case study on introduction to management

Principles of Management

(17 reviews)

ISBN 13: 9781946135186

Publisher: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing

Language: English

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Reviewed by Anjali Chaudhry, Professor, Dominican University on 10/27/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

This open text covers all pertinent areas related to principles of management. Any core business class on management focuses on the four functions of management- planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. This material does a good job going over key concepts as well as terminology relevant in this area. Some of the examples may be outdated but that is understandable considering that this book was published in 2015 and the fact that the world of business has been experiencing a number of transitions. I am not too happy with the leadership chapter. Then again, in my opinion, most textbooks do a poor job with this topic.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content is error-free, unbiased, and for the most part accurate. I specially appreciate the links for research and other sources from which the text draws support.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Content is mostly up-to-date and therefore, I am not too concerned about the lack of editions that such a format does not offer. My recommendation is to use the book as a basic text and then use other sources such as news articles, cases, and simulations to incorporate the role of current workplace context into the study of management. What aspects of management are relevant in the modern workplace (e.g., traditional organizational designs) or how new developments such as the gig economy can be understood using the management lens can easily be taught with a few additional resources that bolster this open source book material. If and when updates are needed, I am fairly certain that these can be done in a relatively easy and straightforward manner.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in a clear and easy to understand style. It introduces most of the key terms and accepted jargon from the field.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 4

The text has been divided in chapters and sub-sections each with its own hyperlink that makes it easy to move from one section to the next.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The logical organization and simple structure of the textbook is one of its strengths.

Interface rating: 4

The text uses relevant graphs and images that I frequently use to review key points from a section. The illustrations are meaningful and well-placed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not notice any glaring grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text has been written to be relevant for students in the US. I am not sure whether the examples will be too applicable for those studying management in other countries. I did not find any instances where the text could be perceived as culturally insensitive or offensive to any demographics.

I have adopted this book for my core management course, and I plan to continue to use it.

Reviewed by John Strifler, Associate Adjunct, University of Indianapolis on 4/22/21

The text is appears to be an excellent text to introduce the P-O-L-C management principles, and promote the key elements of strategy, entrepreneurship, and leadership development in students. Highlights: Chapter 1 introduces the concepts... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text is appears to be an excellent text to introduce the P-O-L-C management principles, and promote the key elements of strategy, entrepreneurship, and leadership development in students.

Highlights: Chapter 1 introduces the concepts thoroughly and sets the approach the rest of the book utilizes. A concise history of management thought is found in chapter 3. The summary element at end of each section ( Key Takeaway) is excellent reference for learner. With the references at the end of each section, one can pull a section out for use in a teaching setting and retain the references.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The authors are clear in the beginning that they focus performance on the triple bottom line - financial, social, and environmental - and appear faithful in maintaining this approach throughout. There are no obvious errors in examples used to illustrate principles.

Examples remain accurate and relevant in explaining the concepts, however, I would utilize additional, more recent examples - noting that the text is substantially the same as its 2010 original publication.

For example, the section 3.4 addresses contemporary principles of management addressing social movements has the latest citation in 2007. Social networks have seen a significant shift.

Level of writing is suited for early college or even college prep use. A Key term summary at the end of each section or chapter would add to its usefulness.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook follows a consistent formatting, allowing for scanning through thumbnails to find illustrations or desired summaries

Modularity rating: 5

The way the chapters are sectioned and summarized, makes for ease of modular use. Consistently starts each new section on new page, which allows for ease of sub-dividing the material. Again, the practice of placing citations at the end of each section further adds to the modularity.

The text follows logical approach in the order of topics, similar to other management texts.

Interface rating: 5

I viewed the text in its PDF format, and found it clean to view and all images were displayed properly. Searching and navigation had no issues. Having a full feature PDF viewer will simplify the process of accessing and using sections separately.

No obvious grammatical issues

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

A variety of images used with a diversity of individuals. The examples used appear to be "globally" recognized.

Will utilize sections of this text as supplemental material to provide students additional information.

Reviewed by JOE MESSER, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Manchester University on 4/2/21

I have been a business owner for 30 years and taught business management for the last 12 years. I found this text to cover all the important areas of management. Plan, Organize, Lead, and Control, were introduced early on (page 19) and each... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This book is well suited for an entry level course in management. Students do not need a business background before reading this text. I appreciated the current examples that were used. This will keep students engaged.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Management basics were covered very well. Examples were recent and relevant. The companies that were used as examples (SAS, Xerox, Toyota, Nucor, Google, etc. are companies that should be relevant businesses years from now.

The text was easy to read and the vocabulary was appropriate for an introductory course.

The flow and layout of the book stayed the same throughout all 16 chapters.

I found some of the sections within the chapters to be too verbose. I will cut out some of the sections (modules) in order to have time to go more in detail in other areas. For that reason the modularity is good.

The organization of the book made sense to me.

Interface rating: 2

I am still struggling trying to get access to any educational resources that go along with the book. Slides, exams, etc.

I did not run into any grammatical issues.

The text was culturally appropriate with no biases.

I intend to use this text assuming a can locate the teaching resources that go along with it. I look forward to saving my students money by using this text.

Reviewed by B'Ann Dittmar, Instructor, Clarke University on 1/7/21

Like most Principles of Management textbooks, this book has a wide breadth of topics that are covered that are relevant to the subject area. Consistent with a principles course, it does not go into great depth in most areas, as those deeper dives are saved for more advanced courses. I currently use McGraw Hill's "Management: Leading & Collaborating in a Competitive World" 14th edition by authors, Thomas S. Bateman and Scott A. Snell, which is very comprehensive, and this text covers similar subject areas. The OpenStax text appears more succinct in the length of the chapters but provides adequate coverage without a lot of fluff / filler. The OpenStax text uses a couple of photo images per chapter, as well as several colorful graphics and illustrations, with adequate white space, to make it easy to read and to digest, as well as to maintain interest.

I did not see any inaccuracies within the OpenStax Principles of Management text. The text appears to remain updated with relevant examples for discussion purposes and for students to relate to.

The content provided is relevant and the examples / references to today's world provided seemed to span from 2016-2018, from what I saw. Example companies included Starbucks and Amazon, which are both relevant organizations that college students would know and have an interest in learning about. It is a contemporary text and does not feel dated. I would love to see some direct links within the text to the real-world topics that are being discussed, so students could click on them to get more information and an in-depth view, versus just a brief mention of a topic or issue. The student’s study guide contains some links like these, but it would be great to have some within the chapter, itself.

This text is easy to read, clear, and to the point. There are definitions provided for clarification, in the chapters, as well as in a list at the end of each chapter. A recommendation would be to put the chapter title and subject area on both the first page of the chapter, as well as listing it as a running head on the main window with the chapter readings. This information is currently listed along the left-hand side of the page in the table of contents, only and each chapter begins with an image and the learning outcomes on the page, but no mention of the chapter number or subject. I think this addition would provide more clarity.

Each chapter has consistency in layout and design. After each of the chapter concepts are covered, the chapter concludes with the following: • Key Terms • Summary of Learning Outcomes • Chapter Review Questions • Management Skills Application Exercises • Managerial Decision Exercises • Critical Thinking Case These resources provide a good review, as well as offering opportunities for students to synthesize / apply what they have learned. It also offers instructors the opportunity to use some of these tools for discussion.

This textbook would allow you to set up your course in a variety of modalities, as you can decide how many and which chapters you would like to use, depending on how many weeks long your course will be. It can certainly be used in a synchronous or asynchronous course, with online, hybrid, or in-person delivery. The Instructor Pack also includes several resources to take your course online and offers “cartridges” to integrate into several learning management systems, including Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Course, and Canvas.

The text appears to be well organized, overall. One chapter that could possibly be moved is the “History of Management” chapter, which is the third chapter. My current textbook addresses the history of management as an appendix to Chapter 1, which seems to make sense to me. The OpenStax text places it after Chapter 1, Managing and Performing, and after Chapter 2, Managerial Decision-Making. It may be appropriate to have Chapter 1 first, so students understand what management is, and then go into what happened in the history of management, as past events can be predictors for the future. The placement of the history chapter is not a real concern, but it just made me pause and wonder why it was placed where it was.

The interface appeared clear and functioned well. I tried it on both a laptop as well as on my iPhone. One thing I noticed as far as navigation is that when I wanted to jump to another chapter, I would click on the chapter link in the list on the left-hand tool bar, but it would not change the screen to take me there. Rather, it would open a list of drop downs for options of topics to select within that chapter. I think most people want to start at the beginning of a chapter and a click could be saved if they were taken to the beginning of the chapter when they click on the chapter title. That click could still also open the chapter options, and if they wanted to go somewhere else, they could do that.

I did not see any grammatical errors.

I appreciated that this text offered diverse images and examples that included a variety of demographics and cultural aspects. Further, you feel their commitment to diversity when you read their six-page Diversity and Representation Guidelines, which details their commitment to improving representation and diversity in OER materials. This is something that I appreciate and look for when reviewing textbook materials for use in my courses.

Overall, I believe this text is a great option for instructors and for students. I currently use the McGraw-Hill Connect access for online quizzes and exams, which include a built-in proctoring system to eliminate cheating in an online environment and would like an option for doing something similar with this open textbook. I appreciate that there are a variety of options for accessing this textbook, from an app, to a download, to viewing online, or even ordering a printed copy- all provide plenty of options for students. I also like that students can highlight within the chapters when viewing online. When I am looking to adopt a text, I am very interested in the Instructor Resources. This text offers guided lecture notes and PowerPoints as well as a test bank in Word format. Unfortunately, I found the PowerPoints to be lacking. I happen to teach Business Communications, which includes how to put together an effective PowerPoint, and typically "less is more." The PowerPoints that accompany this textbook have a plain white background with black text and no real template, so they don't look very interesting and they are inconsistent from slide to slide in their look. They also contain WAY too much text, often including full paragraphs. They should just have bullet points and save the "extra content" as lecture notes outside of the presentation slides. I did appreciate that some of the PowerPoint slides included embedded links to TED Talks and other example videos, including scenes from Apollo 13, as well as including discussion questions regarding those videos. If OpenStax: 1. Offered pre-made quiz and exam options vs. downloading a Word document with all the quiz questions and 2. They partnered with a low-cost proctoring service as an add-on solution, and 3. Updated the PowerPoint slide deck, I would be very interested in adopting this text. It offers a lot of value for an open resource.

Reviewed by Jose-Luis (Joe) Iglesias, Assistant professor of Management, USC-Beaufort on 8/25/20

I believe that the examples and cases are appropriate to demonstrate the applicability of management concepts. However, I wish that the authors could be able to update the examples and cases to a more recent world reality. Overall, the index and... read more

I believe the content is appropriate for an introductory text in management.

The text provides the authors with the opportunity for updates.

Clarity rating: 4

The textbook uses an easy to understand verbatim and accessible concepts for non-business major students.

Consistency rating: 3

Terminology and frameworks are acceptable for an introduction to management. However, I would advise the authors to provide detailed information on the theories that support managerial functions.

I believe that modularity is an option. However, the instructor will need to add extra readings and complementary contents such as videos.

The sequence of managerial functions is well organized and explored in the text.

No interface issues noticed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 1

No grammatical mistakes noticed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 1

I believe that the diversity of examples and in the pictures represents a good example of inclusion.

I would consider the adoption of this textbook to an elective class in management, or management 101.

Reviewed by Linda Williamson, Program Lead, Business Administration, Klamath Community College on 3/13/19

I have reviewed numerous books related to management over the past 15 years and this text includes several components that I often need to add to the textbooks I am using. For example, there is wonderful language related to the "balanced scorecard" included in this text. I also like the depth of content related to innovation and strategic thinking that is referenced across several chapters.

I thoroughly read most chapters and carefully scanned the others; accuracy across words, figures, and exhibits appears to be strong. I did not detect any bias on the part of the authors, and in fact appreciated the wide array of business examples used to support their concepts.

The overall content in this textbook appears to be extremely relevant. Current and appropriate businesses are profiled throughout and related discussion questions seem to focus on real-world issues related to management. Chapter 2 in this text focuses on the individual student and includes substantial self-assessment; this is exactly how I teach my current Management Fundamentals course as I believe effective managers need to be aware of how they communicate with others before they can implement management tools and strategies.

This book does seem to be written in clear, concise prose, with good support and definition for new terms (and for jargon). References are provided throughout the content (including the business cases) with additional explanation for new or "involved" topics. I see consistency throughout the chapters in flow and tone, which is not always true when there are multiple authors.

This textbook appear to be consistent in the use of terminology and also in the overall framework of the content. For example, consistency in starting each chapter ("What's in it for me?"), the "Key Takeaways" at the end of each section, and the consistent reference to POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, Controlling) figure to consistently remind the reader how/where the new chapter content fits in to the overall role of management. Very effective!

I love the "chunks" and short chapter sections in this textbook! Each chapter has clearly defined sections (which a student can navigate directly to by using the tabs on the left of the page as soon as a "chapter" is selected) and yet the conclusion of each section and chapter still ties everything in to place. Very well designed.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text is well organized in content, though I tend to like the "POLC" sections to be more clearly defined as "sections" of the textbook (again, the POLC figure at the start of each chapter does clear show which element the new content attaches to). There is logical flow to the content within the chapters and throughout the text overall.

I like the navigation of this textbook. Like any electronic resource, it takes a bit of getting familiar with, but it appears to be very user-friendly. When I facilitate a class using an OER, I like to have the entire textbook available in the very first module of my course in addition to having each assigned chapter available for access directly within the module that includes that specific chapter. I did not experiment to see if that would be an option with this resource.

None that I could find!

I found several examples that supported very respectful references to different cultures/people. My favorite actually involves a story of Goodwill...rather than do the traditional focus on who Goodwill serves, the authors instead focus on how the company is innovative in their strategic planning. In my opinion, that reference not only shows a different light on this company but also reminds the reader of the need for nonprofit organizations to be focused on innovation. A win-win!

I will likely select this textbook next year for my Management Fundamentals course. The authors stress upfront the necessity of determining competitive advantage and continue that theme throughout the book, which is incredibly relevant for management. The cases, discussion questions, and indepth content related to assessments (for personal growth and also for company performance such as the balanced scorecard) add a great array of materials to incorporate into this course. I really like this textbook!

Reviewed by Jeanine Parolini, Teaching Partner, Bethel University on 12/3/18

Principles of Management provides a comprehensive overview of key management and leadership principles for my professional adult undergraduate students. In our program, it is vital that we offer students a progressive big picture overview of the areas they need to consider in leading and managing others, and Principles of Management is that resource for our students. It is easy to access the information in this resource.

Our professional adult students need a resource that they are able to connect with and apply directly to their professional lives. Principles of Management addresses current topics that my students are dealing with in their workplaces, and it offers insights into the personal and professional management and leadership issues that pertain to most organizations today.

My adult professional undergraduate students are able to engage with the content and apply it to their personal and professional lives. The cases and examples in this resources are also relevant to students' experiences and contexts. At the same time, please keep the book up to date with considering a future revision in 2 to 5 years so that the information, examples and cases remain current.

The information is presented to my professional adult undergraduate students in a way that is engaging, practical, and accessible. The books connects well with business students and business issues.

When I engage the students in using the terminology and frameworks from Principles of Management in their papers and presentations, I am finding that students are digesting and utilizing the information properly and insightfully. They are applying it to their personal and professional lives. As I interact with students in both face to face and online venues, my experience is that students are remembering and practically using the terms and frameworks in real life applications.

Presently, I am using most of the book in my professional adult undergraduate business management course. I am able to offer several chapters in Principles of Management each week as I integrate in other articles and videos to support the week's topics. Students have commented in their evaluations that the reading is accessible, practical, interconnected with the week's topic, and a fair amount of reading for the course.

The chapters are well organized in Principles of Management and the topics in each chapter build upon each other throughout the chapter. The progression of the information in each chapter flows well and supports the practical outcomes such as discussion forums, presentations or writing assignments in my course.

For the most part the text is free from navigation issues. The one area for development is to make sure it is clear when it is a chapter subheading and when it is a figure subheading. Perhaps using a different size font or bolding or italicizing the font for one of those titles may be helpful. I have been confused at times when a figure title falls on the previous page of the actual figure, yet the chapter subheading is at the top of the figure. I have also experienced students' questions on this as well when they are being asked to assess a certain figure in the reading material and want to be sure they have the correct figure. I'd appreciate clearing this up in the next version to avoid confusion.

The text appears to be free from mechanical issues and grammatical errors. I am proud of the way the text presents itself to our professional adult undergrad students.

Cultural inclusion is important to me so I am sensitive to inclusivity of races, ethnicities and backgrounds in my approach to resources and the classroom environment. Principles of Management provides support to cultural inclusion in it's discussion of globalization and global trends, values-based leadership, and to some level related to ethics and culture. At the same time, this is a key area to keep up to date on and to realize that the globe is in our workplaces everyday with our diversity. In future revisions, I suggest taking this area to another level in helping readers to manage an innovative and diverse workplace to a greater level by being aware of cultural bias and learning through differences. I supplement the books information with additional material related to bias, insecurity and personal/cultural maturity.

