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Students from undergraduate and graduate levels.

Leadership, implicit leadership theories, decision-making, gender stereotypes and discrimination.

Defne was working as a sales manager in Diel Turkey, an international technology company. Diel focuses on software, hardware, network and business consultancy services. Defne had worked as a computer engineer before starting to work in the sales department. In her leadership, she gave importance to long-term relationships and justice. Defne had two meetings this week. The first one was with T&X, a big scale fast moving consumer goods company; and the other one was with Q-Coding, a medium-scale technology company. Defne had negotiated with T&X two years ago, and the project got canceled. Defne worked on T&X new contract very cautiously, as this time she wanted to finish the project and make the deal. Defne had to deal with prejudices during the T&X meeting. Implicit beliefs are grounded in the cultural background of the country, which determines the perceptual framework for the society. Male-dominated countries have implicit beliefs that women’s priorities should be their families, thus being successful at work is not expected. Defne faced male-oriented stereotypes, which challenged her in doing business. Even though she was a successful manager, these subjective beliefs made her perform poorly. During the meeting with Q-Coding, Defne discussed the prejudice for women leaders with a women entrepreneur Suzan.

This case is trying to achieve two main objectives: first, to make all students be aware of implicit leadership theories and beliefs, which are rooted in the countries’ cultural background; second, to make female students be aware of these dysfunctional coping behaviors and increase their self-efficacy without thinking about their gender roles.

CSS 7: Management science

Rendering digital services have taken centerstage in the current ICT for development discourse. E-Government services are mostly under this discourse with the aim to provide citizen centric services in the public domain. Business and development organizations alike are also investing in developing their own digital infrastructure for rendering services to its stakeholders. This case describes scenario in which a cooperative organization wishes to use digital infrastructure and provide digital services to its farmer members. The cooperative continued investing in ICT since the last couple of decades and constantly upgraded it to ease the transaction and bring efficiency and reduce information asymmetry. This had greatly benefitted the members. However, the cooperative is aware that its communication network built on the wireless medium has its own limitations in introducing new services and integrating its databases and applications. The cooperative took note of “Digital India (DI)” initiatives to provide digital services to rural areas and build an ecosystem to empower the citizens in its governance set up. This DI policy has implicit provisions of better networking protocols with improved bandwidth. The organization has a dilemma to continue with investing its own resources or explore possibility of piggybacking on the DI initiative. The cooperative wished to examine the total cost of ownership in either case and assess the feasibility of converging with the infrastructure created by the government.

The Government Information Technology Policies are increasingly favouring citizens and in favour of shared infrastructure and services. It is worth the examination to evaluate strategies to deploy IT infrastructure and services with optimized cost and better returns in an enterprise. This is far more important for a social enterprise like AMALSAD cooperative (user-owned firm) that has deployed its own IT infrastructure and ITeS. AMALSAD cooperative deployed its IT assets long back and in the meanwhile, the Government policy is in favour of providing services over the internet.

The case serves to help students to understand the theoretical concept of Enterprise information systems infrastructure and services. It brings to the students understanding: the drivers of IT infrastructure to provide digital services; challenges that would make the social enterprise (in this case user-owned firm) to understand the opportunities and challenges of deploying the right digital infrastructure and get services on demand. The case presents the scenarios for the students to deliberate and find answers to the right approach for estimating the total cost of ownership (TCO).

The case situation presents a scenario for digital government services. Most of the customer-facing enterprises including social enterprises are also providing digital services. It is important that such services converge at an optimized TCO.

Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The learning outcomes are as follows: identify the key challenges of leading a large organisation that is self-serving as compared to one that has people of integrity in its employ; understand how resilient leaders need to be to remain focussed on the task at hand while faced with resistance and controversy at every turn; demonstrate how to cultivate a culture of trust and integrity in an organisation bereft of both, and rebuild an organisation’s reputation; navigate the dynamics of having an unruly subordinate [chief operating officer (COO)] who in reality is more powerful; and develop key skills in practicing self-care in an environment where one is constantly undermined and devalued.

