Colleagues,
I would like to bring to your attention two new teaching cases written by my colleague, Jim Detert. Jim teaches our required undergrad course on the social and ethical environment of business and wrote these cases to be positive exemplars for students.
The first case is about American Apparel the apparel manufacturer in L.A. that has received lots of press for its unusually good treatment of its sewers. The case deals with the companys decision about what to do in regard to excess labor in its slower season. The second case is about Patagonia the outdoor specialty clothing company known for its commitment to the environment. This case details the decisions made about the use of anti-odor chemicals in its baselayer garments. Both cases come with part A and B cases, along with a brief teaching note.
In the A cases, the issue facing the company is presented to students in the form of an anonymous company. That is, students think they are facing a concocted dilemma rather than a decision made by a real company. In the B cases, the identity of the real company is introduced and the decision they made in the situation in the A case is revealed. Students can have another discussion/debate about what the company did in light of their earlier analysis. The American Apparel case also comes with about 15 minutes of free video, which students find really brings that case to life.
The development of these cases was supported by the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics (BRICE) with the understanding that they would be freely available for academic use. Thus, you may go to the following website to download the cases for free:
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/corporate-ethics/cases.htm Note, the B cases and teaching notes require you to provide some identifying information. This is simply to prevent students from downloading these parts of the cases. To this end, it is strongly recommended that if you want to use these cases you download them to your own computer and distribute them via email, your own internal server, etc. That way students will not even end up on the BRICE site where they may be tempted to try to get the B cases and the teaching notes.
These cases have been taught a couple of times at Penn State already and students have really enjoyed and benefited from them. Youll see on the BRICE site that these cases are listed as targeted for an undergraduate audience, but this is mainly because they were written to be teachable in 50-60 minutes sessions rather than the typical MBA length period. Both cases, and especially the Patagonia case, could easily be used successfully with MBAs.
I hope you find these cases useful and I'm sure Jim would appreciate any feedback you may have. Thanks.
<x-sigsep>
Linda K. Trevino
Professor of Organizational Behavior, Cook Fellow in Business Ethics
Smeal College of Business
402 Business Building
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-2194 Fax: 814-863-7261
Email: ltrevino@psu.edu _______________________________________________________________________
To send a message to the list, send your email to SIM@aomlists.pace.edu
_______________________________________________________________________
Visit the SIM Division website at: www.simdivision.org _______________________________________________________________________
If you wish to unsubscribe from this list or change your delivery options, you can do so online at: http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=sim&A=1 _______________________________________________________________________
</x-sigsep>