Principles of Management is an engaging resource for my professional adult undergrad business students because it provides a general overview of key management and leadership topics with the opportunity for practical application through examples, cases, questions, and relevant frameworks that I can then incorporate into my weekly assignments.

Reviewed by Valerie Wallingford, Professor, Bemidji State University on 6/19/18

There should be a chapter devoted to the 4 functions of management (planning, leading, organizing & controlling) versus just one chapter covering all four primary functions of management so that is why I have ranked it a 3. read more

Text is accurate, case studies are outdated.

Textbook is up-to-date except cases.

The book's clarity is good as provides adequate context for terminology utilized. Easy to understand and comprehend.

Yes, the text is consistent throughout.

Yes, the text is easily readable and chapters are easily divisible into smaller reading sections which makes it nice if the professor doesn't want to cover the entire chapter just sections. There are pictures, charts, etc. that also break up the reading.

The organization/flow/structure are similar to many principles of management texts with possibly moving mission/vision chapter earlier but professor can assign chapters in the order they prefer.

The interface is good, as I had no issues with navigation, distortion, or display features.

No grammatical errors were found.

The text was not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It was inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Reviewed by K Doreen MacAulay, Instructor II, University of South Florida on 3/27/18

The material covers all the basic requirements for a principles of management course. The concepts and applications are on par with what is being taught. I feel the examples are a little dated, but that is something that could easily be augmented... read more

The content of this book is very accurate and I did not find any errors in the delivery of the information.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The concepts are up to date with what is important and covered in a principles of management course. The examples, although relevant to the material, could be a little more up to date. As note, however, this is something that could easily be addressed through classwork.

The concepts, theories and general knowledge delivered in this book as exactly what one would expect to find in a good Principles of Management book.

There are no consistency issues that I found throughout the reading of this book.

The segments within each of the chapters of the book made for an easy and logical flow to the material. Each segment lends itself easily to the learning process for the reader.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

The actually order of the book chapters, however, did not seem to fit a traditional model. I would not teach the chapters in the order that they are provided, however, I would use all the material provided. Example: I would have motivating after leading; the structure chapter near the end and make chapter 13 - chapter 14 and chapter 14 be chapter 13.

To me a logical concept flow goes from a general introduction, strategy and the go micro level to macro level. This book's order of chapters does not seem to have a clear path.

Some of the pictures seemed out of place because they were small. As well, there was not a uniformed look to the pictures which took away a little from the appearance, but overall the material was easy to read and that is the main point.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Easy to read and understand.

Clearly based in a American capitalist approach to knowledge, this book is on par with most American textbooks in this area.

I look forward to incorporating this textbook into my class. I believe for a survey course like this, this work is the ideal foundation to help the students learn.

Reviewed by Debby Thomas, Assistant Professor of Management, George Fox University on 2/1/18

The text covers the basics that other Principles of Management texts do. read more

The text covers the basics that other Principles of Management texts do.

I have found this textbook to be clear and accurate. The case studies are a bit dated, but relevant.

The content of this book is organized around management concepts and principles that will not quickly go out of date. The case studies are concise, practical and relevant and should be fairly easy for the publishers to update occasionally.

This book is written in a way that the concepts are covered thoroughly without being verbose or difficult to understand. The concepts are presented in a way that is easy to comprehend and encourages application.

The terminology and framework of the text are consistent. One minor improvement would be to have a comprehensive table of contents at the beginning of the book (presently there is a table of contents of each chapter at the beginning of the chapter). This would help students follow the overall flow of the text more easily.

This text provides numbered sections for each chapter. I find this helpful and I don't always assign the whole chapter as reading for one class. I can be precise about exactly which parts of which chapters I want the students to read. The text has pictures and charts or graphs to break up the text, and the sections are generally short enough to hold a student's attention.

The topics are presented in a logical fashion. As with most Principles of Management textbooks its impossible to get through all of the content in one semester, but the set up works well to emphasize certain chapters more than others.

The book comes in multiple formats for the convenience of the reader. The PDF is usable only with the use of the built in table of contents (no clickable links to chapters in the PDF).

The text does not contain grammatical errors.

The pictures in the text include people of a variety of ethnicities. I have not found anything in the book that is insensitive or offensive in any way. It also introduces the concepts of unconscious bias early in the text.

Reviewed by Mindy Bean, Faculty, Linn-Benton Community College on 6/20/17

The Principles of Management heavily relies of the POLC method of Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling. The text was unique in covering the basics of each area within each context while tying it in with many factors that managers deal... read more

The books content was very accurate to the date that the sources were presented. A lot of resources were during the recession or before the recession. I feel like an OER that was adapted from 2010 should have included a few more updated examples.

The books concepts will keep for a while, when it comes to management theories there are always more being presented (fades) and there are those that keep the core concepts. I believe this book covers on the hard fundamentals of management while expressing the common trends of management in certain business industries. With technological advances and competitive nature of business, this book's relevance and longevity is based more on the subject matter.

The writing is adequate for the topics being presented. The many examples of firm situations and how they applied the concepts were well placed and had a good consistency until the end of the text. The jargon was appropriate for the subject matter.

The book carried consistent terminology and framework. The rhythm in which the reader gets used to is consistent except for two chapters toward the end in which it extended on my laptop to being about 25 pages. The way in which terms are presented are not in bold but mainly italic or overly emphasized. I believe it to be an easier read then most materials I have came across.

The book was easy and readily divisible into smaller reading sections besides the two chapters I previously mentioned towards the end. I personally would use the OER in that way due to its design to prevent good amounts of information without disruption.

The organization of the text was presented well. It was different from other materials that focus on the POLC and cover each section individually in order. I was impressed by the clear fashion that information was laid out by relating each topic outside of POLC that managers have to deal with and correlating to how it works with POLC when necessary.

The interface worked well. I pulled the book up on three different forms and systems. It was consistent, the visual aids/charts were presented well and I was able to see them all clearly. The only thing I personally didn't like was downloaded on iBooks you had to swipe versus clicking to turn the page.

The cultural relevance was accurate. I did not see any insensitive or offensive material.

I did have problems trying to get this on my Kindle.

Reviewed by Irene Seto, Faculty, Portland Community College on 6/20/17

I was involved with modifying an existing course to utilizes Open Education Resources in our introduction to Management Supervisory course. This text book is one that we selected a few chapters from for our course. I found this book covers all the... read more

I did not encounter any biased or inaccurate information in the textbook.

The principles of Business be the same, but the business world and our technology is constantly changing. I would imagine minor updates of examples and case studies would be needed every 2-3 years.

I found the chapters easy to read and follow. Key terminologies were highlighted and explained well.

Each chapter's layout is consistent and created an easy to follow framework.

The chapters are well organized, similar to many introductory Management textbook. The learning objective and summary for each chapter is good.

The flow of the chapters are fine. But we did not use all of the chapters for our course. Personally, I would put Globalization and Valued Based Leadership (Chapter 3) toward the end.

The embedded links that I came across to and tested were fine. There were not many graphics.

I did not found grammatical errors.

Nothing really stood out that seem to be culturally insensitive.

Page numbers would be helpful!

Reviewed by Holly Jean Greene, Lecturer, University of Tennessee, Knoxville on 6/20/17

The textbook covers subject matter found in most management texts such as the four foundations of management - planning, organizing, leading and controlling ( P-O-L-C). In fact, each chapter links back to P-O-L-C very well. The textbook covers... read more

The textbook covers organizational structure & culture, planning & goal setting, strategy & decision making, teams, leadership & motivation too. A few additional topics covered are social media and communication. One of the text strengths is in it's brevity: It covers a swath of terrain succinctly and would work well in course where an instructor wants to add additional learning tools such as videos and case studies.

I didn't find any areas of obvious inaccuracy or bias. In fact, I find the text is written without the opinion of the authors.

Each chapter includes a "case in point" story that's current or at least covers an event that's occurred within the last ten years.

I like the style in which the text is written - simple, easy to read prose. There are instances where I felt as if the text was written for an 8th grader, yet, if an instructor's goal is to use a text that simply introduces students to the foundations of management and they plan on adding additional learning tools, this is a great text to use.

I didn't see any obvious areas of inconsistency.

Using this text modularity and assigning just the sections students need is one of the text strengths. Each chapter stands on its own.

Organization of the text is clear and logical. In some instances, the text is not in the order I would assign but structuring the subject matter to an instructor's discretion is one of the advantages of using this text.

A few of the images seem small and I believe more images could have been used.

I didn't find any glaring grammatical errors.

Another one of the text strengths is its focus on helping students understand their own behavior. Each chapter contains an activity for students to complete that allows them the opportunity to learn more about their own behavior and biases.

This text in combination with additional learning materials - videos, case studies, self-assessment assignment - is a solid choice to use.

Reviewed by Paul Jacques, Associate Professor, Rhode Island College on 4/11/17

Each of the concepts that are typically covered in a Principles of Management course are included in this manuscript. The table of contents, chapter index, are helpful. Glossary of key terms is embedded within each chapter and could perhaps be broken out in a separate chapter section (end of chapter?) to aid comprehension. There was no index included in this reviewer’s copy of the text.

The concepts included are presented accurately.

To be sure, each of the topics covered in this text are within the scope of the body of knowledge that an Introduction to Management student would be expected to master. The references are quite dated, however, with the bulk of the most recent references being from 2008. That said, and perhaps in the interest of providing the most updated references possible, citations from seminal work (example: NEO-PI, Costa and McCrae, 1985) are largely ignored in lieu of more recent, but relatively lightweight, work s. While major concepts are explained, the impact of these concepts on the world of work/management are given much less emphasis. To the reader, this approach can be perceived as being presented with a stream of facts, one after the other, with little attempt at anchoring the concepts to applications.

Clarity rating: 3

What’s here is good with my main concern being that there’s large sections of pure, unbroken text. I would think that the “Key takeaway” segments could be more numerous throughout the chapter. The Moreover, these takeaways would seem to benefit from several “key implications for managers” summaries throughout the chapter. As it stands now, it appears to be left to the student to pull out the relevance of the various concepts explained.

It seems apparent that there was a great deal of work involved in the preparation of the book manuscript. Each chapter’s flow and appearance are similar to that in each of the other chapters.

Each chapter appears to be designed to stand alone.

The “What’s in it for me?” chapter introductions are a useful and clever way of avoiding the more sterile term “chapter learning objectives.” The significant challenge to the student, however, is to internalize the chapter readings so that he/she sees the applicability.

Not sure if it’s a browser/printer issue, but some of the images were inordinately small (ex: figure 2.11, p. 63). Moreover, several of the figures are orphaned in the text – no reference/support afforded by surrounding paragraphs.

This reviewer observed no instances of grammatical errors which, in a work of this size (over 600 pages) is compelling evidence of polished, thoughtful preparation.

There were no examples of cultural insensitivity. To the contrary, the authors added to the reader’s understanding of the topic by presentation of findings related to the GLOBE study. Perhaps a more comprehensive treatment of the topic would have resulted had the authors presented the idea of diversity from a “levels of analysis” perspective – individual, dyad, group/collective. This approach would seem to result in a more efficient presentation of the topic and one that is applicable to all levels of management.

Overall, it seems that a strength of this text is that it encompasses a full gamut of topics that are typically included in a Principles of Management course at the undergraduate level. This reviewer found the content to be quite strong, but the interface between content and learner to be the main opportunity that exists with this title. Specifically, cases are interspersed throughout the text/chapters, but there are no questions related to any of the cases and so the cases come across more as stories than they do point of convergence/learning. In addition, the segments that are labelled “Exercises” at the end of each chapter’s segments would be more aptly referred to as simply “chapter segment questions.” The reality that there is no real deep thought required to answer the questions nor are they reflective of any experiential/active learning. The word that this reviewer keeps coming back to is “Application.” The text boasts truly excellent content, but the application portion is largely missing.

Reviewed by David Bess, Professor, University of Hawaii on 8/21/16

The text covers the major topics taught in a typical introduction to management course quite thoroughly. read more

The text covers the major topics taught in a typical introduction to management course quite thoroughly.

It read well and seemed to be quite accurate in terms of the theories/concepts and their applications.

It is up to date...other than maybe some cases.

It is easy to read; has nice summary sections; flows well./

It is consistent.

It is easy to read and has nice short sections with summaries.

The topics are presented in a logical fashion. They are offered in the rough order found in many principles texts. It is not the order in which I teach them...but it is logical and clear.

The interface is sound.

The grammar is sound.

I believe it is ;culturally relevant for most cultures.

I wish it had page numbers....it is a bit difficult to navigate.

Reviewed by Kim bishop, Adjunct Faculty, Portland Community College on 8/21/16

Yes, the subjects match up with what our school has for Course content and outcome Guides, for this course. It covers all subjects adequately. read more

Yes, the subjects match up with what our school has for Course content and outcome Guides, for this course. It covers all subjects adequately.

I did not find any errors and I did not see it as biased in any way. I guess it would depend on what you call accuracy and unbiased. For my needs, from what I have been taught and from what I have learned in the working world, I found it adequate.

The only things that would need updating would be case studies that could be more current since it was written in 2010. Having more current up to date case studies would be more interesting to the students and more engaging since it would be current or within the last couple of years at least.

very easy to read and understand. There were a couple of acronyms that were new to me, but the way they were laid out in the objectives and then addressed were helpful.

I love the way it is laid out. each chapter was easy to navigate and set up. It is the same for each objective and chapter giving you lots of options for discussion and for assigning work.

It is organized excellently. as mentioned before I like how it is laid out with learning objectives, content, key take away and exercises for each section. I like the What's in it for Me, at the beginning of the chapter so it shows students what they will get out of the chapter and then it ties in with each section. I really like how this book is laid out.

Yes, very logical and easy to read as mentioned before. Student gets to see what they will learn and how they can apply it, then each section is broken down to address the learning objectives.

There was not a lot of graphics or pictures, but the links do work that are embedded for external work.

I could not find any glaring grammatical errors.

I did not find any examples of cultural insentitivity

I really like this book and I am going to use for my course in the fall as a resource. I really like how it is laid out and the case studies the exercises, discussion points as well as the external resources like finding out what your learning style is. I like that it does not have a bunch of fluff and pictures and graphics as I will use this as a resource. It is intuitive and as current as it can be. Management concepts do not change much over time, but how they are implemented and communicated do and I feel this addresses that need for change. it was an easy read and did not feel like you were reading a textbook but interesting information about management. There are enough outside links to other information that you do not really need the textbook and the online content they have extra that you have to pay for. I would recommend the book, with some updates periodically to the case studies.

Reviewed by Brian Richardson, Adjunct Faculty, University of Hawaii at Manoa on 8/21/16

In the introduction to Principles of Management, the authors state that there are three themes in the book: strategic thinking, entrepreneurial thinking, and active management. The entrepreneurial theme is not as prevalent as their introduction would suggest. There is some discussion of creativity, although references to writers and books beyond the single book by Edward De Bono would have enhanced the section. Sections that stand out as useful include the discussions of fairness, groupthink, employee performance review, and predictors of job performance. Some sub-sections and minor topics should have been separate sections with more details, such as the discussion of meetings, of interviewing, and of HR rules and policies. Finally, sections that would have useful additions to the textbook include how to write a good survey, how to deal with very difficult employees, and how to improve morale, which was referenced superficially but not focused on. The selection of management writers and level of detail provided for their positions is uneven. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is given three pages while Collins' discussion of changing good companies into great ones has two passing references and a short summary of the idea of a BAHG (big, hairy, audacious goal). Some thinkers were left out or not considered. Senge is not mentioned, even in the short section on "Learning Organizations". Likewise, academic writers and many historical thinkers, such as Max Weber, are not mentioned at all. Also lacking was a sense of how these different thinkers or ideas might disagree with each other or people outside of the management field. Instead, the text offers a series of disconnected concepts and models, which likely improved the modularity of the overall book, but at the cost of limiting the interactions between the topics and positions. As a result, there was little logical or conceptual analysis and the book relied on exposition.

Much of the textbook is made up of summaries of different concepts and models connected to management, with an emphasis on contemporary writers and psychosocial theories. There were no obvious inaccuracies in the summaries of the concepts and thinkers, although some sections could be criticized as limited, vague, superficial, or uncritical.

A textbook on management principles will become less relevant over time as updated information becomes available and new thinkers offer different concepts and models. One reference that stood out was the quote that "According to one source, there will be 11.5 million more jobs than workers in the United States by 2010." Given that this is a book last updated in 2015, the data should have been updated as well, especially given how wrong it turned out to be. Interestingly, this source is a Wired magazine article from 2007, published just before the economic crash. The examples and illustrations may become dated fairly quickly. References to specific CEOs and other leaders, for instance, will become less relevant over time. In this edition, there is a reference to and picture of Condoleeza Rice but no mention of Obama, for instance. Obama only occurs as a marginal participant in a group shot of world leaders

The clarity of the discussion is generally good, although there is some room for improvement. The photographs, for instance, do not support the text very well. A glossary would have been useful for clarifying all of terms used while an index would have helped readers access specific sections more effectively. The choice of examples is sometimes not clear. For instance, the examples used to illustrate organizations dealing with uncertain conditions, and thus needing flexible strategies were "a gang of car thieves or a construction company located in the Gaza Strip" (page 182). Both of these examples are strange and much better examples taken from businesses could have been provided and then discussed in some detail. Likewise, the example that they give of resistance to change was that people have been unwilling to adopt Dvorak keyboard and have stuck with the QWERT keyboard, despite the obvious efficiency of the Dvorak system (page 281). This is a great example of resistance to change, but one wonders why the authors could not find an example from business, such as how the railroads ignored the rise of the airplane.

