Lekcja 12: Case Studies

In today’s lesson we’ll discuss what case studies are and how they are important in business education.

A case study is an in-depth exploration of a particular situation. It can be a real-life situation or a simulated one. A case study gives learners the possibility to practice applying their analytical and theoretical knowledge. Additionally, it helps the learner to obtain a better insight into the understanding of why the particular situation occurred by looking at the events and collected data.

The majority of business schools, including Harvard and Stanford, rely heavily on the case study method as they teach students how to assess business situations and make decisions based upon those assessments. Case studies give students hands-on experience and illustrate what a student has learned and retained in class.

Case studies are part of the core curriculum of MBA studies. During a two-year course, students may be expected to work on as many as 500 case studies. The case study method is very effective in business subjects like marketing, management and strategy. In class, under the guidance of the teacher, students can probe complex issues, compare different alternatives, and finally, suggest courses of action. Working on a case study encourages interactivity, but the biggest benefit for a student is that he/she can apply business concepts to real-world scenarios.

wersja audio

Practice makes perfect

Complete the gaps with words from the text

The manager ………………… a tough meeting to check the behaviour of his employees.

The journalist had a two-hour …………….interview with the famous rebel leader.

We will do everything to ……………..our customers, otherwise we will lose to our competitors.

If we want to get to the heart of the matter, we have to ………………into her private life.

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Vocabulary

Word-of-the-week

probe – an attempt to discover information by asking a lot of questions (badać, zgłębiać)

Glossary:

in-depth – done carefully and in great detail (zrobić coś dogłębnie, szczegółowo)

simulated – done or made something which looks real but is not real (udawać, symulować)

insight – a clear, deep and sometimes sudden understanding of a complicated problem or situation (wniknięcie, wgląd w coś)

occurred – happened (zdarzyć się)

retained – to keep

or continue to have something (zatrzymać)

core – the basic and most important part of something (sedno, centrum)