• You will hear part of a conversation between a management consultant and a

F：Good morning，nice to meet you．Please take a seat．
M：Thank you．
F：So，you’re the Training Manager of Anderson，am I right?Give me some background of the company—so I get a general picture．
M：Joseph Anderson founded the company nearly twenty years ago，and he ran it for a long time．Our businesses had been doing fine，but now with the intense competition in the field，we are actually going downwards．The biggest problem now is to improve the efficiency among various chain shops，I mean，retaining our control without affecting each store’s autonomy。Mr．Anderson intends to organize a training programme for all the shop owners．so here I am．
F：What kind of training programme do you intend to have?
M：I was thinking of something like communication strategies，ways to improve your efficiency，etc．An-yway，there should be no worries about the training resources，as we do have plenty of them．But then I wonder about the appropriate method for the delivery．
F：In this case，I would recommend the‘case study’，which I thought wouldn’t be an unfamiliar term to you，right?
M：Yes，I know，but not so much．Could you tell me more in detail?
F：OK．Case studies are particularly useful in depicting a holistic portrayal of a client’s experiences and results regarding a programme．For example，to evaluate the effectiveness of a programme’s processes，evaluators might develop case studies on its successes and failures．They are used to organizing a wide range of information about a case and then analyzing the contents．A case can be individuals，programmes，or any unit，depending on what the programme evaluators want to examine through indepth analysis and comparison．
M：I see，it sounds very applicable．But how could we develop a case study that is tailored to our company’s needs?
F：OK，there’re normally five steps．I’ll go through them one by one．
M：All right，please go ahead．
F：The first step is about the data collection．You must make sure that all necessary data is gathered-first-hand would be preferred，but second-hand is also OK。For example，if the study is to highlight a programme’s failure with a client，data would be collected about the programme，its processes and the client．Data could result from a combination of methods，including documentation(applications，histories，records，etc．)，questionnaires，interviews and observation．
M：Yes．
F：And then the data is organized into an approach to highlight the focus of the study．In our example，data in the case would be organized in a chronological order to portray how the client got into the pro-gramme，went through it and did not receive effective services．
M：So that should be the second step．What’s next?
F：You’re right．The third step concerns the development of a case study narrative．The narrative is a highly readable story that integrates and summarizes key information around the focus of the case study．The narrative should be complete to the extent that even an outside reader could understand what happened regarding the case．
M：Ok，please go on．
F：The narrative might be then validated by reviews from programme participants．For example，the cli-ent for whom the programme failed，would read the narrative to ensure it fully depicted his or her ex-perience and results．
M：Indeed，and I guess that’s step four?
F：Exactly．Then comes our final step in the case study．The case studies might be cross-compared to isolate any themes or pattems．For example，various case studies about programme failures might be compared to notice commonalities in these clients’experiences and how they went through the programme．
M：OK，that’s a very detailed illustration of the case study method．I wonder if you have any real life examples?
F：Sure．Here is a sample of a case study report．The evaluation includes focus on the programme’s process，outcomes and facilitation．You could take it away for reference．
M：Thank you very much．But is there any other material that could be used?
F：Yes，there are some more templates down there in our archive．I don’t think you could borrow the o-riginal copies but it’s OK if you make some photocopies．There are also more reference materials on-line．You could google the relevant documents．
M：Thanks very much for the advice．
F：My pleasure．Now，are there any other details that you’d like to know…(voice fades away)