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Copyright 1998 by Walter G. Green III.
The Course Requirements state that you will submit a case study of a specific management issue in your emergency service. If you are not a member of an emergency service, you may submit a case study on an emergency services issue in your community, or on a specific topic approved by the instructor. This paper will be typed (or word processed), doubled spaced, with reference citations and a bibliography. If you are unsure of the correct format, contact the instructor immediately for guidance. Papers will be submitted in hard copy at the final course session on campus.
The case study method has long been used in the business world as the basis for learning about organizations and how they function. This method was pioneered by the Harvard Business School and has been a staple of Master's in Business Administration programs in many universities. However, it is also a common method of analysis in the emergency services - the United States Coast Guard has a well established case study process for search and rescue incidents, and fire service publications often include case studies of major fires. One of the most formal case study processes is used by the National Transportation Safety Board for the investigation of aircraft, railroad, maritime, pipeline, and highway accidents.
The format of the case study varies based on the objectives of the writer. The following is a composite of business case studies (which work well for management issues) and those used in the emergency services (excellent for incident studies). Note that you do not have to use all of the sections described - the Problem Statement, Scenario, and Recommendations are essential, but whether you use the other sections depends on the case itself.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Commonly used in business case studies, but certainly applicable to emergency services cases, this is a one or two sentence paragraph that highlights the key issue the case will address.
SCENARIO:
The Scenario and all of the following sections, except Recommendations, are normally grouped under the heading of Analysis in a business case, using headings that make sense within the context of what is being discussed.
The opening Scenario provides a description of the situation in which the organization or people involved find themselves. Often this is written in a chronological order to allow the reader to understand the situation as it has developed. Scenario information should include all pertinent details and end with the situation at the point at which analysis has been applied. However, extraneous details that have no bearing on what has happened and why should be excluded. This section may be the bulk of the material in the study.
ADDITIONAL FACTS:
This section may be used to describe information the reader needs to understand in order to have a clear idea of what has happened. Typically, this information bears on the capability of the people or organization to deal with the situation, such as training, education, or qualification, fatigue or other human factors, budget, facilities, or equipment limitations that are not obvious from the scenario.
REFERENCES:
A Reference section may be used if the reader should be expected to refer to a specific document, contract, provision of law, standard operating procedure, plan, or other such established authority in order to understand the case. The citation should be sufficiently clear to allow the reader to find the specific reference easily.
QUESTIONS:
A Questions section may be used if the case author has identified key questions the case study must answer. This is the equivalent of the hypothesis section of a research paper and helps to focus the reader on what the author considers to be the critical issues.
PROBABLE CAUSE:
Used often in accident cases, this section points out what the investigator thinks was the one final event that irrevocably caused the incident.
LESSONS LEARNED, DISCUSSION, ANALYSIS, RECOMMENDATIONS:
These sections may be used, to some degree interchangeably, to discuss the key events of the case, provide an analysis of what those events mean, and recommend actions to capitalize on success or avoid future failure. A Lessons Learned section often combines all of these elements. In other case studies, the key elements are discussed in the Discussion and specific recommendations are made in the Recommendations based on the Discussion.
CONCLUSION:
A short Conclusion section should restate the key recommendation and support it with the critical supporting argument from the Discussion (probably in not more than three or four sentences). Ideally a reader could read the Problem Statement and the Conclusion, and nothing else, and still have the absolute bare bones of the case.
Case studies can be used in a number of ways. First, they are a basic way of doing research - a study in detail to determine what happened, why, what the outcome was, and what we can learn from it. Second, case studies are excellent teaching tools. By removing the Lessons Learned and incorporating questions, the instructor has an analysis problem for use in class. Third, and most importantly from an operational standpoint, a case study provides a vital opportunity to learn from others in the emergency services so we don't have to spend time and resources learning the same lessons.
The A+ case study will be neatly prepared on a typewriter or computer, using standard 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch paper, with one inch margins on all sides. Acronyms are only used if they are first spelled out, with the acronym in parenthesis immediately following. Sentences and paragraphs will flow with logical transitions between them. When references are used to support situation information or analysis, they will be cited using standard methods of citation. Pages will be numbered. The case study will describe an interesting topic that merits study (the 465th study of a successful night shift on a quiet evening is probably a real yawner - a case study of an organization in crisis or that is excelling or of a uniquely successful or unsuccessful response would be more likely to meet the "interesting" test). The case study will be prepared using the format described above as a guide, and will be detailed enough for the reader to understand the issues involved. However, all details will support the case process, and a mass of extraneous information will not be included. The organization of the study will lead the reader logically through the case. Tables may be used to show productivity, to list key times and events, or otherwise to make it easier to understand the case. Analysis will develop logical possible alternatives to solving the situation, or propose a model for understanding the case. Recommendations will flow from the analysis and make sense given the facts presented.