Reference no: EM133558320

Increasingly, leaders and managers are finding that their biggest problems are not balancing budgets or erecting buildings: the most complicated, the most difficult, the most time-consuming problems they face consist of a combination of people and problems arising from the environment (not mother nature) in which they work. Case studies offer you a realistic approach to the inexact science of understanding and dealing with not only the people problems in organizational settings, but the environmental problems they face. Case studies serve as a microcosm of "real life." They present scenarios for consideration that are typically fact-based and problematic in nature. A good case study will offer a conundrum for analysis-a situation that results in neither an easy solution nor a clear positive outcome. Analysis reveals a multitude of possible paths, each of which incurs varying degrees of risk and reward, challenge and opportunity. They underscore the blunt truth of life: we are often compelled to make the best decisions we can at the time with the information available to us, knowing all along that the solution we choose may not be optimal. Case studies allow us to hone that skill without actually facing the same risks and challenges.

Students will identify and analyze an area of their personal lives in which they would like to seek improvement. Review the article, Your Life Framework, to help frame an approach to this assignment. As with a business strategy, you're exploring your current state while visualizing a desired future state (ends), while concurrently identify challenges or obstacles (risks). At the same time, you're describing the broad actions (ways) to achieve those ends and the resources (means) necessary to achieve them.