While the book is generally consistent overall, it book sometimes strays from a discussion of the "principles" of management and does not adopt a consistent idea of what kinds of businesses are being talked about. The book would have been clearer if the authors had started with a classification of types of business that they are talking about (manufacturing, marketing, services, non-profits, perhaps) and be clear about what they were not covering (like government bureaucracies). For instance, I was thinking of using this textbook to support a course in Library management, and while some of it was useful, much of it would have been irrelevant or confusing. Had the book been clearer on how the different topics connected to different types of organizations, it would have been clearer which topics were relevant to specific readers or situations

The textbook is very modular, although there are times when this modularity breaks down. For instance, the discussion of data in the early part of the book was useful, but it would have been more appropriately connected to the discussion of budgeting, which occurs much later in the section on control. Another example is the discussion of globalization and intercultural issues, which occurs sporadically throughout the book and is never really brought into focus.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The overall structure of the textbook follows Fayol's POLC model of management (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling) with the overall narrative following the different stages in the process. Each section includes learning objectives, key takeaways, and discussion questions. These parts are very good at focusing the conversation in the larger sections. However, these additional parts are sometimes longer than the main text for that section and seem unnecessarily repetitive. The shift between institutional management and personal management is a bit strained at times, making it unclear whether the focus of the book is management or the personal growth of the manager. Each section included a list of references. In one section, there is simply a reference to the Columbia Encyclopedia, which was not helpful. Typically, however, there are a lot of references in each section. In fact, there are too many references that have minimal value. With some exceptions, the references are to short articles that could easily be retrieved by a Google search. Given that this is an introductory textbook, it would have been better to have an annotated "Further Reading" section that could lead readers to important writings and videos that expend on the different modules.

Interface rating: 3

The layout of the textbook follows standard page layout formatting. There are some things that could be improved. First, some of the text, such as some paragraph headers and keywords, are blue, which suggests that it is hyperlinked (as are the captions for pictures), but this is not the case. The full URLs in the text, also blue, are the only hyperlinks in the textbook. Another feature that could be improved is the way that the text, at least in the PDF version, has line breaks at the end of each line, which means that copying text leads to broken paragraphs that require additional editing if they are copied to another document or web page. The greatest issue with the interface, however, is the amount of white space that is included in the text. Given how short the different sections are and the way that the layout is organized, there is likely 100 pages worth of unnecessary white space in the text, which turns a 500-odd page book into over 600 pages. Added to this that the pictures and list of references are not that relevant, and the book appears to be laid out very inefficiently.

Beyond a few minor typos, the book was clearly written. The prose was a straightforward expository style, although at times it could have been more concise. The writers would often begin their paragraphs with rhetorical questions and then answer them right away, which did not help clarify the prose and typically made the writing more verbose. On page 279, the caption and the picture do not match.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

The book is focused on ideas and problems connected to American private-sector management. As a result, it is largely uncritical of large-scale organizations. Non-profits are discussed on a single page in the context of internal controls. Bureaucracy, as a term with negative connotations, is only mentioned in passing as an example of mechanistic structures, which are seen as an exception. Discrimination, likewise, is mentioned in passing three times, once in terms of how issues of discrimination have become a broader concern for "diversity management". Finally, unions are mentioned a few times in a long list of stakeholders (pages 150 and 151), even though the sample table for tracking stakeholders (page 148) does not mention them. Unions are seen as a punishment for businesses that appear to be unjust (page 529). At-will employment, on the other hand, is discussed in a focused paragraph in a way that does not consider the debate between union and at-will employment. For a textbook on industrial-focused management, the relative silence to the contrast between union and at-will employment conditions is unfortunate. When the book discusses global trends, it tends to be simplistic, taking trends such as "becoming more connected" as more important than such things as economic inequality, resource depletion, surveillance, war and terrorism, or social instability. In that sense, the book would not be very useful to people outside of the United States or to those who were actively engaged in intercultural management. At best, the book points to some of the problems that could be faced.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Principles of Management

1.1 Introduction to Principles of Management
1.2 Case in Point: Doing Good as a Core Business Strategy
1.3 Who Are Managers?
1.4 Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Strategy
1.5 Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling
1.6 Economic, Social, and Environmental Performance
1.7 Performance of Individuals and Groups
1.8 Your Principles of Management Survivor's Guide

Chapter 2: Personality, Attitudes, and Work Behaviors

2.1 Chapter Introduction
2.2 Case in Point: SAS Institute Invests in Employees
2.3 Personality and Values
2.4 Perception
2.5 Work Attitudes
2.6 The Interactionist Perspective: The Role of Fit
2.7 Work Behaviors
2.8 Developing Your Positive Attitude Skills

Chapter 3: History, Globalization, and Values-Based Leadership

3.1 History, Globalization, and Values-Based Leadership
3.2 Case in Point: Hanna Andersson Corporation Changes for Good
3.3 Ancient History: Management Through the 1990s
3.4 Contemporary Principles of Management
3.5 Global Trends
3.6 Globalization and Principles of Management
3.7 Developing Your Values-Based Leadership Skills

Chapter 4: Developing Mission, Vision, and Values

4.1 Developing Mission, Vision, and Values
4.2 Case in Point: Xerox Motivates Employees for Success
4.3 The Roles of Mission, Vision, and Values
4.4 Mission and Vision in the P-O-L-C Framework
4.5 Creativity and Passion
4.6 Stakeholders
4.7 Crafting Mission and Vision Statements
4.8 Developing Your Personal Mission and Vision

Chapter 5: Strategizing

5.1 Strategizing
5.2 Case in Point: Unnamed Publisher Transforms Textbook Industry
5.3 Strategic Management in the P-O-L-C Framew

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Principles of Management teaches management principles to tomorrow's business leaders by weaving three threads through every chapter: strategy, entrepreneurship and active leadership.

Strategic — All business school teachings have some orientation toward performance and strategy and are concerned with making choices that lead to high performance. Principles of Management will frame performance using the notion of the triple bottom-line — the idea that economic performance allows individuals and organizations to perform positively in social and environmental ways as well. The triple bottom line is financial, social, and environmental performance. It is important for all students to understand the interdependence of these three facets of organizational performance.

The Entrepreneurial Manager — While the "General Management" course at Harvard Business School was historically one of its most popular and impactful courses (pioneered in the 1960s by Joe Bower), recent Harvard MBAs did not see themselves as "general managers." This course was relabeled "The Entrepreneurial Manager" in 2006, and has regained its title as one of the most popular courses. This reflects and underlying and growing trend that students, including the undergraduates this book targets, can see themselves as entrepreneurs and active change agents, but not just as managers.

By starting fresh with an entrepreneurial/change management orientation, this text provides an exciting perspective on the art of management that students can relate to. At the same time, this perspective is as relevant to existing for-profit organizations (in the form intrapreneurship) as it is to not-for-profits and new entrepreneurial ventures.

Active Leadership — Starting with the opening chapter, Principles of Management shows students how leaders and leadership are essential to personal and organizational effectiveness and effective organizational change. Students are increasingly active as leaders at an early age, and are sometimes painfully aware of the leadership failings they see in public and private organizations. It is the leader and leadership that combine the principles of management (the artist's palette, tools, and techniques) to create the art of management.

This book's modular format easily maps to a POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling) course organization, which was created by Henri Fayol (General and industrial management (1949). London: Pitman Publishing company), and suits the needs of both undergraduate and graduate course in Principles of Management.

This textbook has been used in classes at: College of Alameda, Columbia Basin College, Flagler College, Johnson County Community College, Pasadena City College, Penn State University, Renton Technical College, San Diego Mesa College, Sierra College, Yuba College.

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1 Introduction to Management

Learning Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to:

1) Give you a basic understanding of management and its importance

2) Provide a foundation of the managerial functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling

Introduction to Management

Management is not a hard science. Unlike chemistry or algebra where a right answer (often) exists, management is fluid, and subjective, and there are divergent perspectives on how to employ its principles. But what exactly is management? Most scholars have variations of the same definition that include a utilization of resources to achieve a goal. Lussier (2021) defines a manager as “the individual responsible for achieving organizational objectives through efficient and effective utilization of resources” (p. 3). The problem with this definition is that it implies that a manager has to be both efficient and effective, which eliminates the possibility of having a bad manager. Each of us can probably contradict this definition by providing an example from our personal past. However, this definition contains the basic elements of using resources to pursue goals.

An early management scholar, Mary P. Follett characterized management as “the art of getting things done through the efforts of other people” (Graham, 1995). This definition implies both pursuing goals (getting things done) and utilizing resources (predominantly through people). However, this too is missing an element, that of the organizational context. An important consideration for understanding management is that the term organization simply refers to “a collection of people working together to achieve a common purpose” (Shermerhorn, 2013, p. 11). This means an organization could be anything from your high school volleyball team to church or a corporation. Including the term “organization” in the definition leaves open the possibility that management can be practiced in each of these settings, and broadens our use of the term management. A comprehensive definition for management then, would be the pursuit of organizational goals through the use of organizational resources (Bateman & Snell, 2013). Pursuit implies a chance of failure and organizational gives us a context. This begs the question – how can we become effective at the pursuit of goals, or become more efficient in our use of organizational resources? Being good at management requires an immense focus on both of these ends, and we can achieve this through the process of the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling functions of management. These functions serve as the basis for the rest of the textbook because they are the essential tools we use to manage organizations. Most of the context and examples for this book focus on the corporate use of management. However, you should meet the concepts where you are in your professional or academic career – apply the principles to the context of your life, master the four functions for what you are doing now so that you can scale them to much bigger managerial endeavors later.

Management is not New

A broad understanding of management as resource utilization focused on a goal gives us a wide scope of situations and contexts in which to practice it. For example, the Crow Indians employed a complex strategy to harvest an entire herd of buffalo by driving them off a cliff. To funnel the herd to the lane leading up to the cliff they used a decoy (a hunter donned in a buffalo calf robe imitating a lost calf), incense to smoke them towards the lane, or rock piles to guide them to the lane (Nathan, 2018). If we apply the basic principles of management in this context we can see these hunters used resources (rocks, incense, knowledge and tradition) to pursue a goal (procurement of food, tools, and clothing the bison afforded them).

case study on introduction to management

At its core, this imperial supply chain used the same approach to achieve success th at a teenager might use in a playing video games. If he rallys his friends after school in a game of Call of Duty to defeat their online opponents, he might also be considered a manager. He uses his experience and knowledge of gameplay as well as weaponry within the game to pursue his goal of competitive domination.

These examples demonstrate that management is multifarious, and not at all a recent phenomenon. Yet, when we hear the term management , most of us probably conjure an image something like that of a corporate vice president implementing a marketing strategy to meet quarterly sales goals. The irony is that the corporate manager is utilizing the same tools as those of the native hunter, Spanish fleet admiral, and sophomore gamer. Management is both universal and ubiquitous in that we all use variations of its elements.

The Four Functions of Management

The management process by which we pursue goals includes planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. These are “ the how ” a manager pursues organizational goals, and are universally known as the four functions of management. They stem from the work of a French mining administrator, Henri Fayol, who first identified management as a practice that could be improved through the use of five functions – planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Since he published his work in 1916, we have decided that leading people through motivation and incentivization works much better than telling them what to do (e.g. commanding and coordinating). We use the term leading instead of these practices. Chapter 2 on the history of management will provide some insights regarding this change. Nonetheless, he gave us a place from which to start.

Even if you have never stepped foot in a corporate office, or held the title of manager at your local Dairy Queen, you have no less used the functions of management in your personal pursuits. A relevant example would be the process by which you manage your personal budget.

Reflection: Are you already a manager?

Think about your personal or family budget for a moment, and answer the following questions:

1) Do you have your budget written down somewhere, or in an excel spreadsheet?

2) What are your financial goals?

3) How much do you put in savings, charity, and monthly expenses?

4) Where does your money come from (a job, your parents, a hobby, your spouse)?

5) If you have a budget shortfall during the month, what do you do?

6) How do you keep track of expenses to ensure your bank account remains in the black?

If you answered yes to question #1, then you are already engaged in the management function of planning. You know where your money is being spent. The same holds true for your financial goals. If you want to leave college debt free, save for a down payment on a house, or go on an unforgettable spring break trip, you have defined your organizational objective! Where you put your money is a function of how you manage your resources. This organizing function is presumably in line with your financial goals. For example, if you want to save for a down payment, you need to actually allocate your resources (income) to a savings account. Moreover, where your money comes from is also the source of your organizational resources. A budget shortfall might require you to employ the leading function of management. The essence of leading is motivating other people to align with your plan. What do you do if you need to pay bills, but don’t have the money? Perhaps you ask your parents for a loan (need to sell this idea to them), or you might need to negotiate with a co-worker to let you take on extra shifts (show them what’s in it for them in return), or it might be the reality that you need to sell something to make ends meet by selling something (in which case selling requires you to inspire someone else to see value in what you are selling). Leading might also entail convincing someone else in your circle to get on board with your gameplan (like a spouse, or sibling). Finally, keeping track of your expenses to ensure solvency and pace with your goals is the core of the controlling function. Do you keep receipts and check them against your online account expenses? Do you update your spreadsheet after your bill automatically debits from your account? Do you get an email notifying you have a low balance and are in risk of overdraft charges? Each of these methods are ways to monitor your progress and decide if you need to make a change (short term or long term).

If you reflect on this example of your personal budget, or you worked to achieve a personal or team goal, you will likely conclude that you are already a manager. This wide application of managerial thinking means that if you can master its principles on your personal scale, you can then amplify its use when you need to use it on a large scale. Get good at leading your class project, organizing your club fundraiser, or helping your team win a conference championship, and you will later be able to magnify the scale to lead a marketing department, or corporate merger, and even diplomatic negotiations as a prime minister.

Mastering the four functions will allow you to apply the function of planning on a more complex stage such as evaluating the internal and external environments of your organization. Using this analysis you can create an effective game plan to formulate a sustainable competitive advantage. Developing an organizing skillset will allow you to propose a structure for your team that incorporates cross functional members and ways of thinking. It will allow you to identify and recommend resources needed to pursue your plan. Honing your leading skillset will afford you the capability to motivate your organizational stakeholders to partake in your strategy, and force you to consider the ethical implications of your actions. Finally, implementing effective controlling allows you to check progress towards your goals and to recommend changes if you need to get on track.

Planning is the systematic process of making decisions about goals and activities the organization will pursue (Bateman & Snell, 2013). To make a decision about the direction of an organization, the planning phase must begin with analyzing the environment. Without a solid understanding of the context, the manager would have no basis to provide future direction. The context gives a manager a point of reference for improvement, opportunity, and learning from past mistakes. For this reason, the planning function should begin with analysis. This analysis should consider both the internal factors such as culture, values, and performance of team members as well as the external factors such as competitive environment, legal regulations, economy, technology, social values, and demographics.

The second component of planning is to use this analysis of the environment to build goals, activities, and objectives. For a major organization this might be the vision and mission statement of the organization. For a smaller organization this could be a year end, or season end goal. Some consider planning that point in your day or month that you step away from your desk, and think about the direction of your organization. This requires you to reflect on your organization’s past, and determine how that impacts the direction going forward.

Organizing is the process of assembling and assigning the human, financial, physical, informational, and other resources needed to achieve goals (Bateman & Snell, 2013). The core of the organizing function is leveraging the resources to align with the determined goals. Organizing human resources means first of all attracting a labor force that can help you pursue your goal. Within the organization, managing the human element means assigning tasks, delegating authority, determining a structure and hierarchy. Organizing the financial resources equates to making sure your capital is being utilized to meet goals. If an organization decides they want to have a best-in-class customer service team, they better being willing to spend the money to attract people with the disposition towards serving others, and spend money on training, or a retreat to teach the agents the skillsets they need. Marshalling physical resources focuses on the effectiveness of where you place and how you use physical assets. An executive chef might re-arrange a kitchen to improve process flow, food quality, or mitigate safety risks for example. Informational resources implies a leveraging and disseminating the organization’s knowledge in meaningful ways to achieve goals. Connecting employees to how they contribute to the financial bottom line is a way of leveraging informational resources, as is using your company’s proprietary algorithm to predict stock prices or develop new products.

Leading is stimulating high performance by members of the organization (Bateman and Snell, 2013). This function is getting members of the organization on board with your plan.

Normally, this means connecting with direct reports or teammates on a personal level. Understanding what drives individuals within the team allows a manager to design strategies around motivating, incentivizing, mobilizing, and arousing a desire to contribute.

