One of the ways that you will develop your skills as a manager is to use the theories and concepts discussed in the readings to analyze a series of cases and accompanying materials (e.g., new stories, reports, or links to other materials available on the internet). that are contained on Blackboard. The cases are designed to heighten your interest and awareness of the significant issues that managers might face. They also allow you to practice diagnosing management problems and to develop your ability to respond to these situations. This does not promise that case users will learn how to solve problems without creating others but it should help sensitize you to some of the more obvious issues and traps involved in managerial problem-solving and help you to better understand the consequences of alternative courses of action.

Since case analysis essentially is self-learning through simulated experience, its success depends on the lively interchange of information, ideas, and opinions brought out in class discussion. Therefore, the case approach places the responsibility for learning on the student. Accordingly, you must read each case carefully and come to class prepared to describe the principal actors, their motivations and know the key events and their causes or effects. You should also be able to provide your critique of the case. This involves identify the key issues or problems and providing a recommended course of action for avoiding the identified problems that is rooted in the concepts and theories discussed in the readings. You must also be able to describe how the case relates to the material covered in the readings and class discussions and be able to answer the questions at the end of the chapter.

We will discuss a total of 9 cases over the course of the semester and you will prepare memos and attachments for at least 7 cases, 2 of which you will present to the class. .Each memo is limited to 2 single-spaced pages and must be in a standard professional format. Each memo should be addressed and respond directly to the following questions and scenarios:

	Case #1: The Blast in Centralia No. 5: A Mine Disaster No One Stopped: Assume you are the main staff person for a special joint committee of the Illinois State Legislature appointed by the Governor and members of the majority and minority parties in both houses. The committee is designed to provide a nonpartisan investigation of the factors that contributed to blast in Centralia No. 5. Write a memo to the legislative committee summarizing your findings. Be sure to identify what you think caused the mine to explode, identify those that should be held accountable, and make recommendations for avoiding similar accidents in the future.
	Case #2: How a City Slowly Drowned: Suppose you work for the newly appointed director of the state emergency management agency in Louisiana. Some time has passed since Katrina and the new director has some concerns about whether history may repeat itself and whether the proper steps are being taken to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again. Since the director is new to the region, he has asked you to reflect on the events that led up to Katrina and contributed to the tragedy that ensued. In your memo be sure to summarize what you think caused the tragedy and offer some suggestions for how a future Katrina might be avoided.
	Case #3: How Kristin Died: Suppose you work for the Governor of Massachusetts. The story of Kristen Lardner's death has now made national headlines. In response, when asked by a report at a press conference what he planned to do to protect other women like Kristen, he stated that his office planned to launch a full investigation of the matter and he assured them that they would hold any an all parties accountable for their actions. You have been assigned to lead the investigation. The Governor's chief of staff has asked you for a short memorandum summarizing your findings. Be sure to identify the parties that you feel contributed to Kristen's death and include recommendations for ways to help reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies in the future.
	Case #4: The Lessons of ValuJet: Suppose you were a staff person working for the recently ousted chief regulator of the FAA Anthony Broderick. His replacement is new to the agency and she has asked you to prepare a memo that summarizes the main causes of the ValuJet crash and to identify recommendations for avoiding similar tragedies in the future. (video simulation of key events)
	Case #5: The Columbia Accident (No Presentations): Suppose you work for the newly appointed head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In a dramatic turn, the head of NASA has decided to speed up manned missions to the moon and then to mars by 2030. However, the director is worried that a tragic loss of life at the early stages of this new manned space effort could damage these efforts to revive manned space flight. Thus, it is critical to avoid the types of organizational and decision making problems that contributed to the Challenge and Columbia accidents. Prepare a short memo for the director that summarizes the main factors that contributed to both disasters and identify some actions that can be taken to avoid similar problems in the future.
	Case #6: The MOVE Disaster (No Presentations): Suppose you are the chief of staff hired by the MOVE commission to investigate the events surrounding the tragic raid and bombing of their house at 6221 Osage Avenue. The chair of the commission has asked you to prepare a memorandum to the committee summarizing your preliminary findings. Be sure to identify the factors that contributed to the tragedy and to identify those individuals and organizations that should be held accountable. Be sure to make recommendations for how a similar incident with MOVE or some other organization should be handled in the future. (MOVE website)
	Case #7: Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down? The Red Cross: A Disaster Story Without Any Heroes: Suppose you are a staff person for the United States Senate Committee on Finance. One of your jobs is to staff the Committee's investigation of the Red Cross, its fund raising practices, and the leadership problems the Agency has had in recent years as exemplified by the well publicized firing of Bernadine Healy. You have been asked to write a short memo examining the firing of Bernadine Healy by the Committee's ranking majority and minority members, Senator Grassley and Senator Baucaus, respectively. In your analysis be sure to identify the factors that contributed to the firing and identify any other problems that should be of concern to the committee. Be sure to include any recommendations for improving the functioning of the Red Cross in the future.
	Case #8: Waco (No Presentations): Suppose you have been hired to lead the Waco Administrative Review Team for the Department of Treasury. You have been asked by the Secretary of Treasury to investigate the events surrounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF's) failed raid on the Branch Davidian Compound. Prepare a memorandum summarizing your findings. Be sure to identify the factors that contributed to the failed raid and to identify those who should be held accountable.
	Case #9: The Death of a Spy Satellite Program: Imagine you just got hired by one of the big management consulting forms that manages a lot of government contracts with defense contractors. You have been assigned to serve as a liaison between the agency that is designing a new top secret weapons system and a private sector firm that will do the actual design and testing of the system. $100 billion has been allocated to the development of this new weapons system over a 5 year period. Your boss knows you are familiar with the failure of the FIA project and other problems that can arise from government contracting. She has requested that you prepare a short memorandum summarizing the lessons learned from failures such as FIA and to prepare some recommendations for actions that can be taken to help ensure the timely and on-budget completion of this new project.