This case looks at the leadership of former GCEO Lulama Mokhobo at the South African Broadcasting Corporation SABC from 2012 to 2014 and her lived experience within the theme of empowered powerlessness. With an unsupportive board, destructive COO, and minister of communications at government level, Lulama is disempowered in her position and battles to make changes. Colleagues attest to the unusually complex dynamics that she had to navigate on a daily basis. The case details how this eroded Lulama’s self-confidence as well as her ability to lead the organisation and pushed her to resign. The SABC managed to undo the strides she made during her tenure and now finds itself in financial quagmire due to poor and questionable decisions made after her resignation as the GCEO of the organisation.

The target audience for this case comprises students enrolled in tertiary business education programmes who have already had some sort of work experience and hands-on exposure to real-world business. MBA and EMBA students, as well as executive education programmes. Including disciplines such as leadership, organisational behaviour and people management and strategy.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

The case is meant for teaching business management students at the Postgraduate and Executive levels. It can be incorporated in the marketing management, entrepreneurship and international business course curriculum.

Since its inception in 2015, VAHDAM India had carved a niche for itself in the Global Tea Industry in a span of just seven years. The 29-year-old Founder-CEO, Bala Sarda was the first to create India’s largest born-global direct-to-consumer (D2C) premium wellness brand by bridging the gap between demand and supply of the country’s finest teas and superfoods globally. The venture also became a poster child for sustainability by strengthening its green credentials over the course of time.Having attained profitability in FY21, VAHDAM now aims to become a ₹500 Cr. brand by FY24. To push the goal across the line, channelisation of marketing will take centre stage. The case highlights the management’s dilemma of using green marketing as the pivot for increasing its market share in the emerging economies and boosting revenue. The underscored opportunities and challenges have to be addressed so as to formulate a green marketing mix suitable for the emerging market scenario.

Participants will develop an understanding about the evolving consumption landscape inclining towards eco-friendly wellness products and the relationship between green marketing mix, brand equity and its channelisation towards revenue generation. They will also get an overview of marketing challenges faced by a premium D2C wellness brand while entering an emerging market. The readers shall be able to analyse and suggest ideas for the formulation of an effective green marketing mix to meet the consumer expectations and achieve desired brand positioning.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing

The data for the case is a mix of both primary and secondary data, from the following sources: – personal interviews with the protagonist, Sofana Dahlan; – Tashkeil website; – official documents provided by the company: ■ “Tashkeil – Corporate Brief,” ■ “Saudi National Creative Initiative – Activities Report 2016”; and ■ “Tashkeil Global Company”. – published media sources.

The case outlines the story of Sofana Dahlan (Sofana) (she/her), a social entrepreneur and one of the first few women lawyers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She established Tashkeil as a social enterprise, helping creative entrepreneurs (creatives) with strategic, operational and legal inputs, thus enabling the creative industry in different parts of the Arab world, focussing on Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Her story can be used to inspire students on how a female entrepreneur fought against an extremely restrictive social and cultural environment and achieved her goals. It helps them to understand the challenges faced by women in the context of the Arab world and the key attributes required for them to succeed as an entrepreneur, especially in the context of certain social and cultural barriers. It also helps to understand the importance of resilience in entrepreneurs and to discuss how entrepreneurs can become more resilient.

The case can be used mainly in undergraduate Business Management Programs in courses such as Entrepreneurship, with specific reference to Women Entrepreneurship. The case would be a good fit for courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Creative Businesses.

Data used to develop the case included primary data from employees and supervisors of a commercial floorcovering manufacturing plant in Northwest Georgia. The case company is not disguised.

The survey was developed using existing instruments from the Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Literature. Instruments were listed in Exhibits 2 through 7. The survey administration had the support of the Vice President for Resources and Facilities, and employees and their supervisors were given time to complete the surveys. The data gathered was analyzed by the researcher using SPSS statistical software.

Established in 1957, J&J started as a family-owned business but had grown and diversified its product offerings by focusing on commercial flooring. It survived several economic downturns and remained competitive in a market dominated by more prominent flooring manufacturers. J&J Industries strived to empower its 800 employees with various incentive programs. Employees remained loyal to J&J; many had worked for the company for over 15 years. However, management wanted to measure the impact of empowering and initiatives on employee performance and satisfaction to determine the real power of employee incentive programs. The Resources and Facilities Vice President employed Professor Lopez, a Management Professor, to develop a survey to measure these constructs and analyze the data to guide future incentive programs. Data from the employee and supervisor survey was provided along with the statistical analysis results for interpretation and recommendations for VP Fordham.

