Case Studies

Each of these case studies has been developed and road-tested with several classes of MBA students. They are copyrighted, but we freely grant you permission to use them for educational purposes in classrooms, small groups, and other group settings.

Please note that some of these cases also include a video version. We hope that you find these resources to be engaging and useful.

How to Work With People You Don’t Like

Fresh out of a Christian college, Rachel has now worked at City News for twelve months. The year has been educational in several senses, most of all, perhaps, in that it’s revealed the harsh reality that in some workplaces, people can be unpleasant, obnoxious, even malicious. At the end of her emotional rope, Rachel confides to a trusted co-worker: “I hate some of these people. I’ve never felt this way in my life, but some days, I really hate these people.” She is committed to staying with her job, but she needs advice about how to deal with people she strongly dislikes in a way that reflects godly character.

Teaching Purpose: To have students explore of how to respond to people whom they find objectionable and to help students to develop tactics and attitude adjustment strategies for addressing interpersonal problems in a God-honoring manner.

VIDEO CASE (APPROX. 7 MINUTES):

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How Gay-Friendly Should Your Workplace Be?

Master’s Software Solutions has a problem. A Christian company for twenty years, it now faces its first openly gay applicant. The selection committee hotly debates the merits of interviewing this candidate, raising broader issues of whether non-discrimination implies validation and acceptance of the gay lifestyle. Further, they raise questions about the business implications of not becoming gay-friendly in their personnel and marketing/sales policies.

Teaching purpose: To encourage students to think deeply about both sides of the “gay-friendly” business debate, wrestling with both their presuppositions and God’s will, and to illustrate how Christians differ on this important issue.

VIDEO CASE (APPROX. 9 MINUTES):

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Low-bandwidth video version

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The Case of “Successful” Sam

Despite all of his business success, Sam is not succeeding in God’s eyes. Not even close. As a Christian, he knows he needs to do something to turn around his relationships with his wife, his kids, his employees and with God. But what can he do?

Teaching Purpose: To raise the issues of balancing work and family, making an idol of career, and spiritual transformation, while also highlighting the significant consequences of a lukewarm relationship with God.

VIDEO CASE (APPROX. 12 MINUTES):

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Low-bandwidth video version

Download Windows Media Player.

When the Golden Rule Yields No Gold

Zach Jordan's New England Spring Company has been in the red for five years and is facing increasingly stiff competition from overseas. He's considering selling the company, but these days, there are few people interested in purchasing an unprofitable manufacturing company. He has the option to sell off the company in pieces -- to sell the equipment, the inventory, the customer list, and so forth -- but parceling it off this way means that the business will no longer exist and that his employees will lose their jobs. They are like family to this paternalistic, "Golden Rule" manager, so the thought of putting them out on the street in a bad economy is aberrant to Zach. Selling may mean selling out the employees; not selling may mean everyone loses in the long-run.

Teaching Purpose: To have students consider the hard choices that business owners face when seemingly logical business decisions have significant adverse effects on employees. More broadly, the case can be used to teach corporate social responsibility, marketing strategy, and creative problem solving.

The Downsizing Dilemma

Because of competitive pressures and spiraling costs, your company is downsizing. As Vice-President of Human Resources, you argued for other cost-reduction strategies, but in the end the executive team voted for a 33 percent reduction-in-force. Now, you have to oversee the entire, painful restructuring. Beyond that, you have to shrink your own department by permanently laying off two of your six employees.

In this exercise, you'll receive a brief bio of each person who reports to you (other than your secretary, whom you get to keep). Each employee is a “generalist” who has been trained to perform most human resource department tasks, though some employees are more talented than others. The president is adamant that no one under age 55 should get an early retirement package and that all department heads need to be sensitive to EEO laws when making their layoff decisions. Otherwise, he has given you a lot of latitude to use whatever criteria you deem best.

Determine which two employees you’ll let go and discuss your criteria for making your decision.

Teaching Purpose: This exercise helps students clarify and prioritize their criteria retention and termination, and it opens up numerous lines of discussion regarding what to do when performance needs conflict with our responsibilities to people.

The Persecution of “Bible Bob”

Based on a true story, Bob is a devout Christian and the second in command on the Los Angeles Police Force. He now stands falsely accused by the City Council of requiring subordinates to convert to Christianity and of selectively enforcing the law. In the midst of the maelstrom, one that is increasingly straining both Bob and his family, Bob wrestles with whether to continue to fight or to simply retire.

Teaching purpose: To illustrate the tension inherent in being an authentic Christian in a secular organization and to encourage students to think through how to respond when persecuted for their beliefs.

The Case of “Homophobic” Harry

Based on a true story, “Harry” is a low level supervisor in a large corporation and he’s just received an email from “the good folks over in HR” instructing him to be embracing of employees who might “come out” during National Coming Out Day. He gets on the phone to a friend in his men’s group and asks for advice about what, if anything, he can do to address the rapidly increasing culture of acceptance of the gay lifestyle in his firm.

Teaching Purpose: To introduce students to the reality of gay rights in secularized organizations and to stimulate debate and ideas about how to respond when one’s values conflict with the organization’s values.

When a Good Worker is Poor, How Much Should You Pay?

Based on a true story, an arresting story of a single mother who, because of her poverty, is forced out onto the street with her four children. When tragedy strikes all of them, her co-workers are left questioning whether things would have been different had her employer paid her a living wage.

Teaching Purpose: To encourage students to explore the extent to which family need should factor into pay and to examine the broader question of corporate social responsibility toward employees.

Jim Keady and Nike, Inc.

The true story of Nike’s deal with St. John’s University – whereby Nike became the exclusive provider of sports team apparel – and one assistant coach’s objection to the deal. On social justice grounds, the assistant coach, Jim Keady, insists that his school should not be contracting with Nike because of the company’s labor practices in Southeast Asia.

Teaching Purpose: To raise several issues at the individual and organizational level, among them: how much responsibility does a company have to provide a living wage? How does a company balance stakeholder interests? Should a Christian organization partner with a company that may be exploiting workers? And how should one seek to advance ethical practices in his organization?