Each memo should also include an attachment (limited to 3 single-spaced pages). The attachment provides an opportunity to directly apply and discuss how the readings relate to the case material. Specifically, each attachment should include the following:

	A discussion of how at least 3 � 5 different theories and concepts from the Rainey and Tompkins texts or theory oriented readings in blackboard help you understand the case. The discussion need not be in depth but should use examples to demonstrate how the case demonstrates a particular theory or concept or conversely how the application of that theory or concept could have helped manage the problems in the case better. You should be sure to use different readings for the theories and concepts (i.e., don't pull all 3 - 5 from the same chapter or text book).
	A discussion of the theory of organizational effectiveness from Tompkins competing values framework seems to best explain what happened (or should have happened) in the case. In other words, which cell in his typology seems to explain the orientation of the case and would a different emphasis have helped improve the effectiveness or helped to avoid the problem. If applicable the coordination and control strategies and motivational strategies should be summarized.
	Identify at least one piece of advice (often in the form of stories and anecdotes) from the Ashworth text would have helped improve the outcomes of the case. However, you cannot reuse the same piece of advice in multiple cases.

All students are required to prepare a memo and attachment for the first case, The Blast in Centralia No. 5: A Mine Disaster No One Stopped. You will also be assigned to present your analysis of the case and attachment for one of the following cases. The assignments for this semester are as follows:

Case	Monday Section	Tuesday Section
Case #2: How a City Slowly Drowned:	Carrie Carter, Miles Murphy,	Emma Bennett, Jessica Stitt

Case #3: How Kristin Died:	Caroline Cook, Leslie Ogilvie, Veronica Reid	Casey Martin, Chris Teeter, Katherine Weeks

Case #4: The Lessons of ValuJet:	Caroline Dawkins, Angel Boone	Kori Deschamps, Megan UpChurch, Bailey Stearns

Case #7: Who Brought Bernadine Healy Down? The Red Cross: A Disaster Story Without Any Heroes:	Jennifer Gallimore, Hayley Sink	Bige Eversole, Elizabeth VanDer Clute

Case #9: The Death of a Spy Satellite Program:	Robert Mendenhall, Aileen Sutton, Natalie Martz	Catherine Gunnells,

The presentation should be in the form of a briefing about the main problems and recommended actions and should also speak to the material from your attachment. You are limited to no more than 10 minutes for the presentation. You should use PowerPoint or other appropriate audiovisual aids for your presentation. You should include a copy of the audiovisual aids along with your memo and attachment. Your grade on the required memo presentations will reflect all of these materials as well as the presentation.

Accordingly, you have no choice in terms of 3 of the memos (The first case on Centralia and the two required presentations. For the remaining 6 cases, I will take your best 4 out of 6 grades on the memos and attachments.

Preparing Your Case Memos

One of the problems in getting policy or management decisions lies in posing a question in such a way that decisionmakers: 1) understand the critical issue requiring their attention; 2) recognize what the options for acting are; 3) what your recommendation is; and 4) what the basis or support for your recommendation is. Typically, this information is communicated to decisionmakers using a memorandum. However, there is no one universal approach to writing memos. For example, while policy memos often focus on analyzing alternatives, management memos often focus on recommending a course of action to solve a specific problem, justifying a decision, or stating policy to guide future actions.

To help you develop your analytical and communication skills we will conduct a series of 9 case analyses, each of which requires you to prepare a memo or make a presentation that responds directly to the scenario described above. Case analysis means that you draw out the pertinent issues from a case. It does not mean you rehash the facts of the case or simply summarize what has occurred. Instead, your job is to pretend you are the character in the case and write the memo to the specific audience as described in the assignment. You have the main case reading and other accompanying materials to assist. You can also look for additional information on the internet but the materials provided should be sufficient to complete the assignment. Obviously, you don't have complete information so it is O.K. to get creative and make reasonable assumptions within the confines of the guidance provided above. Each memo should be action oriented and include recommendations for alleviating or avoiding the problem in the future or use examples and facts from the case to justify the conclusions that have been reached. Be sure you are as specific as possible and that you consider the tone and use of appropriate language and jargon.

Your case memos will be evaluated based on your analysis of the case, the organization of your ideas, your ability to properly apply the theories and concepts discussed in class and the quality of your writing (e.g., spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.). Your goal is to write as clearly, concisely, and directly as possible. Elegance of style, while desirable, is a secondary consideration. Short declarative sentences convey ideas well; convoluted grammar confuses things and often leads to misunderstandings. Remember that you are trying to convey your ideas to people who have infinite demands on their time. A simple, direct style economizes on time. Length is also a critical matter, particularly if your memos is addressed to top agency officials. If greater length is required, it should take the form of an attached analytical paper with a short cover memo summarizing its contents. For this class, your case memos should not exceed 2 single-spaced typed pages with 1 inch margins. If it is longer, I will only read the first two pages and it will be graded accordingly. The quality of the attachments will be assessed in terms of their content and conformance with the guidance provided above. Your memos and attachments are also expected to be professional in nature. Thus, they should utilize a standard professional format. Any format is acceptable provided that is businesslike and prepared in a professional manner. Your memos and attachments should be submitted as both a hard copy and electronic copy as a single digital file.