Imagine for a minute, that you analyzed the conditions of the organization, you determined a game plan to pursue and even directed resources to step in that direction. You have successfully implemented the planning and organizing functions. In this scenario, however, you did not give consideration to how your team or organization would be involved. Do they agree with your direction? Did they have input in the process? Do they feel valued as a team member? Do they understand their role in a successful outcome? All of these questions are answered by the degree to which a manager is engaged in the leading function.

Having personal conversations, designing a bonus structure, or giving a rousing speech might all be considered leading the organization.

Controlling

Control is installing processes to guide the team towards goals and monitoring performance towards goals and making changes to the plan as needed (Batemen & Snell, 2013). Control does not always mean limited what the organization can do by having a hand in everything. We might call this micro-managing, which is control in its extreme form. Healthy control processes involve putting systems in place to make sure your organization is on track to meet the goals you established in the planning process. Planning sets standards to compare against, and the control process is the dashboard that tells whether or not you are meeting the standard. For example, a grocery store might set a goal of reducing shrink (that’s product lost to shoplifting, damage). They decide that they want to reduce their shrink loss by 50%. To achieve this plan, they will have to dedicate resources (more employees to monitor, rearrange loading dock). You already recognize that step as the organizing function. We then incentivize our employees by designing a bonus structure – i.e. if we collectively meet the goal, each employee shares in the savings. If we stop there, we would have no way of knowing if we met the goal. The control process solves this for us. The last step in the grocery store manager’s managerial approach is to have each department head report their shrink loss at the end of the shift, and aggregate those in an excel spreadsheet. In this way, the manager can see if the rearrangement of the loading dock has reduced the number of damaged canned goods that was happening under the old arrangement. The manager can make changes if they see that shrink is not improving even after hiring a greeter at the entrance.

Monitoring performance is the first step in control. After see the progress towards goals, the next step is to make changes. In this way, the control process always leads a manager back to the planning phase of management. There are only two outcomes to the control process. You are making progress towards your goal, or you are digressing in your performance. If you reach your goal, you will need to set new goals, which is the planning function. If you are not progressing towards your goal, you need to analyze the environment and determine why not. In this way the management functions are related and highly dependent upon each other, especially control and planning.

To illustrate the application of the four functions of manager, consider the various contexts in Figure 1.1. Under the personal budget, an engaged couple has decided to save for a house after getting married. The softball coach must determine how to win a conference championship, and the corporate manager is working on a strategy to improve waning sales figures.

Figure 1.1 – The Functions of Management Applied

On the Importance of Studying Management

The purpose of this textbook is to provide you with firstly, a broad exploration of what management is – its elements and origins. Secondly, the purpose of this textbook is to provide you with a managerial framework you can utilize to practice management at any level of complexity. This framework emphasizes the four basic functions – planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Most management textbooks include a wide variety of academic terms and concepts that take focus away from these four functions. Other textbooks will inundate the reader with descriptions of heuristics, focus on layers of management, or extraneous terms like the Shamrock organization that do not advance a practical understanding of management. We have designed this textbook with the four functions of management at the forefront because these elements are so critical to the foundation of everything you will do in the managerial context. This textbook provides a history of management and a chapter on ethics, but then focuses exclusively on the functions of management as the subject matter. At the completion of this textbook, you should be able to understand, recognize, and apply these four functions of management.

The four functions of management (plan, organize, lead, and control) serve as the foundation for everything else you will study in your business education. Mastering these tools at the most basic level, as well as the more sophisticated levels in classes you will take later, will best prepare you as a business professional (Dolechek et al, 2019).

Figure 1.2 – Management as the Foundation

Upon completion of a management principles course, you will progress towards the applications of the four functions of management in the upper level courses. For this reason, management principles serves as a pre-requisite for most other management courses. In marketing principles you will develop an understanding of how to analyze external conditions, and a course in information systems will help you design ways to collect more information to analyze. This is the core of the planning function. In human resources and organizational behavior, you will learn the dynamics of your ever-important resource of human labor, the organizing function. In business ethics and applied management skills you work on understanding what drives people, and by association how to lead them based on that understanding. Grasping business law and production operations will give you a deeper understanding of how to monitor progress (to meet legal compliance and to test production quality for example). The entire discipline of accounting is a managerial function of control. Constructing financial statements is done for the sole purpose of determining the performance of you organization so that you can make future decisions. The capstone course of a business program is the business strategy class. In this course, students are given an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the four functions by including all of the functional areas of business in their decision making.

A Whale of an Example

You are the city manager of a coastal Oregon city. On a quiet, rainy Tuesday, you walk into your office and put the coffee on. As you take your first sip, your administrative assistant forwards you a phone call from the parks and rec manager. “We’ve got a problem down here on the beach. The tide just left a dead humpback whale on our beach.” What do you do? What. Do. You. Do?? Now, there are several options to dealing with the dead whale. Consider the following questions:

1) What is your strategy for dealing with this problem? ( Plan )
2) What resources do you need to follow your strategy? ( Organize )
3) What stakeholders do you need to get on-board? ( Lead )
4) What steps can you take to make sure your plan is proceeding as you planned it? ( Contro l)

There are a handful of strategies we might naturally gravitate towards. The feasibility of each strategy depends on how well you employ the functions of management.

Tow the whale back to sea – A crane, tug boat, and tow cable are needed. Who might you need to include in this gameplan? The coast guard might need to be involved to discuss any pertinent regulations. A marine captain that can tell you about tides so that you can time your extraction, and insights about currents to indicate how far out you need to haul the whale once its buoyant. Should you allow a marine biologist to provide advice on what sort of ecological impact this might have (like bring in unwanted sharks or seals). How can you be sure the tow cable has enough tinsel strength to haul a bloated whale on a high friction surface like wet sand? Does the crane have the capacity to move the carcass into position to be hauled? If the whale is decaying, will the tow cable just pull through the rotten flesh?

Cut the whale up, haul it to the dump – You will need a forklift, semi-truck, and chainsaw. The first consideration here would be the logistics of pursuing this strategy. You will need to find a truck with the towing capacity to haul large chunks of the carcass off the beach. Can you ensure the weight of a loaded semi would not sink into the wet sand? How much does a semi-loaded with a whale carcass weight? You may also need to contact the county roads manager to determine if there are any bridges between the beach and the dump that have weight restrictions. What sort of protective equipment would you need for the men slicing through the whale with chainsaws? There are a few control processes that need to be put in place for this strategy to work.

Celebrate the whale – The objective of the city manager is to “deal with” the dead whale. For most, this would mean remove it somehow. For others, this might be a chance to celebrate the occasion, and establishing the experience in the culture and history of the town. To celebrate the whale, the city manager can hold a competition like car dealers do to promote their cars – have contestants place their hand on the whale and the last person to withstand touching the grotesque, slimy, and malodorous creature, somehow wins a major prize. This would require a sponsor to donate a prize (a car, a vacation) and the town can celebrate the occasion annually. If the goal is to appease the community from the existence of the whale and its stench, celebration is one strategy to pursue that end. You would need to include a biologist to determine if leaving the whale to decay after the festival would attract scavengers, and a water chemist to determine if a decaying whale creates toxicity problems for beach goers.

Blow it up! – The kid in most of us choose this option. Definitely. You might need to check with state officials to see what the protocols are on this approach. The biggest question would be how much dynamite do you need to blow up a whale, or blow it into the ocean? In Oregon, one stakeholder group you might contact is a mining company or the Oregon national guard. Both of those groups have a lot of experience calculating explosive requirements. What are the safety protocols you need in place to make sure that no one is injured? Where will you be able to source enough explosives to achieve this goal?

Use of the four functions

Each of these scenarios contain some far-fetched elements. But asking the right questions is paramount to turning any of these into a feasible strategy. You first need to decide a path, then determine your resources before getting stakeholder groups on board. For a high-risk situation like most of these solutions call for, you need to put control mechanisms in place to mitigate your risks. If you type “Oregon’s exploding whale” you can see what has become the most-watching news broadcast of all time. It shows you what happens when a city manager does not successfully navigate the situation using all four functions of management.

Critical Thinking Questions

How are the four functions of management related?

Which is the most important function of management?

Choose a historical event prior to the year 2000. Analyze the leader’s use of the four functions of management during that event.

How to Answer the Critical Thinking Questions

For each of these answers you should provide three elements.

General Answer. Give a general response to what the question is asking, or make your argument to what the question is asking.
Outside Resource. Provide a quotation from a source outside of this textbook. This can be an academic article, news story, or popular press. This should be something that supports your argument. Use the sandwich technique explained below and cite your source in APA in text and then a list of full text citations at the end of the homework assignment of all three sources used.
Personal Story. Provide a personal story that illustrates the point as well. This should be a personal experience you had, and not a hypothetical. Talk about a time from your personal, professional, family, or school life. Use the sandwich technique for this as well, which is explained below.

Use the sandwich technique:

For the outside resource and the personal story you should use the sandwich technique. Good writing is not just about how to include these materials, but about how to make them flow into what you are saying and really support your argument. The sandwich technique allows us to do that. It goes like this:

Step 1: Provide a sentence that sets up your outside resource by answering who, what, when, or where this source is referring to.

Step 2: Provide the quoted material or story.

Step 3: Tell the reader why this is relevant to the argument you are making.

EXAMPLE : Let me provide an example of homework expectations using the type of question you might see in a critical thinking question at the end of the chapter. Each of the answers you provide should be this thorough.

Question: Explain why it is important to study management.

Management is important to study because it serves as the foundation for all other areas of business. The four functions can be used in other business areas such as accounting, marketing, operations management and human resources. All of the areas of business need people who know how to make a plan and allocate resources. All of the areas of business need people who know how to motivate others, and to make sure they are on track for their organization’s goals. For this reason, improving our mastery of management will make us more effective at whichever role we are in. A good example of this foundation comes from research conducted on accounting firms in Romania. Wang and Huynh (2014) found that accounting managers who embraced both managerial best practices and had the technical skills needed for accounting improved the organizational outcomes of their firms. These findings suggest that business professionals need managerial skills to supplement the day-to-day roles they have.

As I reflect on management as a foundational discipline, I remember how my high school baseball coach approached our team after a losing season. We were not a good team because we did not have fundamentals of how to grip a baseball, how to stand in the batter’s box, or how to field a ground ball. That next year, he taught us all of these fundamentals and we won a lot of games. It seems to me that learning fundamentals of management can have the same impact. Being able to execute the four functions of management allows us to get better at how we approach marketing a new product, or improving operations processes.

Wang, D., & Huynh, Q. (2014). Linkages among corporate governance, management accounting practice and organizational performance: Evidence from a Southeast Asian country. Romanian Economic and Business Review, 9(1), 63-81.

Chapter References

Aho O.W., Lloyd R.A. (2019) The Origins of Robust Supply Chain Management and Logistics in the Caribbean: Spanish Silver and Gold in the New World (1492–1700). In:

Bowden B., McMurray A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Management History . Palgrave Macmillan: London, UK.

Bateman, T., & Snell, S. (2013). M: Management (3rd ed) . McGraw Hill / Irwin: New York, NY

Dolechek, R., Lippert, T., Vengrouskie, E. F., & Lloyd, R. A. (2019). Solving a whale of a problem: Introducing the four functions of management in a management principles course . International Forum of Teaching Studies, 15 (2), 29-35.

Fayol, H. (1949). General and Industrial Management . Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd: London, U.K.

Graham, P. (1995). Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of Management. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.

Lussier, R. (2021). Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. (9th Ed). Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Nathan, R. (2018). The Grapevine Creek Buffalo Jump Complex: Interdisciplinary Research on the Crow Reservation, Montana (Doctor of Anthropology, dissertation). Indiana University.

Shermerhorn, J. (2013). Management (12th Ed) . Wiley and Sons: Hoboken, NJ

The Four Functions of Management Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Robert Lloyd and Dr. Wayne Aho is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Introduction

Learning outcomes.

After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer these questions:

What do managers do to help organizations achieve top performance?
What are the roles that managers play in organizations?
What are the characteristics that effective managers display?

Exploring Managerial Careers

So, you’re in this course and you may have pondered, or discussed with others, what this course will be about. You probably have some preconceptions of what management is all about. You must manage your time, deciding on how much study time you will devote to your management and accounting classes, for instance. You may have had a summer or part-time job where you had a manager whom you had to report to. You may have followed news reports on successful managers like Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and want to learn what made them successful so you can emulate their practices in your business career. You may have the impression (not an accurate one) that management is basically just common sense and that you really don’t need to take this course except that you must meet your degree requirement.

You may be an accounting or marketing major who is taking this class because it is required for completion of your degree requirements, but you don’t think that you will ever require what you learn in this class during your career since you don’t plan on applying for HR jobs upon graduation. If you’re believing this, you could not be more mistaken. Regardless of where you are in your career, be it as an individual contributor, project leader, or middle or senior manager, what you will get out of this course will be valuable. If your first job out of college is as an accountant, sales representative, or another entry-level position, you will appreciate the roles that your managers, both direct and senior level, play in an organization and the behaviors and actions that will get you recognized and appreciated. Best of luck!

Most management textbooks would say, as does this one, that managers spend their time engaged in planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and controlling. These activities, as Hannaway found in her study of managers at work, “do not, in fact, describe what managers do.” 1 At best they seem to describe vague objectives that managers are continually trying to accomplish. The real world, however, is far from being that simple. The world in which most managers work is a “messy and hectic stream of ongoing activity.” 2

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Introduction to Management is an online free course that will help you understand concepts such as the importance of learning business management, managing markets, operations, capital, people, and also the concept of “Young Entrepreneur”. You will understand what business management is and will have a better understanding of what you can expect from the career it offers. You can learn the Management course and upskill to fit in the best career opportunities.

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Goldratt, Eliyah M., and Jeff Cox. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement . 2nd revised ed. North River Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780884270614.
[MSD] = Cachon, Gerard, and Christian Terwiesch. Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management . 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill, 2012. ISBN: 9780073525204.

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Case exercises in an introduction to management course: a structured approach to increase student engagement

The CASE Journal

Research methodology Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the effectiveness of the case exercise process as it relates to increasing student participation and engagement. Surveys were used as a data collection method where students self-reported their participation. Case overview/synopsis This research paper argues that class engagement and participation is a process that must be learned by students. To this end, it presents a case exercise process designed particularly for the introduction to management class that helps students to learn and apply management theory while increasing their engagement. While each element of the process is not new, the integration of the elements into a process that is structured and repeated throughout the semester adds value to student participation. Empirical data demonstrated that students increased their participation in classes that used the case exercise process over traditional lecture classes. Complexity academic level T...

Related Papers

Academy of Management Learning & Education

Paul Carlile

International Journal of Pedagogical Innovations

Education + Training

Cherry Narumon Sriratanaviriyakul

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of real, localized case studies on students’ learning engagement, the learning process and learning experience and the role of such case studies in influencing students’ learning outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 400 undergraduate students through an online questionnaire immediately after discussion of the case in Business Information Systems classes. Student learning from the case study was measured by two components consisting of case knowledge and case perceptions. The student course engagement questionnaire was used to examine engagement in skills, emotions, participation and performance while the study process questionnaire was administered to assess students’ learning approaches. Additionally, the seven predominant roles of the feedback were used to analyse students’ learning experience. Finally, students’ learning outcomes were assessed both in group performance and individual performance. Structure equation modelling was applied to test the causal model. Findings – The results revealed that the case study had a positive influence on students’ engagement in skills and emotions. Moreover, case perceptions led students to surface approach in their learning. Furthermore, case knowledge had a positive impact on the learning experience. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that localized case studies should be designed cautiously. Furthermore the method of instruction regarding the method must be clearly explained for undergraduate students. Future research should consider a way of evaluating academic achievement as a result of using localized cases. Originality/value – The findings reported in the paper contributed to an area of educational research by emphasizing on the mediating role of learning engagement, the learning process and the learning experience.

Daniel Valentine

Sonal Gogri

Today's education is seeing a paradigm shift. A huge revolution is taking place in the management education in India. The corporate houses demand the management professionals that are fully equipped with decision making skills and possess the required knacks to perform specific jobs. However, with the advent of freely available online resources, managing a classroom has thus become a difficult task for teachers. To shape the students into the industry ready employees, it is imperative that the students' involvement in classroom study increases. To enhance the students learning the top management institutes of India like IIMs have made pioneering efforts to adopt case based pedagogy. On the other hand learning via case study in an undergraduate management institutes is still in a nascent stage. The paper explores the issues and challenges faced by the instructors in adopting a case study pedagogy in undergraduate management institutes. The study has been done by carrying out through literature review, faculties' survey through questionnaire and by taking in-depth interviews of faculties from different colleges. The primary data was collected in Ahmedabad and the data has been analysed using statistical tools like graphs, charts and calculated averages. The authors have also suggested the aspects that the management institutes may incorporate to escalate their overall competence.

International Journal of Higher Education

Karina Piersig

This paper reports the experiences from the implementation of a Small Private Online Course in Management Education which has been designed to support learner engagement and promote digital competency. We describe the instructional design in detail, present some exploratory findings from a mixed-methods course evaluation and reflect on the lessons learned.

