Case analyses/discussion
Paper instructions:
Case analyses/discussion (team assignments):
We need teams for the purpose of case discussions. Each team will be composed of two students. We will develop teams during the first session.
We have eight case readings in this course and each team will be assigned the role of a discussion leader for one.
If your team is supposed to lead discussions on a particular case, then your team should summarize the case, develop 2 open-ended questions to discuss with the class and prepare for a
presentation using PowerPoint slides. Since your team is the discussion leader (NOT a presenter), you may ask the assigned questions or questions made by your team to the audience, draw
discussions among them, and make concluding remarks, instead of presenting. The following may enhance the effectiveness of discussion:
1) Your question should be clear. One of the major reasons why your audience does not respond to your question is that the audience does not understand your question. When you prepare
for your questions, think from the perspective of audience. In addition, your question should not be overly narrow or broad. An overly broad question means that you don’t even know what
you’re asking. As a result, your audience will be hesitant to make any comment. An overly narrow question means that your question is not even worth discussing.
2) Use eye contacts rather than simply read your script. By doing so, you are signaling to the audience that you know what you’re talking about. It shows that you are confident. My
observation is that students who simply read their script often do so quickly leaving the audience far behind where you are now. There is no point in doing this. Try to put the script in your
mind. Look at the audience and move slow. You may put a small memo in your hand. This memo will help you only when you can’t remember a list of something, someone’s name, or some
particular year.
3) Your audience may be silent even when your question is crystal clear. Give a little bit of time! The audience hasn’t thought about your question until now while you already did. Or you
may give a context or an example to facilitate the discussion.
4) It is crucial that you try to draw more than one response from the audience. You can encourage a second response by saying that the first response was a good one but that you need
more. Or you can say you would like to see anyone who has an opposite opinion.
5) It is also crucial that you should wrap up each question. Since the question should be open-ended, there is no right or wrong answer. We try to learn diversity in perspectives. Thus, you
may simply wrap up by saying “there are two different perspectives emerging in our class now. One is… The other is….” Or you may say, “Our dominant opinion is…”. A better wrap-up would be
to summarize the advantage or disadvantage of each perspective or opinion. But it would require a lot of practices in your discussion leadership. I wouldn’t expect that much in my class.
When other teams are leading case discussion, you should carefully listen to the discussion leaders and share your thoughts and answers on the questions provided by the teams.
3. In-class presentation of weekly readings (theoretical frameworks):
Each team will be also responsible for presenting a particular article (HBR articles) for theoretical backgrounds. This entails three tasks: (1) summarizing the article; (2) applying some of the
material to your own company as an illustration of how the ideas in the article can be applied to the current situations. (Or you are welcome to challenge the article as well based on your
reasoning or by citing an example.); (3) Finish by opening up for debate with the rest of the class. That is, you need to come up with a list of stimulating questions that the rest of the class could
discuss.
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