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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.

Spiegel Online (www.spiegel.de) is the leading news Web site in Germany. The site was first designed to accompany Der Spiegel, one of Europe's largest and Germany's most influential weekly magazine, which has a weekly circulation of around one million. The site's content is produced by a team of more than fifty journalists writing in several categories: politics, business, networld, panorama, arts and entertainment, science, university, school, sports, travel, weather, and automobiles. The original content is complemented by articles purchased from news agencies and selected articles from the print edition. Spiegel-Verlag is a major contributor to the Hamburg Media School, which offers professional master's degree programs in Media Management (MBA), film, and journalism. In their second year, MBA students typically engage in consulting projects with major media companies. In a recent assignment, Spiegel Online posed two questions to the MBA team: are there any chances for an economically successful entry into the market for interactive classifieds? And if so, what should the business model look like in detail? A student team analyzed markets for classified ads and found one market segment that appeared to be particularly promising: the market for art objects. During the development of a business plan for a new venture in this market it became apparent that there is much uncertainty about the key input parameters to the business plan. As a result, it is very difficult to assess the viability of the business idea. How can the team properly account for the uncertain input parameters? What is the impact of this uncertainty on the bottom line? Will a Web site for art objects earn or lose money? How can the team communicate this uncertainty to a group of high-level decision makers who want a simple “go or no-go” recommendation?

The objective is to make students aware of the applicability of Monte Carlo simulation to the analysis of complex business plans. Students should learn how to explicitly account for uncertain inputs in a business plan, how to assess the impact of uncertainty on the bottom line via Monte Carlo simulation, and how to communicate the results of their analysis to high-level decision makers.

Management.

Undergraduate and Post Graduate.

Communication is a critical function of management, as it allows all stakeholders in an organization effectively and appropriately express their views in turn enabling the organization accurately execute its mandate and meet its objectives and those of its stakeholders.

The student should be able to describe communication as a function of management, evaluate the process of communication, differentiate forms of communication, identify the networks of communication, examine the barriers of communication and role of managers in using communication to achieve organizational change.

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 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.

The term emotional intelligence was coined by the researchers Peter Salavoy and John Mayer. The concept was popularized by Daniel Goleman through his book Emotional Intelligence published in 1996. According to Salavoy and Mayer (1990), emotional intelligence consists of a set of skills hypothesized to contribute to the accurate appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself and in others, the effective regulation of emotion in self and others and the use of feelings to motivate, plan and achieve in one’s life.

The case study uses two sources of information, namely, primary and secondary. Dr Dev, a senior training and development manager with a multinational company constituted the primary source. The secondary source consisted of information publicly available on various websites. The case has been disguised for various reasons.

Lady mosquito at NPS Mumbai is a case study on emotional intelligence, a much sought-after concept in management education, but not many case studies have been written on the topic. This case involves an interaction that took place between a facilitator and a learner, and it highlights the importance of emotional intelligence in day-to-day communication. The use of emotional intelligence will manifold improve the ability of the facilitator to understand the learners’ behavior in the classroom. This will further enhance the effectiveness of learning, as the motivated facilitator/trainer will be more committed to engaging the learners in their educational activities.

This case has been developed to be used in postgraduate and undergraduate management programs. This case can also be used in management development programs for executives. As the case provides a basic understanding of human behavior and thereby teaches to manage others just by managing oneself. As the case revolves around a facilitator and the learner, it can also be used in the trainer program for facilitators who desire to conduct training programs or want to take teaching as a full-time career.

This study aims to particularly focus on undergraduate and postgraduate early stage level students pursuing business, educational, social work programs. Particularly those studying organizational behavior, leadership and change, curriculum design management, social literacy and courses on 21st Century Skills.

Social entrepreneurship, developmental studies, education, organisational behavior are the subject areas focused in this study.

Purpose – The present case study is an empirical account of the gender perspectives on leadership styles and entrepreneurial mind-set demonstrated by Jigyasa and Gaurav, the co-founders of “Slam Out Loud” (SOL) – an Indian for mission non-profit organisation established in 2017. The authors intend to highlight the challenges faced by SOL during COVID outbreak, to establish community connect in the virtual domain and deliver hyper-personalised socio-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks. Will SOL’s Creatively Omnipresent and Versatile Inclusive Design framework transform Indian child education in the wake of New Education Policy 2020 of India while being sustainable as well as globally competitive?