Dr. Binod Shah

Case method of teaching has been a significant innovation of Harvard Business School (HBS) to help develop managerial competencies in the participants of management education programmes. The use of case studies in management education is now universal and ubiquitous. This method of teaching is now taken for granted by the B-schools. The case method brings the field to the class and provides an opportunity to the participants to get involved in real life situations. It is a powerful student-centered teaching method that can impart students with critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills. The objective of this articles is to highlight the utility of the case study as a teaching pedagogy. In this study, the literature related to the case study method was examined. This article explains the concept of case study method, its origin, its advantages and its limitations. It also describes the instructor's role and participant's role in case method of teaching.

BRC Journal of Advances in Education

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Hertz CEO Kathryn Marinello with CFO Jamere Jackson and other members of the executive team in 2017

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four. Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls, Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1. Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2. Coffee 2016

3. Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4. Glory, Glory Man United!

5. Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6. The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7. Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8. Prodigy Finance

9. Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

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How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

89% of consumers read reviews before buying, 79% view case studies, and 52% of B2B buyers prioritize case studies in the evaluation process.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

An engaging headline
A subject and customer introduction
The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
The solution the customer used to solve the problem
The results achieved
Data and statistics to back up claims of success
A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools card image

Essay Assignment Writing Tips for Students of MBA, Masters, PhD Level

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Management Case Study with Questions and Answers

Writing case studies is an essential part of management. Various graduations, as well as post graduation degree courses, is offered on multiple managerial stream and specializations. The questions and answers are an essential part of the case study.

There can be different sets of questions and answers for different management specializations. You need to prepare study and write very well in all these case study question answer assignment sets. You need to follow simple rules and tips to write these answers accurately for getting the top grades.

A case study report help online service can be the best option for you in writing the answers correctly. You will surely/assuredly get the highest grades by availing of their services. Since the services are entirely online, it saves a lot of time money and energy of the students. In this blog, we will discuss/debate a few tips to write the Management Case Study questions and answers in the best way.

Management Case Study with Questions and Answers

What Are the Most Frequent Questions in Management?

Common questions on marketing management are as follows:

How to apply the SWOT analysis ideally for the well-being of company X?
How to apply PESTEL analysis?
How to do proper market segmentation?
How to do the best market survey?
How can you do the best marker positioning of your newly launched product in the market?
What are the best ways to fix branding?
How to build up brand loyalty among the target customers?
How can you apply the BCG matrix?
How to do the best market forecasting in an ideal way?
What can you do to utilize the online marketing mode most efficiently?
How to do intertribal marketing?
How to achieve benchmarking?
How can you do brainstorming?
How to make an outstanding patent or goodwill in a market?
How to boost up the sales rate with a well-planned market strategy?
How to set the questionnaires for an effective national as well in the international market survey?
How to know each requirement and demands of the target customers?
How to meet exact needs of the customers?
How to improve the quality of your offered products and services?

The answers to all the questions mentioned above need to be substantiated with relevant practical examples from the current industry. A reputed Case Study Assignment Help online service provider can provide you with the best examples from the current industry.

Typical Questions in Financial Management Are As Follows:

How to plan for the best budget in favors of company X?
How to do annual financial forecasting for any company?
How can you maximize the chances of financial gain and minimize the possibility of financial losses in the future with the help of various useful financial models?
How to do a financial leveraging?
How to do a very useful financial auditing?
What are the best financial models and plans for the benefits of any organization?
How to withstand financially even amidst an economic slowdown?
What are the best financial management strategies to strengthen the private as well as public sector banks or financial institutions?

Case study analysis assignment writing can guide you the very best in this respect. He will provide you with the best examples from the current financial industry.

Common Case Study Questions on Human Resource (HR) Management

How to do the best HR auditing?
What are the best recruitment tactics by any company?
How to boost the workforce of any company?
How to handle attrition rates and headhunting of the top company staff?
What is the main difference in HR department handling of both government and private sector companies?
How can you pan the best performance appraisal scheme to motivate the employees?
How to purpose the most appropriate salary scales for the staffs at various positions?
How to plan proper incentives and overtime money for the employees?

A trustworthy online case study assignment essays writing service provider can give you an obvious idea on answering all the questions as mentioned above with the top examples. I your case study assignment paper a particular company issue am presented and you are asked to solve it with your own managerial as well as analytical skills. You also need to answer the case study questions in the best way to impress your college faculties.

Common Case Study Questions on Systems Management

Today, the Information Technology (IT) or the solar systems management firms a significant part of the MBA or any other business management course. The application of software is now compulsory in any professional field. A few common questions on systems management are listed below:

How to apply software for a company’s managerial activities?
How to make the IT backbone of your company healthy?
What type of computer operators and software engineers are required for your company?
How to apply computer software to various departments of your company?
What types of software tools and technologies are the most applicable to your organization?
How to handle multiple software technologies for managerial applications?
How to manage and protect the software from different viruses?

In answering these questions also, you need to give the best examples from the ongoing software industry.

Today, operations management is one of the significant managerial specializations. Some

Common Questions on Operations Management Are As Follows:

How Operations Management Help in research and development (R and D) department of a company?
How to reduce the production of defective articles?
How to build the best use of the Delphi technique?
How to utilize the best statistical models for various operations management applications?
How to improve and benchmark the technical advancement of your company with the help of operations management applications?

Relevant examples are to be given from various production industries and firms while answering the case study questions mentioned above. The standards must be true and proper. The answer must be added with the best illustrations. You need to follow specific format and style while writing the answers as guided by your business school. Any plagiarism or copy-pasted content should not be there in your assignment paper. It should too be free of any spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors. If you follow these rules, you can get the highest grades in your case study assignment questions and answer papers as well as sessions.

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Top 20 Project Management Case Studies [With Examples]

Project management case study analyses showcase and compare real-life project management processes and systems scenarios. These studies shed light on the common challenges that project managers encounter on a daily basis. This helps project managers develop effective strategies, overcome obstacles, and achieve successful results.

By leveraging project management case studies , organisations can optimise their operations by providing insights into the most effective approaches. With effective implementation of these case studies, strategies, and methodologies, ensuring successful project completion is achievable.

Criteria for Selection of Top 20 Case Studies

The top 20 case studies are selected based on significance, impact, challenges, project management strategies, and overall success. They provide diverse insights and lessons for project managers and organisations.

1. The Sydney Opera House Project

The Sydney Opera House Project is an iconic example of project management case studies as it faced multiple challenges during its construction phase. Despite facing leadership changes, budget overruns, and design failures, the project persevered and was completed in 1973, a decade later than planned. The Opera House stands as a symbol of perseverance and successful project management in the face of humankind.

2. The Airbus A380 Project

The Airbus A380 Project is a project management case study showcasing the challenges encountered during developing and producing the world’s largest commercial aircraft. The project experienced massive delays and impacted costs of more than $6 billion, with several issues arising from the manufacturing and delivery process, outsourcing, and project coordination.

However, the Airbus A380 was successfully launched through carefully planned project management strategies, delivering a world-class aircraft that met customer expectations.

3. The Panama Canal Expansion Project

The Panama Canal Expansion Project serves as a compelling case study, illustrating the management’s encounters in expanding the capacity of the Panama Canal. The project included multiple stakeholders, technological innovations, environmental concerns, and safety challenges.

4. The Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project

The Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project serves as a project management case study of a large-scale underground tunnel construction project. It successfully addressed traffic congestion and was completed in 2007. The project was completed in 2007, with numerous hurdles delaying progress like complexity, technology failure, ballooning budgets, media scrutiny, etc.

5. The London 2012 Olympics Project

The London 2012 Olympics Project stands as a successful project management case study, showcasing the management of a large-scale international sporting event. This project involved the construction of a new sports infrastructure, event logistics and security concerns. The project was successfully accomplished, delivering a world-class event that captivated the audience.

6. The Hoover Dam Bypass Project

The Hoover Dam Bypass Project was a construction project in the United States of America that intended to alleviate traffic from the Hoover Dam by building a new bridge. Completed in 2010, the bridge spans across the Colorado River, connecting Arizona and Nevada and offers a safer and more efficient route for motorists.

7. The Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project

The Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project is a case study example constructed in San Francisco, California. Its objective was to enhance the bridge’s resilience against earthquakes and aftershocks. Completed in 2012, the project included the installation of shock absorbers and other seismic upgrades to ensure the bridge’s safety and functionality in the event of a major earthquake.

8. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Project

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Project is a massive case study that intends to connect Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau with a bridge-tunnel system of 55 kilometres. Completed in 2018, the project required massive funds, investments and innovative engineering solutions, providing a new transport link and boosting regional connectivity.

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9. The Panama Papers Investigation Project

The Panama Papers Investigation Project is a global case study of journalistic investigations into offshore tax havens. It involved leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm. Coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the project resulted in major political and financial repercussions worldwide, garnering widespread media attention.

10. The Apple iPhone Development Project

The Apple iPhone Development Project started in 2004, aiming to create a groundbreaking mobile device. In 2007, the iPhone transformed the industry with its innovative touchscreen interface, sleek design, and advanced features. This project involved significant research, development, marketing, and supply chain management investments.

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11. The Ford Pinto Design and Launch Project

The Ford Pinto Design and Launch Project was a developmental project intended to create an affordable, fuel-efficient subcompact car. Launched in 1971, because of its fuel tank design, it became infamous for safety issues. The project was rigged for ethical and safety concerns, lawsuits, and recalls.

12. The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response Project

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response Project was a response to the largest oil spill in US history, caused by an offshore drilling rig explosion in 2010. This crisis response project utilised a waterfall project management approach, where the project team followed a pattern of planning, executing, monitoring, and closing phases.

13. The NASA Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster Project

The NASA Challenger Disaster Project was a tragic space exploration mission in 1986, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members. Extensive investigations revealed design and safety flaws as the cause. This disaster prompted NASA to address decision-making processes and improve safety cultures.

14. The Three Gorges Dam Project

The Three Gorges Dam Project was a large-scale infrastructure project developed in China that aimed to build the world’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Yangtze River. Completed in 2012, it encountered environmental, social, and engineering challenges. The dam currently offers power generation, flood control, and improved navigation, but it has also resulted in ecological and cultural consequences.

15. The Big Dig Project in Boston

The Big Dig Project was a transportation infrastructure project in Boston, Massachusetts, intended to replace an old elevated highway with a newer tunnel system. Completed in 2007, it serves as one of the most complex and costly construction endeavours in US history. Despite facing many delays, cost overruns and engineering challenges, the project successfully improved traffic flow and urban aesthetics but also resulted in accidents, lawsuits, and financial burdens.

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16. The Uber Disruptive Business Model Project

The Uber Disruptive Business Model Project was a startup that introduced a new ride business model that disrupted the taxi-cab industry by connecting riders with drivers via a mobile app. Launched in 2010, this project required innovative technology, marketing and regulatory strategies and faced legal actions and ethical challenges related to labour, safety, and competition. Uber has since then dominated the market with its ride-sharing business plan.

17. The Netflix Original Content Development Project

The Netflix Original Content Development Project was an initiative created to launch its original content for its platform. This launch by the online streaming giant in 2012 was a huge success for the company. The project required huge investments in content creation, distribution and marketing and resulted in award-winning shows and films that redefined the entire entertainment industry’s business model.

18. The Tesla Electric Car Project

The Tesla Electric Car Project was a revolutionary project that aimed to compete for its electric vehicles with gasoline-powered vehicles. The project required a strong project management plan that incorporated innovation, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement, resulting in the successful launch of the Tesla Roadster in 2008 and subsequent models. Tesla has one-handedly revolutionised the entire automobile industry on its own.

19. The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis Management Project:

The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis Management Project was a case study in crisis management in 1982. The project required quick and effective decision-making skills, stakeholder communication, and ethical leadership in response to the tampering of Tylenol capsules that led to deaths.

20. The Airbnb Online Marketplace Platform Project

The Airbnb Online Marketplace Platform Project was a startup that created an online platform which connected travellers with hosts offering short-term rental accommodations in flights. The project required innovative technology, user experience design and stakeholder management. Airbnb’s success has led to the disruption of the hospitality industry and inspired many other project case study examples of sharing economy platforms.

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Future developments in project management.

Future developments in project management include all the insights on the increased use of artificial intelligence, agile methodologies, hybrid project management approaches, and emphasis on sustainability and social responsibility, along with many more developing ideas that will address the evolving market innovations.

Key Takeaways from the Case Studies

The project management case study examples illustrate real-life examples and the importance of project management in achieving project success. The cases show the use of innovative technologies, tools, techniques, stakeholder engagement, crisis management, and agile methodologies.

Project Management also highlights the role of ethical leadership and social responsibility in project management. To learn more and more about case studies, upGrad, India’s leading education platform, has offered an Advanced General Management Program from IMT Ghaziabad that will equip you with in-demand management skills to keep up with the changing trends!

Keerthi Shivakumar

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Project Management is extensive planning, executing, monitoring and closing of a project before its deadline. Project management ensures accuracy and efficiency across all organs of a project, right from its inception to its completion.

Project Management case studies are real-life examples of projects to put an insight into all the tools, techniques and methodologies it provides.

The role of a project manager is to ensure that all day-to-day responsibilities are being met by the resources deployed in a certain project. They have the authority to manage as well as lead the functioning members as well.

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How to Write an Introduction for a Case Study Report

If you’re looking for examples of how to write an introduction for a case-study report, you’ve come to the right place. Here you’ll find a sample, guidelines for writing a case-study introduction, and tips on how to make it clear. In five minutes or less, recruiters will read your case study and decide whether you’re a good fit for the job.

Example of a case study introduction

An example of a case study introduction should be written to provide a roadmap for the reader. It should briefly summarize the topic, identify the problem, and discuss its significance. It should include previous case studies and summarize the literature review. In addition, it should include the purpose of the study, and the issues that it addresses. Using this example as a guideline, writers can make their case study introductions. Here are some tips:

The first paragraph of the introduction should summarize the entire article, and should include the following sections: the case presentation, the examinations performed, and the working diagnosis, the management of the case, and the outcome. The final section, the discussion, should summarize the previous subsections, explain any apparent inconsistencies, and describe the lessons learned. The body of the paper should also summarize the introduction and include any notes for the instructor.

The last section of a case study introduction should summarize the findings and limitations of the study, as well as suggestions for further research. The conclusion section should restate the thesis and main findings of the case study. The conclusion should summarize previous case studies, summarize the findings, and highlight the possibilities for future study. It is important to note that not all educational institutions require the case study analysis format, so it is important to check ahead of time.

The introductory paragraph should outline the overall strategy for the study. It should also describe the short-term and long-term goals of the case study. Using this method will ensure clarity and reduce misunderstandings. However, it is important to consider the end goal. After all, the objective is to communicate the benefits of the product. And, the solution should be measurable. This can be done by highlighting the benefits and minimizing the negatives.

Structure of a case study introduction

The structure of a case study introduction is different from the general introduction of a research paper. The main purpose of the introduction is to set the stage for the rest of the case study. The problem statement must be short and precise to convey the main point of the study. Then, the introduction should summarize the literature review and present the previous case studies that have dealt with the topic. The introduction should end with a thesis statement.

The thesis statement should contain facts and evidence related to the topic. Include the method used, the findings, and discussion. The solution section should describe specific strategies for solving the problem. It should conclude with a call to action for the reader. When using quotations, be sure to cite them properly. The thesis statement must include the problem statement, the methods used, and the expected outcome of the study. The conclusion section should state the case study’s importance.

In the discussion section, state the limitations of the study and explain why they are not significant. In addition, mention any questions unanswered and issues that the study was unable to address. For more information, check out the APA, Harvard, Chicago, and MLA citation styles. Once you know how to structure a case study introduction, you’ll be ready to write it! And remember, there’s always a right and wrong way to write a case study introduction.

During the writing process, you’ll need to make notes on the problems and issues of the case. Write down any ideas and directions that come to mind. Avoid writing neatly. It may impede your creative process, so write down a rough draft first, and then draw it up for your educational instructor. The introduction is an overview of the case study. Include the thesis statement. If you’re writing a case study for an assignment, you’ll also need to provide an overview of the assignment.

Guidelines for writing a case study introduction

A case study is not a formal scientific research report, but it is written for a lay audience. It should be readable and follow the general narrative that was determined in the first step. The introduction should provide background information about the case and its main topic. It should be short, but should introduce the topic and explain its context in just one or two paragraphs. An ideal case study introduction is between three and five sentences.

The case study must be well-designed and logical. It cannot contain opinions or assumptions. The research question must be a logical conclusion based on the findings. This can be done through a spreadsheet program or by consulting a linguistics expert. Once you have identified the major issues, you need to revise the paper. Once you have revised it twice, it should be well-written, concise, and logical.

The conclusion should state the findings, explain their significance, and summarize the main points. The conclusion should move from the detailed to the general level of consideration. The conclusion should also briefly state the limitations of the case study and point out the need for further research in order to fully address the problem. This should be done in a manner that will keep the reader interested in reading the paper. It should be clear about what the case study found and what it means for the research community.

The case study begins with a cover page and an executive summary, depending on your professor’s instructions. It’s important to remember that this is not a mandatory element of the case study. Instead, the executive summary should be brief and include the key points of the study’s analysis. It should be written as if an executive would read it on the run. Ultimately, the executive summary should include all the key points of the case study.

