Case studies are particularly useful in depicting a holistic portrayal of experiences and results regarding a program. Case studies are used to organise a wide range of information about a case and then analyse the contents by seeking patterns and themes in the data, and by further analysis through cross comparison with other cases.
Below are various links to references on how to undertake a case study.
Case study research excels at bringing us to an understanding of a complex issue or object and can extend experience or add strength to what is already known through previous research. Case studies emphasize detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships. Researchers have used the case study research method for many years across a variety of disciplines. Social scientists, in particular, have made wide use of this qualitative research method to examine contemporary real-life situations and provide the basis for the application of ideas and extension of methods.
Case studies are complex because they generally involve multiple sources of data, may include multiple cases within a study, and produce large amounts of data for analysis. Researchers from many disciplines use the case study method to build upon theory, to produce new theory, to dispute or challenge theory, to explain a situation, to provide a basis to apply solutions to situations, to explore, or to describe an object or phenomenon. The advantages of the case study method are its applicability to real-life, contemporary, human situations and its public accessibility through written reports. Case study results relate directly to the common readers’ everyday experience and facilitate an understanding of complex real-life situations.
Case study methods are being rediscovered in health services research. Much of the contemporary need for case studies is driven by developments in managed care systems that link their multiple components in new ways, producing “mega-systems” of great complexity. Further, the systems’ rules are in a high-flux state, continually and rapidly changing. Finally, important corporate affiliations and motivations are extremely difficult to track, much less understand.
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A case study is a puzzle that has to be solved. The first thing to remember about writing a case study is that the case should have a problem for the readers to solve. The case should have enough information in it that readers can understand what the problem is and, after thinking about it and analysing the information, the readers should be able to come up with a proposed solution. Writing an interesting case study is a bit like writing a detective story. You want to keep your readers very interested in the situation.
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There are two different approaches to case studies
Type 1: The analytical approach
The case study is examined in order to try and understand what has happened and why. It is not necessary to identify problems or suggest solutions.
Type 2: The problem-oriented method
The case study is analysed to identify the major problems that exist and to suggest solutions to these problems.
A successful case study analyses a real life situation where existing problems need to be solved. It should:
•Relate the theory to a practical situation for example apply the ideas and knowledge discussed in the coursework to the practical situation at hand in the case study.
•Identify the problems
•Select the major problems in the case
•Suggest solutions to these major problems
•Recommend the best solution to be implemented
•Detail how this solution should be implemented
Case Study. The detailed examination of a single example of a class of phenomena, a case study cannot provide reliable information about the broader class, but it may be useful in the preliminary stages of an investigation since it provides hypotheses, which may be tested systematically with a larger number of cases.
This description is indicative of the conventional wisdom of case-study research, which, if not directly wrong, is so oversimplified as to be grossly misleading. It is correct that the case study is a ‘detailed examination of a single example’, but as we will see below it is not true that a case study ‘cannot provide reliable information about the broader class’. It is also correct that a case study can be used ‘in the preliminary stages of an investigation’ to generate hypotheses, but it is misleading to see the case study as a pilot method to be used only in preparing the real study’s larger surveys, systematic hypotheses testing, and theory-building.