Guidelines for Completing Case Studies

Case studies are great opportunities to apply to workplace situations what you learn about managing diversity. They give you chances to build your interactive skills-. along with your problem-solving and management skills. The problem-solving process involves recognizing and identifying the surface problems in a situation, uncovering the root problem(s) by asking why-why, which usually means gathering more information, generating possible solutions, and selecting the best solution.

The surface problems are the easiest ones to identify-they are the ones always mentioned in the written case. In a work situation, they are the communications and actions that are obvious as you talk with people, walk around, look at written materials, etc.-things that you can observe. The difficulty comes in getting beneath the surface problems and figuring out why they are occurring, what is really going on-the root problem(s). Sometimes the root problem could be called "the key issue," and it often is some form of stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination. For each case, follow these four steps:

Step 1: Identify surface problems: What problems do I see (listed in written case or observed in actual situation)?

Step 2: Ask Why-Why to get root problem: Why are these problems occurring' What is going on beneath the surface or in the background that is causing them? Do I need to again ask why these underlying reasons are occurring (why-why)?

Step 3: Generate Solutions: What are some possible solutions to these problems.

Step 4: Take action or make recommendations: As a manager or consultant, what should I recommend as the best viewpoints and actions to take?

Case Study 2.1 is a true story (as are all the cases in this text). It demonstrates some typical diversity problems and issues. See if you can ferret out the root problem(s) asking Why? And perhaps asking Why? again (the Why-Why technique).