Clarity in a case study introduction

Clarity in a case study introduction should be at the heart of the paper. This section should explain why the case was chosen and how you decided to use it. The case study introduction varies according to the type of subject you are studying and the goals of the study. Here are some examples of clear and effective case study introductions. Read on to find out how to write a successful one. Clarity in a case study introduction begins with a strong thesis statement and ends with a compelling conclusion.

The conclusion of the case study should restate the research question and emphasize its importance. Identify and restate the key findings and describe how they address the research question. If the case study has limitations, discuss the potential for further research. In addition, document the limitations of the case study. Include any limitations of the case study in the conclusion. This will allow readers to make informed decisions about whether or not the findings are relevant to their own practices.

A case study introduction should include a brief discussion of the topic and selected case. It should explain how the study fits into current knowledge. A reader may question the validity of the analysis if it fails to consider all possible outcomes. For example, a case study on railroad crossings may fail to document the obvious outcome of improving the signage at these intersections. Another example would be a study that failed to document the impact of warning signs and speed limits on railroad crossings.

As a conclusion, the case study should also contain a discussion of how the research was conducted. While it may be a case study, the results are not necessarily applicable to other situations. In addition to describing how a solution has solved the problem, a case study should also discuss the causes of the problem. A case study should be based on real data and information. If the case study is not valid, it will not be a good fit for the audience.

Sample of a case study introduction

A good case study introduction serves as a map for the reader to follow. It should identify the research problem and discuss its significance. It should be based on extensive research and should incorporate relevant issues and facts. For example, it may include a short but precise problem statement. The next section of the introduction should include a description of the solution. The final part of the introduction should conclude with the recommended action. Once the reader has a sense of the direction the study will take, they will feel confident in pursuing the study further.

In the case of social sciences, case studies cannot be purely empirical. The results of a case study can be compared with those of other studies, so that the case study’s findings can be assessed against previous research. A case study’s results can help support general conclusions and build theories, while their practical value lies in generating hypotheses. Despite their utility, case studies often contain a bias toward verification and tend to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions.

In the case of case studies, the conclusions section should state the significance of the findings, stating how the findings of the study differ from other previous studies. Likewise, the conclusion section should summarize the key findings, and make the reader understand how they address the research problem. In the case of a case study, it is crucial to document any limitations that have been identified. After all, a case study is not complete without further research.

After the introduction, the main body of the paper is the case presentation. It should provide information about the case, such as the history, examination results, working diagnosis, management, and outcome. It should conclude with a discussion, explaining the correlations, apparent inconsistencies, and lessons learned. Finally, the conclusion should state whether the case study presented the results in the desired way. The findings should not be overgeneralized, and the conclusions must be derived from this information.

Planning and Data-Sharing Partnerships

Project details.

Project Number: WFL RESEARCH 2020(12) Division: WFL Location: National Study

Contact Information

Project Manager: Cole Grisham Phone: (360) 619-7746 Email: [email protected]

Western Federal Lands Federal Highway Administration, USDOT 610 East Fifth Street Vancouver, WA 98661-3801 United States Phone: 360-619-7700

Between Governments and Public Land Management Agencies Research Study

Introduction.

Recreational travel to the country s public lands has been increasing for the past several years. This trend is expected to continue in both urban and rural areas in the coming decades, even following COVID-19 impacts. Increasing visitation means increased use of the transportation infrastructure that gets visitors both to our national parks, forests, refuges; state parks; and other recreational sites and lets them travel within these public lands.

FHWA, State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), local governments, and Public Land Management Agencies (PLMAs) share a common interest in ensuring the public enjoys safe, efficient access to and through public lands. Visitation to and resource management activities on these lands also generate local, regional, and state economic benefits. At the same time, the traveling public is not concerned with the jurisdictional boundaries, and instead wants to get from their origin to their desired outdoor recreation site as quickly and easily as possible. As a result, state DOTs and PLMAs bare the impacts of congestion and crowding, which can adversely affect efficient access, economic activity, natural resources, and safe travel.

While state DOTs and PLMAs recognize the potential benefits of coordinating on data, several barriers hinder these partnerships, including:

Staff capacity and agency missions;
Incompatible data platforms;
Challenges related to data collection and sharing;
Lack of staff awareness of available data, and
How to use available data in a recreational context, especially for PLMAs;
Urban or Rural context of public lands and the surrounding state and local transportation networks.

There are an increasing number of available data sources, including spatial and demographic data, that can help PLMAs to better understand which transportation facilities and systems are being used for public lands access, local commuting and recreating, and longer-haul travel. Additionally, these data can help PLMAs identify which individuals are using the systems, seasonal variations in use, and patterns in use by day of the week and time of the day.

This project uses case studies to examine best practices for PLMA partnerships with state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), local governments, and interested stakeholders to coordinate information/data sharing for planning, delivering, and managing transportation systems on and near public lands. Identified best practices and partnering methods may be applicable in a range of contexts, including location, geography, climate, and mode of transportation system. The specific goals of this project are to:

Identify examples of cross-agency information coordination between PLMAs and transportation partners that result in process efficiencies, cost savings, and more effective transportation system delivery and/or management. Examples will focus on corridor- or regional-scale collaboration that translate to efficient access, economic activity, natural resources, and safe travel.
Develop a suite of tools, resources, and usage guidelines to aid PLMAs and their partners in improving data coordination for better transportation systems.

The Study is guided by a cross-USDOT project management team and a Research Panel composed of local, state, federal, and non-profit groups interested in planning and data-sharing opportunities. The key tasks are to:

Review Background Literature
Develop Study Methodology
Collect Relevant Data
Develop Data Coordination and Sharing Toolbox
Prepare Findings
Develop Final Report
Implement Findings

How to Engage

The Study s anticipated timeline is almost two years (September 2020 through June 2022), with engagement opportunities throughout. To stay up to date on the project, visit this project page regularly and contact the Project Manager, Cole Grisham , for more information. The primary ways to engage with this Study include:

Volunteer to serve on the Research Panel
Propose a case study of best practices and/or lessons learned
Submit recommended reading and related research
Submit questions you hope this research will address

Project Documents

For a printable version of the information on this page, click the link below. As the Study progresses, new documents and materials will be added here. Check back regularly for new document.

Printable Project Overview pads-overview.pdf (592.82 KB)
Literature Review (Memo 1) pads-literature-review-memo.pdf (566.26 KB)
Methodology (Memo 2) pads-methodology-memo.pdf (316.1 KB)
Data Collection (Memo 3) pads-data-collection-memo.pdf (763.08 KB)
Final Report (August 2023) planning-data-sharing-partnerships-study-final-report-august-2023.pdf (2.09 MB)
Final Report Case Studies (August 2023) final-report-case-studies-august-2023.pdf (1.28 MB)

Open access
Published: 10 April 2024

“So at least now I know how to deal with things myself, what I can do if it gets really bad again”—experiences with a long-term cross-sectoral advocacy care and case management for severe multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study

Anne Müller ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2456-2492 1 ,
Fabian Hebben ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-6401-3433 1 ,
Kim Dillen 1 ,
Veronika Dunkl 1 ,
Yasemin Goereci 2 ,
Raymond Voltz 1 , 3 , 4 ,
Peter Löcherbach 5 ,
Clemens Warnke ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3510-9255 2 &
Heidrun Golla ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4403-630X 1

on behalf of the COCOS-MS trial group represented by Martin Hellmich

BMC Health Services Research volume 24 , Article number: 453 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

159 Accesses

Metrics details

Persons with severe Multiple Sclerosis (PwsMS) face complex needs and daily limitations that make it challenging to receive optimal care. The implementation and coordination of health care, social services, and support in financial affairs can be particularly time consuming and burdensome for both PwsMS and caregivers. Care and case management (CCM) helps ensure optimal individual care as well as care at a higher-level. The goal of the current qualitative study was to determine the experiences of PwsMS, caregivers and health care specialists (HCSs) with the CCM.

In the current qualitative sub study, as part of a larger trial, in-depth semi-structured interviews with PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs who had been in contact with the CCM were conducted between 02/2022 and 01/2023. Data was transcribed, pseudonymized, tested for saturation and analyzed using structuring content analysis according to Kuckartz. Sociodemographic and interview characteristics were analyzed descriptively.

Thirteen PwsMS, 12 caregivers and 10 HCSs completed interviews. Main categories of CCM functions were derived deductively: (1) gatekeeper function, (2) broker function, (3) advocacy function, (4) outlook on CCM in standard care. Subcategories were then derived inductively from the interview material. 852 segments were coded. Participants appreciated the CCM as a continuous and objective contact person, a person of trust (92 codes), a competent source of information and advice (on MS) (68 codes) and comprehensive cross-insurance support (128 codes), relieving and supporting PwsMS, their caregivers and HCSs (67 codes).

Conclusions

Through the cross-sectoral continuous support in health-related, social, financial and everyday bureaucratic matters, the CCM provides comprehensive and overriding support and relief for PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs. This intervention bears the potential to be fine-tuned and applied to similar complex patient groups.

Trial registration

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Cologne (#20–1436), registered at the German Register for Clinical Studies (DRKS00022771) and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most frequent and incurable chronic inflammatory and degenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Illness awareness and the number of specialized MS clinics have increased since the 1990s, paralleled by the increased availability of disease-modifying therapies [ 1 ]. There are attempts in the literature for the definition of severe MS [ 2 , 3 ]. These include a high EDSS (Expanded disability Status Scale [ 4 ]) of ≥ 6, which we took into account in our study. There are also other factors to consider, such as a highly active disease course with complex therapies that are associated with side effects. These persons are (still) less disabled, but may feel overwhelmed with regard to therapy, side effects and risk monitoring of therapies [ 5 , 6 ].

Persons with severe MS (PwsMS) develop individual disease trajectories marked by a spectrum of heterogeneous symptoms, functional limitations, and uncertainties [ 7 , 8 ] manifesting individually and unpredictably [ 9 ]. This variability can lead to irreversible physical and mental impairment culminating in complex needs and daily challenges, particularly for those with progressive and severe MS [ 5 , 10 , 11 ]. Such challenges span the spectrum from reorganizing biographical continuity and organizing care and everyday live, to monitoring disease-specific therapies and integrating palliative and hospice care [ 5 , 10 ]. Moreover, severe MS exerts a profound of social and economic impact [ 9 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. PwsMS and their caregivers (defined in this manuscript as relatives or closely related individuals directly involved in patients’ care) often find themselves grappling with overwhelming challenges. The process of organizing and coordinating optimal care becomes demanding, as they contend with the perceived unmanageability of searching for, implementing and coordinating health care and social services [ 5 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].

Case management (CM) proved to have a positive effect on patients with neurological disorders and/or patients with palliative care needs [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. However, a focus on severe MS has been missed so far Case managers primarily function as: (1) gatekeeper involving the allocation of necessary and available resources to a case, ensuring the equitable distribution of resources; as (2) broker assisting clients in pursuing their interests, requiring negotiation to provide individualized assistance that aligns as closely as possible with individual needs and (3) advocate working to enhance clients’ individual autonomy, to advocate for essential care offers, and to identify gaps in care [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].

Difficulties in understanding, acting, and making decisions regarding health care-related aspects (health literacy) poses a significant challenge for 54% of the German population [ 30 ]. Additionally acting on a superordinate level as an overarching link, a care and case management (CCM) tries to reduce disintegration in the social and health care system [ 31 , 32 ]. Our hypothesis is that a CCM allows PwsMS and their caregivers to regain time and resources outside of disease management and to facilitate the recovery and establishment of biographical continuity that might be disrupted due to severe MS [ 33 , 34 ].

Health care specialists (HCSs) often perceive their work with numerous time and economic constraints, especially when treating complex and severely ill individuals like PwsMS and often have concerns about being blamed by patients when expectations could not be met [ 35 , 36 ]. Our hypothesis is that the CCM will help to reduce time constraints and free up resources for specialized tasks.

To the best of our knowledge there is no long-term cross-sectoral and outreaching authority or service dedicated to assisting in the organization and coordination of the complex care concerns of PwsMS within the framework of standard care addressing needs in health, social, financial, every day and bureaucratic aspects. While some studies have attempted to design and test care programs for persons with MS (PwMS), severely affected individuals were often not included [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. They often remain overlooked by existing health and social care structures [ 5 , 9 , 15 ].

The COCOS-MS trial developed and applied a long-term cross-sectoral CCM intervention consisting of weekly telephone contacts and monthly re-assessments with PwsMS and caregivers, aiming to provide optimal care. Their problems, resources and (unmet) needs were assessed holistically including physical health, mental health, self-sufficiency and social situation and participation. Based on assessed (unmet) needs, individual care plans with individual actions and goals were developed and constantly adapted during the CCM intervention. Contacts with HCSs were established to ensure optimal care. The CCM intervention was structured through and documented in a CCM manual designed for the trial [ 40 , 41 ].

Our aim was to find out how PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs experienced the cross-sectoral long-term, outreaching patient advocacy CCM.

This study is part of a larger phase II, randomized, controlled clinical trial “Communication, Coordination and Security for people with severe Multiple Sclerosis (COCOS-MS)” [ 41 ]. This explorative clinical trial, employing a mixed-method design, incorporates a qualitative study component with PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs to enrich the findings of the quantitative data. This manuscript focuses on the qualitative data collected between February 2022 and January 2023, following the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) guidelines [ 42 ].

Research team

Three trained authors AM, KD and FH (AM, female, research associate, M.A. degree in Rehabilitation Sciences; KD, female, researcher, Dr. rer. medic.; FH, male, research assistant, B.Sc. degree in Health Care Management), who had no prior relationship with patients, caregivers or HCSs conducted qualitative interviews. A research team, consisting of clinical experts and health services researchers, discussed the development of the interview guides and the finalized category system.

Theoretical framework

Interview data was analyzed with the structuring content analysis according to Kuckartz. This method enables a deductive structuring of interview material, as well as the integration of new aspects found in the interview material through the inductive addition of categories in an iterative analysis process [ 43 ].

Sociodemographic and interview characteristics were analyzed descriptively (mean, median, range, SD). PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs were contacted by the authors AM, KD or FH via telephone or e-mail after providing full written informed consent. Participants had the option to choose between online interviews conducted via the GoToMeeting 10.19.0® Software or face-to-face. Peasgood et al. (2023) found no significant differences in understanding questions, engagement or concentration between face-to-face and online interviews [ 44 , 45 ]. Digital assessments were familiar to participants due to pandemic-related adjustments within the trial.

Out of 14 PwsMS and 14 caregivers who were approached to participate in interviews, three declined to complete interviews, resulting in 13 PwsMS (5 male, 8 female) and 12 caregiver (7 male, 5 female) interviews, respectively (see Fig. 1 ). Thirty-one HCSs were contacted of whom ten (2 male, 8 female) agreed to be interviewed (see Fig. 2 ).

Flowchart of PwsMS and caregiver participation in the intervention group of the COCOS-MS trial. Patients could participate with and without a respective caregiver taking part in the trial. Therefore, number of caregivers does not correspond to patients. For detailed inclusion criteria see also Table 1 in Golla et al. [ 41 ]

Flowchart of HCSs interview participation

Setting and data collection

Interviews were carried out where participants preferred, e.g. at home, workplace, online, and no third person being present. In total, we conducted 35 interviews whereof 7 interviews face-to-face (3 PwsMS, 3 caregivers, 1 HCS).

The research team developed a topic guide which was meticulously discussed with research and clinical staff to enhance credibility. It included relevant aspects for the evaluation of the CCM (see Tables 1 and 2 , for detailed topic guides see Supplementary Material ). Patient and caregiver characteristics (covering age, sex, marital status, living situation, EDSS (patients only), subgroup) were collected during the first assessment of the COCOS-MS trial and HCSs characteristics (age, sex, profession) as well as interview information (length and setting) were collected during the interviews. The interview guides developed for this study addressed consistent aspects both for PwsMS and caregivers (see Supplementary Material ):

For HCSs it contained the following guides:

Probing questions were asked to get more specific and in-depth information. Interviews were carried out once and recorded using a recording device or the recording function of the GoToMeeting 10.19.0® Software. Data were pseudonymized (including sensitive information, such as personal names, dates of birth, or addresses), audio files were safely stored in a data protection folder. The interview duration ranged from 11 to 56 min (mean: 23.9 min, SD: 11.1 min). Interviews were continued until we found that data saturation was reached. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim by an external source and not returned to participants.

Data analysis

Two coders (AM, FH) coded the interviews. Initially, the first author (AM) thoroughly reviewed the transcripts to gain a sense of the interview material. Using the topic guide and literature, she deductively developed a category system based on the primary functions of CM [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Three interviews were coded repeatedly for piloting, and inductive subcategories were added when new themes emerged in the interview material. This category system proved suitable for the interview material. The second coder (FH) familiarized himself with the interview material and category system. Both coders (AM, FH) independently coded all interviews, engaging in discussions and adjusting codes iteratively. The finalized category system was discussed and consolidated in a research workshop and within the COCOS-MS trial group and finally we reached an intercoder agreement of 90% between the two coders AM and FH, computed by the MAXQDA Standard 2022® software.

