Please follow read the instruction● Right off the bat, dedicate 1-2 paragraphs to introducing the protagonist in your case, as well as their organizational role. Provide the reader with a high-level picture of the tough decision that the protagonist is faced with. ○ Make it compelling. The reader needs to understand the tensions involved in your case after having read this introduction.
○ Also make sure you give the reader a sense of the context: time and place. Now move on to providing the reader with information that will be useful in deliberating the decision. Note that the below list is there to help structure your information collection and thinking.
● You need not include all of this information in the case.
The most pertinent information will depend on the case you opt to write. Considering including the following kinds of information: ○ The protagonist’s history & relationships ○ Relevant information about the company/ companies that feature in the case: e.g. their market strategy, financial performance, history, culture, stated values. ○ Information about other organizations that play a role in the case (e.g. government agencies, special interests groups) ○ Information about the relevant industry ○ Information about the legislation that is or could be relevant to the decision ○ Information about the broader, cultural context. ○ Information about the products, technologies and/or artifacts at the heart of the decision.
● Make explicit some of the consequences of the decision alternatives (or choices) that the protagonist is considering. I.e. give the reader a glimpse into what the protagonist is thinking.
● End by briefly restating the questions that the protagonist is facing. Leave the ending open. ***
How are you supposed to start writing (especially given that you have probably never written a case before)? What do you need to avoid? Finding a starting point for your case writing:
● One way to start is to think about the industry and the kind of organization you will likely work in. What are some of the ethically salient issues or questions that have been raised (in the media, in this course, in other courses) about the environment you are aspiring to work in?
● Another way to go about it is to think about organizations and work that you already have experience with. What were some of the tough decisions that you (or your supervisors) encountered?
● A third way is to say: “Is there a phenomenon that I learned about recently – through a documentary, or a film, a podcast, a book, a newspaper article – that reminded me of some of the questions and concepts from class?” Consider using this as your starting point.
● Finally, talk to a close friend, family member or a mentor with plenty of professional experience. Ask them about a time in their work life that felt uncertain or conflicted about what would be the right thing to do., and use this experience of choice as your starting point. (Of course, you can disguise identities in the case.)
● Avoid starting from an abstract concept. You may decide that you want to write a case about privacy because you are interested in it. Totally cool. However, you need a phenomenon reported about in the world – an actual event that you think relates to privacy – before you can say to yourself: “Ok, I have my starting point.” How to flesh it out / Things to remember:
● For the purpose of the cases we’re trying to write, there must be a decision (or a related set of decisions) at the heart of the story. It is not enough to come up with an interesting tension, we need to be able to explore the tension through a person’s facing a decision.
● I use the term “story” deliberately. Think of the cases that we have read together. They narrate an experience of an individual (or a team) in relation to events, data and – importantly – in relation to others. This is what you need to aim for. ● Everybody’s cases will draw from actual companies, actual industries, actual organizational roles, and actual contemporary issues within business ethics. However, that doesn’t mean that your case needs to be strictly factual. On the contrary, you will most likely have to rely on some elements of fiction to accommodate the structure and requirements for the exercise. There is no single magic ratio for fact vs. fiction in these cases.
