive counseling principles, especially during a Covid-19 scenario. She needed to ensure a healthy work/life balance to prevent herself from suffering from burnout. Her personal journey to becoming a solopreneur was filled with grief and hardship over the years, which she endured with little support. She had the arduous task of dealing with a series of shocking incidents and events, which pushed her down through the cracks, leading to her attempting to take her own life three times when overwhelmed by tragedy. At the age of 23, Rahaf lost her father to suicide – they found him hanging in his apartment. Her abusive mother had several breakdowns due to severe depression and her drug addict brother accidentally killed his friend in her apartment with an overdose injection. The challenge before her was to strike a reasonable balance between managing the highest levels of clinical depression with suicidal tendencies and finding the right path and purpose for her own life. This was the very reason she chose to battle depression through therapy and bounced back as a stronger and more resilient woman.

This case has been focused on undergraduate and postgraduate-early stage level students pursuing business or psychology programs. Particularly those specializing in entrepreneurial, organizational behavioral and positive psychology courses.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management, Social Sector.

The case can be used in undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses in entrepreneurship and strategic management. It is a perfect fit for executive sessions at incubation centers for not-for-profit (NPO) start-up social enterprises. The case is aimed at early-phase social entrepreneurs and those interested in the field.

Anthill Creations (hereafter referred to as Anthill) is a NPO organization engaged in building low-cost sustainable playscapes for underprivileged children. Their mission is to “Bring Back play” in the lives of millions of children of marginalized communities by building sustainable playscapes. It is an effort that contributes toward the objectives of clause 1.2 (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, 2020), on “Early Childhood Care and Education” (ECCE) in the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of India as released on July 30, 2020. The ECCE clause emphasizes the importance of “learning through play”; and recognizes it to be central to quality early childhood pedagogy and education. Anthill has been working on the same philosophy since its inception in 2016. They have successfully built 300 playscapes across 18 states of the country and impacted the lives of more than 200,000 children. The playscapes are built using upcycled waste material, such as scrap tires, waste cable and oil drums; further, they use local resources and contextual designs and built them by mobilizing community participation. The playscape play elements provide for unstructured free play for children and encourage them to use their imagination to invent new games.

Pooja Rai – the founder and CEO of Anthill Creations, an architect by discipline started the NPO immediately after her graduation. It was her “calling” in life that pushed her to quit a corporate job in the early stages of her career and instead pursue a career in the social sector. The case details her methodical approach in pursuing her intuitive response to a social need, the way she adopts a lean start-up framework to set-up Anthill, her frustrations, personal resilience and ability to balance different stakeholder interests as she treads the difficult journey of building the awareness of inculcating play as a pedagogy in the early years of childhood development.

The case provides data on the large proportion of the marginalized population in India and the abysmal conditions of the Indian Government schools. The objectives of clause 1.2 on ECCE in NEP 2020 show the Indian Government’s good intent. And yet with the prevailing conditions, the policy’s ambitious target of universalization of ECCE by 2030 (Chanda, 2020), seems a mammoth task, even for the Indian Government.

On the other hand, Anthill as a small NPO of young dedicated individuals is invested and experimental in their approach; they have a tested model but financial dependency limits their activities. The ECCE clause is a sign of new hope for NPOs such as Anthill who want to reach out to millions of Indian children from marginalized communities. What could be a compatible, perhaps complementary or even skillful pathway to integrate Anthill’s tested model of building sustainable playscapes with the Indian Government’s good intentions of universalization of ECCE by 2030? How could Anthill “scale” for a systemic “impact”? Should not the NPOs, early childhood development researchers, funders and government authorities study collaboratively instead of the present siloed approach so as to bring about a systemic change in the thinking lenses about “play” to be an integral part of early childhood development? Rai ponders on the above questions.

To explain the importance of one’s purpose (calling) in life and how the authors can identify with it.

To explain how an intuitive response to social need can be complemented with a methodical approach to social entrepreneurship.

To discuss the importance of business model canvas from the social sector lens.

To explain the important elements in sustaining small start-up social organizations.

To discuss and evaluate the options an early-stage social enterprise can engage into “scale” for “impact.”

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to strike a balance between business growth and keeping the core Gandhian philosophies intact; to evaluate the relevance of Gandhian philosophy in the age of the digital era, especially for the grassroots enterprises; and to identify the leadership characteristics demonstrated by Pabiben from the lens of servant-leadership theory.