We analyzed sociodemographic and interview characteristics using IBM SPSS Statistics 27® and Excel 2016®. Transcripts were managed and analyzed using MAXQDA Standard 2022®.

Participants were provided with oral and written information about the trial and gave written informed consent. Ethical approvals were obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of Cologne (#20–1436). The trial is registered in the German Register for Clinical Studies (DRKS) (DRKS00022771) and is conducted under the Declaration of Helsinki.

Characteristics of participants and interviews

PwsMS participating in an interview were mainly German (84.6%), had a mean EDSS of 6.8 (range: 6–8) and MS for 13.5 years (median: 14; SD: 8.1). For detailed characteristics see Table 3 .

Most of the interviewed caregivers (9 caregivers) were the partners of the PwsMS with whom they lived in the same household. For further details see Table 3 .

HCSs involved in the study comprised various professions, including MS-nurse (3), neurologist (2), general physician with further training in palliative care (1), physician with further training in palliative care and pain therapist (1), housing counselling service (1), outpatient nursing service manager (1), participation counselling service (1).

Structuring qualitative content analysis

The experiences of PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs were a priori deductively assigned to four main categories: (1) gatekeeper function, (2) broker function, (3) advocacy function [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ] and (4) Outlook on CCM in standard care, whereas the subcategories were developed inductively (see Fig. 3 ).

Category system including main and subcategories of the qualitative thematic content analysis

The most extensive category, housing the highest number of codes and subcodes, was the “ Outlook on CCM in standard care ” (281 codes). Following this, the category “ Advocacy Function ” contained 261 codes. The “ Broker Function ” (150 codes) and the “ Gatekeeper Function ” (160 codes) constituted two smaller categories. The majority of codes was identified in the caregivers’ interviews, followed by those of PwsMS (see Table 4 ). Illustrative quotes for each category and subcategory can be found in Table 5 .

Persons with severe multiple sclerosis

In the gatekeeper function (59 codes), PwsMS particularly valued the CCM as a continuous contact person . They appreciated the CCM as a person of trust who was reliably accessible throughout the intervention period. This aspect, with 41 codes, held significant importance for PwsMS.

Within the broker function (44 codes), establishing contact was most important for PwsMS (22 codes). This involved the CCM as successfully connecting PwsMS and caregivers with physicians and therapists, as well as coordinating and arranging medical appointments, which were highly valued. Assistance in authority and health and social insurance matters (10 codes) was another subcategory, where the CCM encompassed support in communication with health insurance companies, such as improving the level of care, assisting with retirement pension applications, and facilitating rehabilitation program applications. Optimized care (12 codes) resulted in improved living conditions and the provision of assistive devices through the CCM intervention.

The advocacy function (103 codes) emerged as the most critical aspect for PwsMS, representing the core of the category system. PwsMS experienced multidimensional, comprehensive, cross-insurance system support from the CCM. This category, with 43 statements, was the largest within all subcategories. PwsMS described the CCM as addressing their concerns, providing help, and assisting with the challenges posed by the illness in everyday life. The second-largest subcategory, regaining, maintaining and supporting autonomy (25 codes), highlighted the CCM’s role in supporting self-sufficiency and independence. Reviving personal wellbeing (17 codes) involved PwsMSs’ needs of regaining positive feelings, improved quality of life, and a sense of support and acceptance, which could be improved by the CCM. Temporal relief (18 codes) was reported, with the CCM intervention taking over or reducing tasks.

Within the outlook on CCM in standard care (84 codes), eight subcategories were identified. Communications was described as friendly and open (9 codes), with the setting of communication (29 codes) including the frequency of contacts deemed appropriate by the interviewed PwsMS, who preferred face-to-face contact over virtual or telephone interactions. Improvement suggestions for CCM (10 codes) predominantly revolved around the desire for the continuation of the CCM beyond the trial, expressing intense satisfaction with the CCM contact person and program. PwsMS rarely wished for better cooperation with the CCM. With respect to limitations (7 codes), PwsMS distinguished between individual limitations (e.g. when not feeling ready for using a wheelchair) and overriding structural limitations (e.g. unsuccessful search for an accessible apartment despite CCM support). Some PwsMS mentioned needing the CCM earlier in the course of the disease and believed it would beneficial for anyone with a chronic illness (6 codes).

In the gatekeeper function (75 codes), caregivers highly valued the CCM as a continuous contact partner (33 codes). More frequently than among the PwsMS interviewed, caregivers valued the CCM as a source of consultation/ information on essential individual subjects (42 codes). The need for basic information about the illness, its potential course, treatment and therapy options, possible supportive equipment, and basic medical advice/ information could be met by the CCM.

Within the broker function (63 codes), caregivers primarily experienced the subcategory establish contacts (24 codes). They found the CCM as helpful in establishing and managing contact with physicians, therapists and especially with health insurance companies. In the subcategory assistance in authority and health and social insurance matters (22 codes), caregivers highlighted similar aspects as the PwsMS interviewed. However, there was a particular emphasis on assistance with patients' retirement matters. Caregivers also valued the optimization of patients’ care and living environment (17 codes) in various life areas during the CCM intervention, including improved access to assistive devices, home modification, and involvement of a household support and/ or nursing services.

The advocacy function, with 115 codes, was by far the broadest category . The subcategory multidimensional, comprehensive, cross-insurance system support represented the largest subcategory of caregivers, with 70 statements. In summary, caregivers felt supported by the CCM in all domains of life. Regaining, maintaining and supporting autonomy (11 codes) and reviving personal wellbeing (8 codes) in the form of an improved quality of life played a role not only for patients but also for caregivers, albeit to a lower extend. Caregivers experienced temporal relief (26 codes) as the CCM undertook a wide range of organizational tasks, freeing up more needed resources for their own interests.

For the Outlook on CCM in standard care , caregivers provided various suggestions (81 codes). Similar to PwsMS, caregivers felt that setting (home based face-to-face, telephone, virtual) and frequency of contact were appropriate (10 codes, communication setting ) and communications (7 codes) were recognized as open and friendly. However, to avoid conflicts between caregiver and PwsMS, caregivers preferred meeting the CCM separately from the PwsMS in the future. Some caregivers wished the CCM to specify all services it might offer at the beginning, while others emphasized not wanting this. Like PwsMS, caregivers criticized the CCM intervention being (trial-related) limited to one year, regardless of whether further support was needed or processes being incomplete (13 codes, improvement suggestions ). After the CCM intervention time had expired, the continuous contact person and assistance were missed and new problems had arisen and had to be managed with their own resources again (9 codes, effects of CCM discontinuation ), which was perceived as an exhausting or unsolvable endeavor. Caregivers identified analogous limitations (8 codes), both individual and structural. However, the largest subcategory, was the experienced potential of CCM (27 codes), reflected in extremely high satisfaction with the CCM intervention. Like PwsMS, caregivers regarded severe chronically ill persons in general as target groups for a CCM (7 codes) and would implement it even earlier, starting from the time of diagnosis. They considered a CCM to be particularly helpful for patients without caregivers or for caregivers with limited (time) resources, as it was true for most caregivers.

Health care specialists

In the gatekeeper function (26 codes) HCSs particularly valued the CCM as a continuous contact partner (18 codes). They primarily described their valuable collaboration with the CCM, emphasizing professional exchange between the CCM and HCSs.

Within the broker function (43 codes), the CCM was seen as a connecting link between patients and HCSs, frequently establishing contacts (18 codes). This not only improved optimal care on an individual patient level (case management) but also at a higher, superordinate care level (care management). HCSs appreciated the optimized care and living environment (18 codes) for PwsMS, including improved medical and therapeutic access and the introduction of new assistive devices. The CCM was also recognized as providing assistance in authority and health and social matters (7 codes) for PwsMS and their caregivers.

In the advocacy function (43 codes), HCSs primarily reported temporal relief through CCM intervention (23 codes). They experienced this relief, especially as the CCM provided multidimensional, comprehensive, and cross-insurance system support (15 codes) for PwsMS and their caregivers. Through this support, HCSs felt relieved from time intensive responsibilities that may not fall within their area of expertise, freeing up more time resources for their actual professional tasks.

The largest category within the HCSs interviews was the outlook on CCM in standard care (116 codes). In the largest subcategory, HCSs made suggestions for further patient groups who could benefit (38 codes) from a CCM. Chronic neurological diseases like neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), typical and atypical Parkinson syndromes were mentioned. HCSs considered the enrollment of the CCM directly after the diagnosis of these complex chronic diseases. Additionally, chronic progressive diseases in general or oncological diseases, which may also run chronically, were regarded worthwhile for this approach. HCSs also provided suggestions regarding improvement (21 codes). They wished e.g. for information or contact when patients were enrolled to the CCM, regular updates, exchange and collaborative effort. On the other hand, HCSs reported, that their suggestions for improvement would hardly be feasible due to their limited time resources. Similar to patients and caregivers, HCSs experienced structural limits (13 codes), which a CCM could not exceed due to overriding structural limitations (e.g. insufficient supply of (household) aids, lack of outreach services like psychotherapists, and long processing times on health and pension insurers' side). HCSs were also asked about their opinions on financial resources (14 codes) of a CCM in standard care. All interviewed HCSs agreed that CCM would initially cause more costs for health and social insurers, but they were convinced of cost savings in the long run. HCSs particularly perceived the potential of the CCM (20 codes) through the feedback of PwsMS, highlighting the trustful relationship enabling individualized help for PwsMS and their caregivers.

Persons with severe multiple sclerosis and their caregivers

The long-term cross-sectoral CCM intervention implemented in the COCOS-MS trial addressed significant unmet needs of PwsMS and their caregivers which previous research revealed as burdensome and hardly or even not possible to improve without assistance [ 5 , 6 , 9 , 10 , 33 , 35 , 46 ]. Notably, the CCM service met the need for a reliable, continuous contact partner, guiding patients through the complexities of regulations, authorities and the insurance system. Both, PwsMS and their caregivers highly valued the professional, objective perspective provided by the CCM, recognizing it as a source of relief, support and improved care in line with previous studies [ 37 , 47 ]. Caregivers emphasized the CCM’s competence in offering concrete assistance and information on caregiving and the fundamentals of MS, including bureaucratic, authority and insurances matters. On the other hand, PwsMS particularly appreciated the CCMs external reflective and advisory function, along with empathic social support tailored to their individual concerns. Above all, the continuous partnership of trust, available irrespective of the care sector, was a key aspect that both PwsMS and their caregivers highlighted. This consistent support was identified as one of the main components in the care of PwsMS in previous studies [ 5 , 33 , 35 ].

As the health literacy is inadequate or problematic for 54% of the German population and disintegration in the health and social care system is high [ 30 , 31 , 32 ], the CCM approach serves to enhance health literacy and reduce disintegration of PwsMS and their caregivers by providing cross-insurance navigational guidance in the German health and social insurance sector on a superordinate level. Simultaneously PwsMS and caregivers experienced relief and gained more (time) resources for all areas of life outside of the disease and its management, including own interests and establishing biographical continuity. This empowerment enables patients to find a sense of purpose beyond their illness, regain autonomy, and enhance social participation, reducing the feeling of being a burden to those closest to them. Such feelings are often experienced as burdensome and shameful by PwsMS [ 6 , 48 , 49 , 50 ]. Finding a sense of purpose beyond the illness also contributes to caregivers perceiving their loved ones not primarily as patient but as individuals outside of the disease, reinforcing valuable relationships such as partners, siblings, or children, strengthening emotional bonds. These factors are also highly relevant and well-documented in a suicide-preventive context, as the suicide rate is higher in persons diagnosed with neurological disorders [ 19 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ] and the feeling of being a burden to others, loss of autonomy, and perceived loss of dignity are significant factors in patients with severe chronic neurological diseases for suicide [ 50 , 57 ].

The temporal relief experienced by the CCM was particularly significant for HCSs and did not only improve the satisfaction of HCSs but also removed unfulfilled expectations and concerns about being blamed by patients when expectations could not be met, which previous studied elaborated [ 35 , 36 ]. Moreover, the CCM alleviated the burden on HCSs by addressing patients’ concerns, allowing them to focus on their own medical responsibilities. This aspect probably reduced the dissatisfaction that arises when HCSs are expected to address issues beyond their medical expertise, such as assistive devices, health and social insurance, and the organization and coordination of supplementary therapies, appointments, and contacts [ 35 , 36 , 61 ]. Consequently, the CCM reduced difficulties of HCSs treating persons with neurological or chronical illnesses, which previous research identified as problematic.

HCSs perceive their work as increasingly condensed with numerous time and economic constraints, especially when treating complex and severely ill individuals like PwsMS [ 36 ]. This constraint was mentioned by HCSs in the interviews and was one of the main reasons why they were hesitant to participate in interviews and may also be an explanation for a shorter interview duration than initially planned in the interview guides. The CCM’s overarching navigational competence in the health and social insurance system was particularly valued by HCSs. The complex and often small-scale specialties in the health and social care system are not easily manageable or well-known even for HCSs, and dealing with them can exceed their skills and time capacities [ 61 ]. The CCM played a crucial role in keeping (temporal) resources available for what HCSs are professionally trained and qualified to work on. However, there remains a challenge in finding solutions to the dilemma faced by HCSs regarding their wish to be informed about CCM procedures and linked with each other, while also managing the strain of additional requests and contact with the CCM due to limited (time) resources [ 62 ]. Hudon et al. (2023) suggest that optimizing time resources and improving exchange could involve meetings, information sharing via fax, e-mail, secure online platforms, or, prospectively, within the electronic patient record (EPR). The implementation of an EPR has shown promise in improving the quality of health care and time resources, when properly implemented [ 63 , 64 ]. The challenge lies ineffective information exchange between HCSs and CCM for optimal patient care. The prospect of time saving in the long run and at best for a financial incentive, e.g., when anchoring in the Social Security Code, will help best to win over the HCSs.If this crucial factor can be resolved, there is a chance that HCSs will thoroughly accept the CCM as an important pillar, benefiting not only PwsMS but also other complex patient groups, especially those with long-term neurological or complex oncological conditions that might run chronically.

Care and case management and implications for the health care system

The results of our study suggest that the cross-sectoral long-term advocacy CCM in the COCOS-MS trial, with continuous personal contacts at short intervals and constant reevaluation of needs, problems, resources and goals, is highly valued by PwsMS, caregivers, and HCSs. The trial addresses several key aspects that may have been overlooked in previous studies which have shown great potential for the integration of case management [ 17 , 47 , 62 , 65 , 66 ]. However, they often excluded the overriding care management, missed those patient groups with special severity and complexity who might struggle to reach social and health care structures independently or the interventions were not intended for long-term [ 22 , 37 ]. Our results indicate that the CCM intervention had a positive impact on PwsMS and caregivers as HCSs experienced them with benefits such as increased invigoration, reduced demands, and enhanced self-confidence. However, there was a notable loss experienced by PwsMS and caregivers after the completion of the CCM intervention, even if they had stabilized during the intervention period. The experiences of optimized social and health care for the addressed population, both at an individual and superordinate care level, support the integration of this service into standard care. Beyond the quantitatively measurable outcomes and economic considerations reported elsewhere [ 16 , 20 , 21 ], our results emphasize the importance of regaining control, self-efficacy, self-worth, dignity, autonomy, and social participation. These aspects are highlighted as preventive measures in suicidal contexts, which is particularly relevant for individuals with severe and complex illnesses [ 19 , 50 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ]. Our findings further emphasize the societal responsibilities to offer individuals with severe and complex illnesses the opportunity to regain control and meaningful aspects of life, irrespective of purely economic considerations. This underscores the need for a comprehensive evaluation that not only takes into account quantitative measures but also the qualitative aspects of well-being and quality of life when making recommendations of a CCM in standard care.

The study by J. Y. Joo and Huber (2019) highlighted that CM interventions aligned with the standards of the Case Management Society of America varied in duration, ranging from 1 month to 15.9 years, and implemented in community- or hospital-based settings. However, they noted a limitation in understanding how CM processes unfold [ 67 ]. In contrast, our trial addressed this criticism by providing transparent explanations of the CCM process, which also extends to a superordinate care management [ 40 , 41 ]. Our CCM manual [ 40 ] outlines a standardized and structured procedure for measuring and reevaluating individual resources, problems, and unmet needs on predefined dimensions. It also identifies goals and actions at reducing unmet needs and improving the individual resources of PwsMS and caregivers. Importantly, the CCM manual demonstrates that the CCM process can be structured and standardized, while accounting for the unique aspects of each individual’s serious illness, disease courses, complex needs, available resources, and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the adaptability of the CCM manual to other complex chronically ill patient groups suggests the potential for a standardized approach in various health care settings. This standardized procedure allows for consistency in assessing and addressing the individual needs of patients, ensuring that the CCM process remains flexible while maintaining a structured and goal-oriented framework.

