Your instructor will form teams within your section of Bus 2880. Each team will analyze the same case and submit a report and a recorded presentation by the deadline (see Schedule below). After the work is submitted, you will be responsible for providing peer assessments of the other teams’ recorded presentations. Through those peer assessments, the students in the class will help identify the finalists who will participate in a Question-and-Answer session with the instructor (and possibly other judges) for extra marks. Those peer assessments will also inform the grades assigned to the other teams (finalists and non-finalists).

In light of finalists’ additional efforts to prepare for and participate in the Question-and-Answer session, those teams will receive extra marks on the assignment grade (i.e., +5% for 3rd place, +7.5% for 2nd place, +10% for 1st place).

The instructor will grade each team’s report (valued at 15% of the course grade), finalize the presentation grade (10% of the course grade) based on peer assessments, apply finalists’ extra marks to the assignment grade, and make any necessary adjustments to individual grades.

Peer evaluations within each team may be used to adjust individual team members’ grades to reflect member contributions fairly. The team case competition is worth 25% of your grade in Bus 2880. You are responsible for making contributions to your team. If you fail to contribute to your team’s work or your contributions are inadequate, your individual grade will be reduced (with the lowest possible grade being 0/25).

You are also responsible for providing fair, constructive peer assessments (of other teams’ work) and peer evaluations (of your teammates’ contributions). Your individual project grade can be reduced by up to 10 percentage points if you do not complete the peer assessments (of other teams’ work) and peer evaluations (of contributions within your team).

An Evidence-Based Approach to Cases and Applied Problems

The evidence-based management (EBMgt) framework (e.g., Barends et al., 2014; Briner et al., 2009; Briner & Rousseau, 2011) includes critical reflection on each of the following main components: ethics and stakeholder concerns, practitioner judgement and expertise, local data and experimentation, and principles and evidence derived from formal research (“scientific” or alternative approaches). This broad framework can be used to help analyze case studies and applied problems in any domain (Gamble & Jelley, 2014). For Bus 2880, there are opportunities to apply your knowledge of research methods within this broad framework. Examples of general use of the framework and Bus 2880-specific ideas follow.

 Ethics and stakeholder concerns: Are there legal, moral, or values-based concerns that need to be considered? Have you considered the concerns of everybody who might be affected by the decision?

 Practitioner judgment and expertise: Do you (or does a protagonist in a case) have experience dealing with issues similar to those presented? How relevant is that experience in the present circumstances? How much trust can you place in the “expertise” that has been developed?

o For a Bus 2880 case, this component would normally be considered from the perspective of people described in the case (vs. your personal experience). The key idea is that all components, including this one, are both respected and considered critically.

 Local data and experimentation: What evidence exists in the organization that is relevant to your deliberations? What is the quality of that evidence? What additional evidence is needed? How could you conduct a study to gather such evidence?

o A Bus 2880 case may include statistics from analyses of internal data/studies, but not datasets that must be analyzed statistically.

o For a Bus 2880 case, you may need to propose a research project to gather required information, outlining relevant details of your proposed research. Data collection is not part of the Bus 2880 case competition.

 Formal research: To what extent do existing theories, principles, and research evidence provide perspective on the situation at hand – e.g., its potential causes, consequences, and intervention strategies? How strong and how relevant is the existing knowledge?

o In Bus 2880, we expect that students will conduct literature searches, using skills you refined in the course, to find high-quality, relevant evidence to inform their analysis and recommendations.

Deliverables

The Report: The body of the text should be 8-10 double-spaced pages. The title page, executive summary, references, and appendices (e.g., table(s) summarizing evidence, interview protocols, questionnaires) do not count toward the page limit. Please follow APA style for formatting, citations, and references. The report should be a concise, eloquent communication of your team’s analysis and recommendations. Work as a team to craft a well-written, carefully edited document that is of professional quality. Use Grammarly and careful editing to polish your team’s work.

The Presentation: All teams need to record a presentation (e.g., voice-over-slides video) covering the same material as your report. The LIMIT is seven (7) slides in seven (7) minutes (plus a title slide and slide(s) for references). Assume the audience has not read your report.