Rationale for the Tanglewood Case

Rationale for the Tanglewood Case

Many of the most important lessons in business education involve learning how to place academic concepts in a work setting. For applied topics, like staffing, learning how concepts are applied in the world of work also allow us see how the course is relevant to our own lives. The use of these cases will serve as a bridge between the major themes in the textbook Staffing Organizations and the problems faced by managers on a daily basis.

The Tanglewood case is closely intertwined with textbook concepts. Most assignments in the case require reference to specific tables and examples in the book. After completing these cases, you will be much more able to understand and apply the material in the textbook.

With this in mind, it should be noted that the cases are designed to correspond with the types of information found in work environments. This means that for many important decisions, the right answers will not always be easy to detect, there will be more than one correct solution, and often the very information that would make decisions easy is missing. Remember that ambiguity in any case corresponds to reality; although it may be frustrating at first, you should remember that business problems are themselves often confusing and require important judgment calls that don't have any single "right" answer.

Successful Case Performance

Successful case performance involves several key concepts. Each case should be prepared in the form of a report to be given to the top management team at Tanglewood department stores. The following guidelines for successful case performance are useful for checking your work:

1.

a.

b. c. d. e.

2.

a.

b. c.

Is the report easy to read?

Correct grammatical errors and eliminate confusing sentences.

Break the text into subheadings so it is easy for the reader to find relevant information.

Explain your statistics in a way that an intelligent reader who is not familiar with them could understand what is being reported.

Present tables cleanly with relevant data highlighted for the reader and with minimal extraneous information.

Explain why you chose to use information and data in the way that you did.

Are your final recommendations and answers sensible?

The final recommendations should be presented in a clear, succinct manner.

The recommendations should be feasible

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