This case study is based on primary data collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the founders of SOL. It follows the deductive approach of methodology. The data has been complemented by documentary analysis, including videos, descriptions of internal processes and articles.

SOL has been strengthening the transformative power of performance and visual arts to help build creative confidence (CC) among children from disadvantaged communities below five years of age. The co-founders have focused on imparting life skills such as communication, critical thinking and empathy in children. The framework adopted by SOL is a combination of six 21st century and SEL skills including creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, self-esteem and empathy.

A novel Sinha’s 5 × 7 SEL- COVID Matrix.

Learning outcomes can only be achieved using case-based pedagogy. Students are encouraged to dive deep into the dilemma. After the case discussion students will be able to define Creative Confidence (CC) with its importance in social development, comprehend the impact of developmental interventions such as Jijivisha Fellowship during COVID 19 and post COVID 19, understand servant leadership and its impact in the management, analyse how servant leadership accelerates social efficacy in the social enterprises, illustrate the novel 5 × 7 SEL-COVID framework for educators, create and evaluate their hyper-personalised SEL framework curriculum.

The SOL initiative is well aligned with the National Education Policy introduced in India in 2020. It will address the issues of not only providing equitable and inclusive education but also enhancing enrolment ratio and reducing dropout rates. Adoption of Arts-based education will also develop Creative Confidence (CC) and improve emotional well-being of children in primary education.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 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.

Reverse positioning, market segmentation, customer-centric organization.

Postgraduate program; Master in strategic marketing and Master in business administration.

Declining radio listenership is triggered by lack of attention of the radio managers to the desires of radio listeners. Delta FM radio, as part of Masima Media Group, is a radio that realized the need for revitalization. They changed their target audience and positioning to regain its former glory. Delta FM radio get back to the core benefit with the tagline: “100% Great Songs”. Shifting from highlighting the emotional benefits to functional benefits and to cut a variety of benefits is called “reverse positioning”.

The objective of this case study is to give deeper comprehension a new concept called reverse positioning or reverse branding. It is an example of the dynamic of hyper competition in media market in practice, in the emerging market such as Indonesia. It provides clear picture of the difference between listener oriented vs advertiser oriented company and the impact of the imbalance portion between them.

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

Brand strategy, marketing strategy, service marketing, hospitality management and international marketing strategy.

Post-graduate-level students; practitioners from the hospitality sector, brand management, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the arts and culture field may also benefit from the case.

Jumeirah Group is a luxury hospitality company that is implementing a global brand strategy after developing a strong-regional reputation. Jumeirah's strong cultural alignment to its Dubai heritage in the form of its hallmarks and communication tag line “Stay Different” is being translated into events, activities, sponsorship and more importantly in terms of service to create a symbolic and experiential brand strategy. For Alice Royton, the Director of Branding for Jumeirah Group, the dilemma was how to maintain the thrust forwards as a top luxury brand and keep brand synergy especially as Jumeirah was increasing its portfolio and the competitive arena heats up in the international market place.

Creation of stakeholder value, brand strategy looking at various brand levels, using arts and culture as part of CSR initiative; communication strategy, emotional touch points and moment of truth as part of interactive service strategy; CRM and loyalty.

Teaching notes.

Hospitality and tourism management; strategic management; marketing, transportation system management and human resource management.

Undergraduate in business and management and hospitality and tourism management.

This teaching case outlines the historical background, successes and challenges of the national airline of Jamaica. It shows how a national airline, which is a heritage asset and one that has provided nostalgic and sentimental value to the Jamaican people and its passengers, had to be divested. The airline has been faced with several challenges; the major one being high-operating costs, especially in light of the global economic recession. The case also highlights the various procedures carried out by the Government of Jamaica before and after the divestment arrangement and also by the acquirer, Caribbean Airlines.

The student should be able to: first, differentiate among the various strategic management terms and concepts used in the case; second, explain the importance of strategic decisions versus emotional decisions; third, assess the environmental factors that impacted Air Jamaica's operation; fourth, analyse the environmental factors that should have been considered by Caribbean Airlines before making the decision to acquire Air Jamaica; fifth, carry out a comparative analysis of the various corporate-level strategies to identify the best option for the Government of Jamaica; sixth, propose reasons why Caribbean Airlines acquired Air Jamaica.

Teaching note.