Cases

Sunshine and Shadow: The CIA and the Soviet Economy

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

After nearly 40 years of steady, rigorous, remarkably open, and respected analysis of the Soviet economy, the CIA stood accused in the early 1990s of having gotten the answer badly wrong: so much so that Daniel Patrick Moynihan had called for...

Burning Down the House: The Sherwin-Williams Warehouse Fire of 1987

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

This case tells the dramatic story of the most spectacular fire to strike Dayton, Ohio in many years--and the decision of the city's fire chief not to put it out. This is a decision-forcing case which asks readers to consider the dilemma of...

Solving Seattle's Solid Waste Crisis

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

The closing of two landfill sites creates a municipal crisis in Seattle, forced to find new disposal options for the 2,000 tons of garbage it produces each day. Political concerns over what appears to be the most practical disposal...

US Marines in Lebanon

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

The 1983 terrorist bombing of the US Marines barracks in Lebanon, in addition to its tragic toll of 241 dead, has become a quintessential case about the conditions under which military intervention may not be effective.Learning Objective:This...

Orange Hats of Fairlawn: A Washington, D.C. Neighborhood Battles Drugs

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

When the trade in crack cocaine spills over into a previously safe and calm lower-middle class black neighborhood in the District of Columbia, resourceful and courageous residents try novel ways to halt the drug traffic. Among other tactics,...

Reagan Administration and the Soviet Pipeline Embargo

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

The Reagan administration decision to impose economic sanctions designed to halt construction of a Soviet gas pipeline built to supply Western Europe led, starting in late 1981, to a serious split among the NATO allies. The administration's...

Discussions of Leadership: The Administration of Juan Manuel Rivera

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

This is a public management case set in the Puerto Rican Department of Labor. Rivera, as the new secretary of labor, decides to depart from the traditional aloofness of high officials, mingling with lower-level employees, and eating in the...

Problems of Success: Evaluating JICA's Coastal Aquaculture Development Project in Thailand

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

Five years after the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) established a seabass aquaculture in a poor, rural part of coastal Thailand, the project appears, on many counts, to be a success. An evaluation of the project by JICA itself...

Three Cases about Sexual Harassment

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

These three cases, sold together as one set, can stand alone or be used in a single class discussion. They raise different issues regarding diversity in the workplace. They are written about the experience of women but can elicit conversation...

Changing with the Times: South African Police in the Post-Apartheid Era

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

The sudden and dramatic relaxation of South Africa's infamous apartheid race codes leaves one institution accustomed to enforcing the old laws in an exceptionally difficult position. The nation's elite national police force, feared and despised...

Please Be Patient: The Seattle Solid Waste Utility Meets the Press

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

When the Seattle Solid Waste Utility, the department responsible for trash pick-up and disposal, moved during 1988-90 to introduce curbside recycling and other dramatic changes in garbage collection, director Diana Gale believed presentation of...

Trash Collection in Lone Pine: To Privatize or Not?

Publication Date: January 01, 1991

This hypothetical case is a paradigm of the privatization decision facing many jurisdictions as they struggle with budget pressures. It tells the story of the town manager of a small Texas municipality who has reason to believe that, if she were...