Classic Cases

Politician as Outsider: Judy Nadler and the Santa Clara City Council (Sequel)

Publication Date: January 01, 1989

A California city councilwoman must decide whether to urge a legal investigation into the relationship between city officials and a major local developer. The relationship between politics and whistle-blowing is fraught with peril and ambiguity...

Politician as Outsider: Judy Nadler and the Santa Clara City Council

Publication Date: January 01, 1989

A California city councilwoman must decide whether to urge a legal investigation into the relationship between city officials and a major local developer. The relationship between politics and whistle-blowing is fraught with peril and ambiguity...

Contracting to Replace the Challenger: Risks, Responsibilities, and Incentives

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This case details the contractual negotiations surrounding a replacement for NASA's Challenger, which had exploded in 1986, killing all seven crew members. Despite government-wide budget cuts, as per the 1985 and 1987 Balanced Budget Act, NASA...

Affirmative Action in the City of Pasadena (Epilogue)

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This three-and-a-half page ethics case describes a policymaking dilemma that confronted the Pasadena City Council in the spring of 1985: whether or not to extend affirmative action protections, designed for blacks, to Armenian-Americans. It...

Affirmative Action in the City of Pasadena

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This three-and-a-half page ethics case describes a policymaking dilemma that confronted the Pasadena City Council in the spring of 1985: whether or not to extend affirmative action protections, designed for blacks, to Armenian-Americans. It...

Pam Hyde and Ohio Mental Health: Shifting Control of Inpatient Care (Epilogue)

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

When Pam Hyde was appointed director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health in 1983, she inherited a two-tiered state mental health system, consisting of 17 state hospitals and 53 community mental health boards. The state hospitals, which were...

Managing for Competiveness: The Improved Microwave Landing System Avionics

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This disguised case recounts, step by step, a small but representative competitive purchase by the US Air Force--the acquisition of an aircraft landing system by the Electronics Systems Division (ESD). The case traces the experiences of a novice...

The Reagan Administration and Lebanon

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, the United States became deeply involved: first by sending a special envoy to broker a withdrawal of PLO forces from Beirut (a withdrawal supervised in part by US marines); then by helping Christian...

Who Should Pay for San Onofre Nuclear Power Plants?

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This case, drawn from proceedings of the California Public Utilities Commission, examines the financial implications for a utility of heightened scrutiny of a nuclear power plant project. The CPUC was due to begin hearings in December 1985 on a...

Mast Bumping in Huey and Cobra Helicopters (Epilogue)

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

The Huey and Cobra US Army helicopters carried thousands of American soldiers during the war in Vietnam. Developed by the Bell Helicopter Company, they were, by and large, safe and reliable. But, both in combat and in peacetime use following...

Mast Bumping in Huey and Cobra Helicopters

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

The Huey and Cobra US Army helicopters carried thousands of American soldiers during the war in Vietnam. Developed by the Bell Helicopter Company, they were, by and large, safe and reliable. But, both in combat and in peacetime use following...

Lebanon and the Intelligence Community

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

The 1982 terrorist bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, and the deaths of more than 240 Marines, dramatically demonstrated the failure of US policy to keep the peace amidst the Lebanese civil war. But CIA analysts had warned long before...