MGT 305
Personal Case Papers

Write 2 personal-case papers that describe and analyze an organizational event or experience that was significant or challenging for you. You have several choices of topic for each paper. 1.5-2 pages, double-spaced. Points = 100 each = 200.

Topic choices (choose 2 of the following; write about one of your chosen topics in the first Personal Case Paper and your second chosen topic in the second Personal Case Paper):

    • Your best and worst experiences in applying political skills in an organizational setting.
    • Leadership autobiography. The people, places, and events that have had the greatest influence on your understanding of leadership and of yourself as leader.
    • A challenging change effort you have experienced in an organizational setting.
Personal Case Paper 1: Due Oct. 22
Personal Case Paper 1: Due: Nov. 19.

GUIDELINES FOR PERSONAL CASE PAPERS
Purpose
Your personal case paper should describe an organizational event or experience that was significant or challenging for you. The personal case should begin with a description of the events and then lead into analysis and interpretation.

Approach
Case writing is very much like telling a good story. When writing about a case in which you were involved, it usually works best to write in the first person. Describe what happened as you saw it, including your own thoughts and feelings (but make sure that your thoughts and feelings are labeled as such).

It is usually best to focus the paper around a particular experience or series of experiences, rather than trying to cover many months or years. A single critical event (or sequence of events) usually works best. Examples include the early stages of a challenging project, a critical meeting, a tough decision, or a major conflict. Like a good drama, a good case rarely arises from a situation in which everything was smooth and easy. Obstacles, conflict, or dilemmas are likely to be the ingredients that make a case interesting.

Organization of the Paper
The following are suggestions only. You should feel free to organize the paper differently if you feel that another format enables you to develop your case and tell your story more effectively.

  1. Set the stage with a relatively brief description of the organizational setting and your role in it. Provide information that you think will help the reader understand the most important elements in the situation. (This step will require selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the mass of information that might be included.)
  2. Focus on direct description of events. If there was a significant meeting, provide a description of what people actually said and did in it. (A script representing part of the conversation is very helpful in such cases.)
  3. Think about the following as possible elements:
  • Structural issues (for example, structure, goals, technology, size).
  • “People” issues (for example, issues of management style, group process, interpersonal relations).
  • Politics (Was there conflict? About what? Between whom?).
  • Symbols (think about organizational culture, symbols, myths, and rituals; were there questions about what really happened or about what it really meant?).
  1. A good case often transitions to the analysis component with a question or unsolved problem (for example, What should I do now? How could I solve this problem?).
  2. You can enhance the quality of your paper by bringing in concepts and theories from the text, oyher readings, snd class discussions.
  3. You may choose to disguise the identity of the organization and the individuals. Use fictitious names wherever you feel that it is appropriate.

PERSONAL CASE ANALYSIS

IMPORTANT: Conduct a four-frame analysis of your personal case situation and:
    • Work with and integrate the four frames as a useful tool for diagnosis and action.
    • Integrate your learnings from the course and apply them to a real-life situation from your work/school/organizational experiences.
    • Reflect on your own existing or future professional practice of management.
First, use the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames to analyze (1) what happened in your personal case and (2) what alternative courses of action were suggested for you by each of the four frames. Devote equal attention to each of the four frames.

Second, rethink your role in the case in light of the four-frame analysis. In other
words, what would you now do differently if you could relive your personal case?
Why? How useful were the four frames in helping you to clarify alternative courses of action for yourself in this case situation?

Criteria for Grading
Papers will be graded on the following:
  1. Quality and thoroughness of analysis.
  2. Clear focus, organization, writing, and presentation.
  3. Internal consistency of the arguments.
  4. Accurate and effective use of theory to reflect on and provide new insights into personal case experiences.

Cautions
Common errors have included the following:
    1. Providing description of case events (what happened) rather than analysis of the events — good analysis tells why things happened.

    2. Trying to discuss every single aspect of the case — it is better to write thoroughly about a few well-defined topics than superficially about many.

    3. Making inferences and generalizations without providing data from the case to support the generalizations, examples to help define them, and/or theory references to ground them (for example, you might say that everyone in the case wanted “involvement” and “participation” — How do you know that? What evidence do you have? What do you mean by involvement and participation?).
     
    4. Ignoring theory and writing only about opinions—good papers take a set of theoretical ideas and show how those ideas can be applied to some specific aspect of the case.

    5. Ignoring one’s own interpretations and restating theory after theory from the readings — good papers use theory to support insights and to cast a new light on personal experiences and observations.
Point value: 100 for each paper = 200.


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