6 World Education Blog

INTRODUCTION:

A case study is a meticulous method of qualitative research.  Rather than using large samples and subsequent a rigid protocol to scrutinize a limited number of variables, case study methods involve an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event i.e. a case.  They provide a methodical way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results.  As a result the researcher may gain a sharp understanding of why the case in point happened as it did, and what might become imperative to look at more extensively in future research.

  .ORIGIN OF THE CASE STUDY

As a distinct approach to research, use of the case study originated only in the early 20th century.  The Oxford English Dictionary traces the phrase case- study back as far as 1934, after the establishment of the concept of a case history in medicine.The use of case studies for the creation of new theory in social sciences has been further developed by the sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss who presented their research method, Grounded theory, in 1967. The popularity of case studies as research tools has developed only in recent decades.  One of the areas in which case studies have been gaining popularity is education and in particular educational evaluation.  Case studies have, of course, also been used as a teaching method and as part of professional development.  They are well-known in business and legal education.  The problem-based learning (PBL) movement is one of the examples.  When used in (non-business) education and professional development, case studies are often referred to as critical incidents.

  HISTORY OF BUSINESS CASES.

When the Harvard Business School was started, the faculty quickly realized that there were no textbooks suitable to a graduate program in business.  Their first solution to this Problem was to interview leading practitioners of business and to write detailed accounts of what these managers were doing.  Of course the professors could not present these cases as practices to be emulated because there were no criteria available for determining what would succeed and what would not succeed.  So the professors instructed their students to read the cases and to come to class prepared to discuss the cases and to offer recommendations for appropriate courses of action.  Basically that is the model still being used.

A case may be defined as “narration of facts and other evidence relating to problem-loaded business situation”.  Without case study method, business education may not be able to occupy a significant position in the academic world.

SIGNIFICANCE OF CASE METHOD.

As against the methods of class-room lecture and textbook reading the case continue reading