The case describes the journey of a grassroots-based rural women entrepreneur, Pabibben, who had created an artisan's enterprise and rural business model based on Gandhian philosophies. The case focuses on whether Gandhian philosophies are still relevant in today's time for business growth. The case appeals to the academic fraternity, budding entrepreneurs, social sector start-ups and practitioners who believe in the inclusive and holistic growth of an individual, community, society and the nation.

The case is about the dilemma of how to grow a business ethically and balance economic and social gain. Pabiben used Gandhian philosophies as a set of values to make decisions and set policies for her business. Pabiben wanted to grow her business and expand her e-commerce portal “Pabiben.com” for other artisans to display, promote and sell their products to the global communities. She had to decide on the following:

1. Should she sell other artisans' products under “Pabiben.com”?

2. Should she allow other artisans to create their own identity on the portal and help the artisans' community grow?

3. Are Gandhian philosophies still relevant in today’s time for business growth?

The case can be used for both undergraduate and postgraduate students to teach entrepreneurship courses, especially social entrepreneurship and rural entrepreneurship. The case can also be used on the subject of corporate social responsibility, business ethics and women leadership. The case explains the concept of values/philosophies-based entrepreneurship and innovations.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

The case is structured to achieve the following learning objectives: ■ to assess how an intuitive response to social need can be complemented with a methodical approach to social entrepreneurship; ■ to analyse the importance of business model canvas from the social sector lens; ■ to evaluate the value created by a small NPO 17000 ft Foundation; ■ to analyse the core elements of a business model for success in the social sector; and ■ to assess and evaluate the options for an early-stage NPO to engage in scaling for a systemic impact.

17000 ft Foundation (hereafter referred to as 17000 ft) is a not-for-profit (NPO) organisation incepted in 2012 by Sujata Sahu, with the objective of supporting education of children living at high altitudes in remote villages of Ladakh, India. It is an effort that contributes toward objectives of clause 6.1 on educational inclusivity in the new National Education Policy 2020 of India. The case study is set in the context of Indian education, with all its challenges. It describes how Sujata Sahu was motivated to start the Foundation and how it developed to become a complex organisation working on different education-related projects simultaneously. The Foundation’s business model is interesting and unique. It leverages digital technologies to develop a network of interconnected activities, involves local communities and uses an extensive network of different kinds of stakeholders to impact a change in the quality of education in government schools in these remote villages. The case provides a solid basis for the discussion of the vital role of NPOs such as 17000 ft (in emerging economy) which is creating social and economic value for the remote villages of Ladakh, India. The new NEP 2020 argues for equity and inclusivity in education for all, but it failed to provide a blueprint for the implementation process. On the other hand, 17000 ft with its small team was invested and experimental in its approach. It had been working on the same cause of educational inclusivity. They had piloted a quality education business model for the harshest and remote Indian terrains and proven its positive impact. What were some of the core elements that had led them to success so far? The announcement of NEP 2020 provided a new ray of hope. How could they contribute and work together with the government to impact inclusive education and development in India? What collaborative mechanisms could possibly help them replicate their proven business model across the 1,000 schools of Ladakh and beyond? How could they scale for a systemic impact? After all, a nation as big as India required multiple strategies and multiple stakeholders from NPOs, private companies, government agencies, educational institutions, etc. to work collaboratively to bridge the inclusion and equity gaps in education.

The case can be used in graduate and executive education courses in entrepreneurship and strategic management. It can also be used for executive sessions at incubation centres for NPO start-ups and is aimed at early-phase social entrepreneurs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The subject areas are business communication, human resource management and health care.

The case was designed for use in a first-year MBA-level course in business communication but would serve well in a course for executives or for advanced undergraduates. It might also be assigned in general management courses to evoke discussion on communication skills required in sensitive and critical situations; human resource courses; and course on health care.

