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Harvard Business Review Case Discussions Suggestions for Use in the Classroom

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HBR Case Discussions Overview Harvard Business Review Case Discussions are lively, 4-page stories of varied management challenges, with accompanying advice from expert commentators. They provide an engaging way for students to apply conceptual material to real-world business situations. Each Case Discussion consists of two sections: • the case—the management situation itself • the commentary by four experts—representing academic and practitioner perspectives You may purchase the case and commentary separately, or packaged together. Suggestions for Using HBR Case Discussions in Your Classroom Part 1: Discussing the case Most instructors will opt for in-class discussion and analysis of the case. • Ask students to read the case only (without the expert commentaries) before class and to

consider these questions: What is the protagonist’s dilemma and how did he or she arrive at this juncture? What are the most challenging aspects of the protagonist’s situation? If you were the protagonist, what would you do? Why?

Part 2: Discussing expert commentaries about the case After students have discussed the case only, you may choose to: Hand out the full commentary in class and discuss the merits of the varying approaches; Assign small groups to review a single expert’s commentary in class; Assign small groups to review all four experts’ commentaries, debate relative merits of each,

and present back to full class; or Assign individual homework to review all expert commentary and prepare to discuss in the

next class Part 3: Integrating learning from students’ and commentators’ analyses of the case After students have fully considered the expert commentaries, you may choose to: Ask students—individually or in small groups—to develop a proposal for the protagonist’s

next steps (How have their perspectives changed after reading the commentaries?) Ask students to compare textbook theories with recommendations of the Case Discussion

commentators and those of their classmates