The target audience for this case is primarily students in a research methodology course and students studying quantitative regression analysis and interpretation. The focus is predominantly on graduate-level students in Master of Business Administration or Master of Accounting programs in business. Graduate students should have completed courses in management or organizational behavior, business statistics or quantitative methods or data visualization and cleaning as background knowledge for this case. Specifically, students should understand regression analysis and know when and how the tool is used for managerial decision-making.

Human resource management and organizational change.

Students on an introductory course on Human Resource Management or a specialization course of HRM such as change management and organizational development. This case study can be taught at the MBA level.

This case study can serve as the base for understanding and identifying the various characteristics that relate to revolutionizing HR functions with the help of digitalization. It can also be elaborated further to include the challenges that a company has to face after it decides to establish IT software based on operations. This case is an evolutionary story of a large-scale Pakistani company, Pak Electron Ltd. (PEL) which has been in operation for almost 60 years. The top management decided to move from a traditional administrative system towards setting up an HR department for the first time. The case states the salient features of the traditional administrative system, issues faced by the company in the setup of a new HR system and digital HR system along with the employees’ views and perceptions on these systems.

Students are expected to learn the following: the various characteristics of a paper-file based traditional administrative system; the various features of an IT-based modern HR system; the decision background and basis for making the switch to the new contemporary HR system; and the reaction of employees against changes in organizational systems.

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.

Addresses the issue of Gender Equality – UN Sustainable Development Goal No.5. Discusses the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion. Presents the challenges faced by women of color in workplace and shows the capabilities needed to overcome these challenges.

Analyze the capabilities that women of color need to become successful leaders. Explore the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in organizations and the role played by leaders in promoting DEI. Understand what inclusive leadership is. Examine the strategic leadership skills that leaders need to possess.

In March 2021, one of the largest drugstore chains in the USA, Walgreens Boots Alliance, a US$140bn company, announced that Rosalind Brewer (Brewer) (she) would be its new CEO. With the announcement, Brewer became the third black woman in history to lead a Fortune 500 company. After graduating in organic chemistry, Brewer joined Kimberly Clark and went on to lead the Nonwovens business. She then joined Walmart as Vice President. Brewer then moved to Starbucks as Head of Operations. Being an inclusive leader, Brewer brought in several changes to smoothen the operations and make the organizations employee-friendly. At the same time, as a black woman in a leadership position, she faced several challenges, which she overcame. As an advocate of DEI, Brewer strove to take diversity beyond just numbers. After becoming the CEO Boots Walgreens, Brewer was looking at taking medicines to masses and making healthcare affordable and available.

MBA/MS/Executive Education.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CCS 6: Human Resources.

After reading and discussing the case study, students should be able to identify the reasons why the company needed to digitise and how this links to the company’s strategy around technology and innovation, analyse the digitalisation implementation process followed in the case study by using an organisational change management model and make recommendations and propose a solution for the protagonist to consider for the successful roll-out of the digitalisation project.

DRA Projects is part of the DRA Global business based in South Africa. The company is known locally in the mining and engineering industry for its project development, delivery, execution and operations capabilities. Digital transformation is a key strategic focus in the industry, as clients seek digitised integrated systems. For this client offering, J.C. Heslinga, managing director of DRA Projects, was tasked with leading the digitalisation of the project delivery system. From July 2020 until July 2022, Heslinga led the implementation team through different organisational change stages. As the next phase included rolling out digitalisation to pilot projects and engaging employees and clients in the new process, Heslinga wondered if enough was done to ready the business for this change. The end users would be executing the changes, so their adoption will be imperative for successfully rolling out digitalisation. The case study concludes with Heslinga pondering the approach needed for the next phase. The case study focuses on the digitalisation implementation process through the lens of organisational change. The case study presents an opportunity to analyse and identify the theories and models used in organisational change within a real-life business context. The organisational change learnings can be adapted to help students with any transformation changes in similar business scenarios.

Postgraduate- and master’s-level students and business executives attending short courses will benefit from the learnings. The learnings can be applied to improve decision-making, organisational behaviour and strategic implementation using the fundamental principles of organisational change.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management