Palliative care is a specialized medical care focussing on improving the quality of life of patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses. It addresses symptom management and psychosocial and spiritual concerns of the patient and its caregivers. With the intent to alleviate the sufferings of terminally ill patients, Rajbala Foundation, a non-government organization (NGO), works at the psychosocial and spiritual levels. While training their volunteers in effective palliative care communication, it often encounters challenges such as socio-cultural variations, organizational challenges, appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication, etc. This teaching case focuses on the communication challenges faced by the volunteers of Rajbala Foundation. It would lead to a broader discussion on communicating empathically during critical situations. The case has a focus on NGOs, and non-profit organizations, public sector management, health-care management and human resources management. There is significant literature on communication skills for medical practitioners in palliative care. As an increasing number of NGOs step in to provide the second level of care to critically ill patients in non-physical domains, there is a need to understand the role of effective communication for such care providers. This case deals with non-medical care providers in palliative care; the issues of communication they face as they interact with patients; and the skills they require to address the emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their families.

The aim of this case is to raise awareness of the complexities involved in the communication process during an emotional and sensitive interaction. It aims to encourage volunteers involved in palliative care to reflect on good communication practices when communicating with patients and family members. After reading this case, the students should be able to discuss the complexities involved in the communication process when communicating in situations with high emotional involvement; understand the core elements of emotional interactions for effective practice; and emphasize the need for the development of communication skills within palliative care.

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

Labour relations management, business management, HRM, focusing on the labour relations of Chinese enterprises.

This case is designed for students in schools of business or management, undergraduate MBA or executive MBA classes. Students should already have a basic knowledge about Chinese labour relations, HRM, and organizational development.

In 2004, a deal transformed Anhui Xuanjiu Group from a state-owned enterprise (SOE) to a private company. Li Jian, the Chairman of Xuanjiu Group, focused on creating happiness for employees. Thanks to Li Jian's efforts, Xuanjiu emrged from its crisis which was formed in the planned economy system. After several years of development, the labour relations management of Anhui Xuanjiu Group became a model among private enterprises in China.

Students can gain new insights into labour relations in China. The case provides an example of building friendly labour relations to avoid labour disputes. It provides a set of measures for retaining and motivating workers.

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

This case has multiple theoretical linkages at the micro-organizational behavior level (e.g. job enrichment), but it is best analyzed and understood when examined at the organizational level. Students will learn about shared entrepreneurship, high performance work systems, shared leadership and virtuous organizations, and how they can develop a sustainable competitive advantage.

The case was prepared using a qualitative approach. Data were collected via the following ways: literature search; organizational documents and published historical accounts; direct observations by a research team; and on-site audio recorded and transcribed individual and group interviews conducted by a research team (the authors) with organization members at multiple levels of the firm.

John Lewis Company has been in business since 1864. In 1929, it became the John Lewis Partnership (JLP) when the son of the founder sold a portion of the firm to the employees. In 1955, he sold his remaining interest to the employee/partners. JLP has a constitution and has a representative democracy governance structure. As the firm approaches the 100th anniversary of the trust, it is faced with multiple challenges. The partners are faced with the question – How to respond to the environmental turmoil?

This case has environmental issues – How to respond to competition, technological changes and environmental uncertainty and an internal issue – How can high performance work practices provide a sustainable competitive advantage? Both issues can be examined in strategic management courses after the students have studied traditionally managed companies. This case could also be used in human resource management courses.

Senior-level undergraduate courses.

In a short lifespan of operating in the UAE market, the Sugaholic bakeshop has grown from a fragile business idea all the way up to a paradigm of success. The two Bhatia sisters, Sneha and Ravisha, seek to spread happiness around them by invigorating their customers’ celebrations with their captivating personalized delicacies. The family business owners and their team of enthusiastic bakers aim at delivering exceptional quality and design on their sweet treats to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. Working closely as a team and paying special attention to detailing, the bakers at Sugaholic do not only merely provide the end product but also constantly work on the feedback received. The company offers all types of personalization on a variety of cakes, taking every order as a new challenge and baking for every sweets’ lover including family, friends, individual and corporate clients, celebrities and public personalities. Despite its short existence, the bakeshop has been successful in creating a vast fan following and the owners have started exploring various opportunities for business expansion. As Sugaholic has reached a critical stage in its development, what is the most viable strategic option to be pursued for embarking on a road of sustainable growth and success?

Assess the process of launching a new business venture in light of the factors from the external environment. Identify different sources of competitive advantage of an organization and evaluate their level of sustainability. Conduct a comprehensive assessment of a family-owned enterprise and delineate viable actions for intervention. Evaluate the effectiveness of top management’s strategic choices and develop decision-making skills.

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 11: Strategy.