The discussion about the disintegration in the social and health care system and the increasing specialization dates back to 2009 [ 31 , 32 ]. Three strategies were identified to address this issue: (a) “driver-minimizing” [Treiberminimierende], (b) “effect-modifying” [Effektmodifizierende] and (c) “disintegration-impact-minimizing” [Desintegrationsfolgenminimierende] strategies. “Driver-minimizing strategies” involve comprehensive and radical changes within the existing health and social care system, requiring political and social pursuit. “Disintegration-impact-minimizing strategies” are strategies like quality management or tele-monitoring, which are limited in scope and effectiveness. “Effect-modifying strategies”, to which CCM belongs, acknowledges the segmentation within the system but aims to overcome it through cooperative, communicative, and integrative measures. CCM, being an “effect-modifying strategy”, operates the “integrated segmentation model” [Integrierte Segmentierung] rather than the “general contractor model” [Generalunternehmer-Modell] or “total service provider model” [Gesamtdienstleister-Modell] [ 31 , 32 ]. In this model, the advantage lies in providing an overarching and coordinating service to link different HCSs and services cross-sectorally. The superordinate care management aspect of the CCM plays a crucial role in identifying gaps in care, which is essential for future development strategies within the health and social care system. It aims to find or develop (regional) alternatives to ensure optimal care [ 17 , 23 , 24 , 68 , 69 ], using regional services of existing health and social care structures. Therefore, superordinate care management within the CCM process is decisive for reducing disintegration in the system.

Strengths and limitations

The qualitative study results of the explorative COCOS-MS clinical trial, which employed an integrated mixed-method design, provide valuable insights into the individual experiences of three leading stakeholders: PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs with a long-term cross-sectoral CCM. In addition to in-depth interviews, patient and caregiver reported outcome measurements were utilized and will be reported elsewhere. The qualitative study’s strengths include the inclusion of patients who, due to the severity of their condition (e.g. EDSS mean: 6.8, range: 6–8, highly active MS), age (mean: 53.9 years, range: 36–73 years) family constellations, are often underrepresented in research studies and often get lost in existing social and health care structures. The study population is specific to the wider district region of Cologne, but the broad inclusion criteria make it representative of severe MS in Germany. The methodological approach of a deductive and inductive structuring content analysis made it possible to include new findings into an existing theoretical framework.

However, the study acknowledges some limitations. While efforts were made to include more HCSs, time constraints on their side limited the number of interviews conducted and might have biased the results. Some professions are underrepresented in the interviews. Complex symptoms (e.g. fatigue, ability to concentrate), medical or therapeutic appointments and organization of the everyday live may have been reasons for the patients’ and caregivers’ interviews lasting shorter than initially planned.

The provision of functions of a CCM, might have pre-structured the answers of the participants.

At current, there is no support system for PwsMS, their caregivers and HCSs that addresses their complex and unmet needs comprehensively and continuously. There are rare qualitative insights of the three important stakeholders: PwsMS, caregivers and HCSs in one analysis about a supporting service like a CCM. In response to this gap, we developed and implemented a long-term cross-sectoral advocacy CCM and analyzed it qualitatively. PwsMS, their caregivers and HCSs expressed positive experiences, perceiving the CCM as a source of relief and support that improved care across various aspects of life. For patients, the CCM intervention resulted in enhanced autonomy, reviving of personal wellbeing and new established contacts with HCSs. Caregivers reported a reduced organizational burden and felt better informed, and HCSs experienced primarily temporal relief, allowing them to concentrate on their core professional responsibilities. At a higher level of care, the study suggests that the CCM contributed to a reduction in disintegration within the social and health care system.

The feedback from participants is seen as valuable for adapting the CCM intervention and the CCM manual for follow-up studies, involving further complex patient groups such as neurological long-term diseases apart from MS and tailoring the duration of the intervention depending on the complexity of evolving demands.

Availability of data and materials

Generated and/or analyzed datasets of participants are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request to protect participants. Preliminary partial results have been presented as a poster during the EAPC World Congress in June 2023 and the abstract has been published in the corresponding abstract booklet [ 70 ].

Abbreviations

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Care and case management

Case management

Central nervous system

Communication, Coordination and security for people with multiple sclerosis

Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research

German register for clinical studies

Extended disability status scale

Electronic patient record

Quality of life

Multiple sclerosis

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the patients, caregivers and health care specialists who volunteered their time to participate in an interview and the trial, Carola Janßen for transcribing the interviews, Fiona Brown for translating the illustrative quotes and Beatrix Münzberg, Kerstin Weiß and Monika Höveler for data collection in the quantitative study part.

COCOS-MS Trial Group

Anne Müller 1 , Fabian Hebben 1 , Kim Dillen 1 , Veronika Dunkl 1 , Yasemin Goereci 2 , Raymond Voltz 1,3,4 , Peter Löcherbach 5 , Clemens Warnke 2 , Heidrun Golla 1 , Dirk Müller 6 , Dorthe Hobus 1 , Eckhard Bonmann 7 , Franziska Schwartzkopff 8 , Gereon Nelles 9 , Gundula Palmbach 8 , Herbert Temmes 10 , Isabel Franke 1 , Judith Haas 10 , Julia Strupp 1 , Kathrin Gerbershagen 7 , Laura Becker-Peters 8 , Lothar Burghaus 11 , Martin Hellmich 12 , Martin Paus 8 , Solveig Ungeheuer 1 , Sophia Kochs 1 , Stephanie Stock 6 , Thomas Joist 13 , Volker Limmroth 14

1 Department of Palliative Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

2 Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

3 Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Düsseldorf (CIO ABCD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

4 Center for Health Services Research (ZVFK), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

5 German Society of Care and Case Management e.V. (DGCC), Münster, Germany

6 Institute for Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology (IGKE), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

7 Department of Neurology, Klinikum Köln, Cologne, Germany

8 Clinical Trials Centre Cologne (CTCC), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

9 NeuroMed Campus, MedCampus Hohenlind, Cologne, Germany

10 German Multiple Sclerosis Society Federal Association (DMSG), Hannover, Germany

11 Department of Neurology, Heilig Geist-Krankenhaus Köln, Cologne, Germany

12 Institute of Medical Statistics and Computational Biology (IMSB), Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

13 Academic Teaching Practice, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

14 Department of Neurology, Klinikum Köln-Merheim, Cologne, Germany

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This work was supported by the Innovation Funds of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), grant number: 01VSF19029.

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Anne Müller, Fabian Hebben, Kim Dillen, Veronika Dunkl, Raymond Voltz & Heidrun Golla

Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Yasemin Goereci & Clemens Warnke

Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Düsseldorf (CIO ABCD), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Raymond Voltz

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Anne Müller
, Fabian Hebben
, Kim Dillen
, Veronika Dunkl
, Yasemin Goereci
, Raymond Voltz
, Peter Löcherbach
, Clemens Warnke
, Heidrun Golla
, Dirk Müller
, Dorthe Hobus
, Eckhard Bonmann
, Franziska Schwartzkopff
, Gereon Nelles
, Gundula Palmbach
, Herbert Temmes
, Isabel Franke
, Judith Haas
, Julia Strupp
, Kathrin Gerbershagen
, Laura Becker-Peters
, Lothar Burghaus
, Martin Hellmich
, Martin Paus
, Solveig Ungeheuer
, Sophia Kochs
, Stephanie Stock
, Thomas Joist
& Volker Limmroth

Contributions

HG, KD, CW designed the trial. HG, KD obtained ethical approvals. HG, KD developed the interview guidelines with help of the CCM (SU). AM was responsible for collecting qualitative data, developing the code system, coding, analysis of the data and writing the first draft of the manuscript, thoroughly revised and partly rewritten by HG. FH supported in collecting qualitative data, coding and analysis of the interviews. KD supported in collecting qualitative data. AM, FH, KD, VD, YG, RV, PL, CW, HG discussed and con-solidated the finalized category system. AM, FH, KD, VD, YG, RV, PL, CW, HG read and commented on the manuscript and agreed to the final version.

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Correspondence to Anne Müller .

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Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Participants were provided with oral and written information about the trial and provided written informed consent. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of Cologne (#20–1436). The trial is registered in the German Register for Clinical Studies (DRKS) (DRKS00022771) and is conducted under the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Competing interests.

Clemens Warnke has received institutional support from Novartis, Alexion, Sanofi Genzyme, Janssen, Biogen, Merck and Roche. The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Müller, A., Hebben, F., Dillen, K. et al. “So at least now I know how to deal with things myself, what I can do if it gets really bad again”—experiences with a long-term cross-sectoral advocacy care and case management for severe multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study. BMC Health Serv Res 24 , 453 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10851-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10851-1

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ABM Students Participate at NGA Show

The Cal Poly Pomona agribusiness team with advisor/Lecturer Katie Horvath

Gained valuable experience at grocery industry event.

Best Bagger

Students assisted with the "Best Bagger" competition.

Students pose with a Student Standout Award winners

Student Standout Awards

Students evaluated products and services for the Student Standout Awards.

Case Study Competition

Students developed a business strategy for a grocery chain.

April 16, 2024

Seven agribusiness and food industry management students recently brought home valuable experience and recognition from the National Grocers Association (NGA) Show.

Held at Caesar's Palace Forum in Las Vegas, the NGA Show is a premier event for the grocery industry, bringing together retailers, wholesalers, and a passionate student community that included students from Cornell, University of Findlay, St. Joseph’s University, Arizona State, Kansas State, Auburn, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Fresno State.

Students Justin Kipper, Carmen Diaz, Elizabeth Vargas, Ariadna Castro, Megan Ebner, Avalon Anderson, and Irvin Ayon were not just attendees; they were active participants at the show in several activities.

One of the activities was the Student Standout Awards, which tasked them with forming cross-university teams and evaluating hundreds of products and services showcased on the expansive NGA Show Expo Floor.

The floor included 350 companies eager to connect with industry stakeholders. From Center Store and Fresh Food innovations to cutting-edge technology solutions, the students had a front-row seat to the future of grocery retailing.

The cross-university teams each tackled a specific award category: Center Store, Fresh, Health & Wellness, Pharmacy, Operational Services, Sustainability in Store Design & Equipment, and Technology.

Armed with a set of insightful questions, they approached each booth, engaging with company representatives and learning how these products and services could empower independent grocers.

Through these insightful dialogues, the expo transformed into a real-world learning lab for the students, exposing them to the grocery landscapes and giving them invaluable industry knowledge while honing their critical thinking and communication skills.

Best Bagger Competition

Cal Poly Pomona students Castro, Vargas, and Diaz also assisted with the Best Bagger Competition, which puts the spotlight on a fundamental skill in the grocery industry – bagging – and on customer service and company pride.

Grocery store baggers from across the country battled it out for the coveted championship title and a grand prize of $10,000.

The students’ support ensured a smooth-running event and exemplified the collaborative spirit fostered by the agribusiness program.

Student Case Study

In the ever-evolving landscape of the grocery industry, maintaining a competitive edge requires not just adaptation but forward-thinking strategies that anticipate future trends.

This was the challenge the agribusiness management students embraced in the Student Case Study.

Their mission was clear: to revitalize Niemann Foods Inc. by transitioning its County Market stores into B-level stores, rebranded as "Niemann's Market."

Niemann Foods faced the dual challenge of executing a successful rebranding strategy to build customer loyalty while adapting to the changing dynamics of the grocery industry.

The team was comprised of Kipper, serving as the senior program manager, Anderson as head of marketing strategy, Ayon as senior community activities director, Diaz as visual design manager, with valuable contributions from Vargas, Castro, and Ebner.

Under the expert guidance of Lecturer Katie Horvath, a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience in the grocery and consumer packaged goods) retail sector, the student consultant team embarked on a journey to redefine the shopping experience at Niemann's Market

The key questions posed to the student team revolved around creating an integrated shopping experience, aligning the rebranding with future customer preferences—especially in the fresh category—and differentiating Niemann's Market in the coming decade.

The students' proposal focused on leveraging technology and community engagement to revolutionize the shopping experience at Niemann's Market. Their strategic plan included the implementation of Custom Shelf Talkers and new cost-saving Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) Digital Shelf Tags.

These innovations aimed not only to enhance the in-store experience but also to achieve significant cost savings through labor reduction and efficiency in promotional activities.

Furthermore, the team devised a compelling marketing strategy titled "Look closer, find more at Niemann's," emphasizing the unique value proposition of the rebranded stores. By integrating these elements, the students projected a rate of investment of 73 percent or more, with substantial savings in labor and material costs, while also saving valuable time spent on price changes each week.

Gerry Kettler, Niemann’s director of consumer affairs, lauded the students' presentation, highlighting the impactful ideas they brought to the table.

"Your students rocked the presentation with their ideas! I cannot wait to work with these students," he remarked.

Although the team did not clinch the top prize, their innovative cost-saving initiative caught the attention of independent grocers across the United States, with seven grocers keen on implementing their strategies.

As these bright minds continue to make their mark on the industry, the experience gained from the Student Case Study serves as a foundation for their future endeavors. Their work with Niemann's Market is a testament to the transformative power of innovative thinking in maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamic grocery industry.

The collaboration between Cal Poly Pomona students and Niemann Foods, Inc. exemplifies the potential for academic institutions and industry leaders to work together in addressing real-world challenges.

The students' ability to apply their knowledge, creativity, and strategic thinking to a complex business scenario underscores the quality of education and training provided by agribusiness and food industry management program at the Huntley College of Agriculture.

The Intelligent, Responsible, and Humane Side of Social Media: A Case Study of a Partnership Between UP Police India and Facebook Saving Lives

Published: 13 April 2024

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Amit Kumar 1 , 2 &
Vibhuti Gupta ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8109-0890 3

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The purpose of the case study is to demonstrate how social media and police (law enforcement) may work together in a thoughtful, ethical, and humanitarian way. By fusing human intelligence with intelligent systems, the case study contends, extraordinary accomplishments can be achieved. Additionally, it underlines the importance of the public-private partnership (PPP) model, in which the joint efforts of two parties; Uttar Pradesh Police (UPP) India and Facebook, representing the public and private sectors, respectively produced incredible results. Phenomenal achievements were made possible by this relationship, and numerous suicide attempts were averted. The case study reviewed cases between March 2022 and February 2024 and found that 321 precious lives were saved due to this partnership. The case study demonstrates how Facebook’s algorithm works to spot any posts that contain language that suggests self-harm or suicide and to issue a warning in the hopes of protecting a precious life. The UP Police’s social media unit gets notified of such posts, thanks to Facebook’s random forest learning algorithms, which then take action to save a priceless life. The case sheds some insight on the privacy concerns of Facebook account holders, the use of sophisticated technology by the police authorities, and its ethical implications as well. It provides some insight into the relevance of management principles to public services.

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The Politics of Artificial Intelligence Behaviour and Human Rights Violation Issues in the 2016 US Presidential Elections: An Appraisal

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Research Article

Are forest management practices to improve carbon balance compatible with maintaining bird diversity under climate change? A case study in Eastern North America

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected] .

Affiliations Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec, Quebec, Canada, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Chaire Industrielle CRSNG UQAT-UQAM en Aménagement Forestier Durable, Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Roles Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Chaire Industrielle CRSNG UQAT-UQAM en Aménagement Forestier Durable, Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Research Centre on Renewable Materials, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, Université Laval, Québec, Quebec, Canada

Roles Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec, Quebec, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Roles Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Sciences et Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Northern Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Roles Investigation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, Direction de la Recherche Forestière, Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs (MFFP), Québec, Quebec, Canada

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Québec, Quebec, Canada, Department of Wood and Forest Sciences, Université Laval, Québec, Quebec, Canada

Guillemette Labadie,
Philippe Cadieux,
Lucas Moreau,
Fidele Bognounou,
Evelyne Thiffault,
Dominic Cyr,
Yan Boulanger,
Diana Stralberg,
Pierre Grondin,
Junior A. Tremblay

Published: April 15, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293
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The combination of climate change and anthropogenic disturbance significantly impacts forest bird assemblages. Assessing the cumulative effects of forest management and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and storage and provisioning of wood products is key to informing forest management and conservation decision making. Specifically, we projected changes in forest composition and structure according to various forest management strategies under a changing climate using LANDIS-II for two case study areas of Quebec (Canada): a hemiboreal (Hereford Forest) and a boreal (Montmorency Forest) area. Then, we assessed projected bird assemblage changes, as well as sensitive and at-risk species. As part of an integrated assessment, we evaluated the best possible management measures aimed at preserving avian diversity and compared them with optimal options for mitigation of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Forest management and climate change were projected to lead to significant changes in bird assemblages in both types of forest through changes in forest composition. We projected an increase in deciduous vegetation which favored species associated with mixed and deciduous stands to the detriment of species associated with older, coniferous forests. Changes were more pronounced in Hereford Forest than Montmorency Forest. In addition, Hereford’s bird assemblages were mainly affected by climate change, while those in Montmorency Forest were more impacted by forest management. We estimated that 25% of Hereford and 6% of Montmorency species will be sensitive to climate change, with projected abundance changes (positive or negative) exceeding 25%. According to the simulations, a decrease in the level of forest harvesting could benefit bird conservation and contribute to reduction of carbon emissions in the boreal forest area. Conversely, the hemiboreal forest area require trade-offs, as mitigation of carbon emissions is favored by more intensive forest management that stimulates the growth and carbon sequestration of otherwise stagnant stands.

Citation: Labadie G, Cadieux P, Moreau L, Bognounou F, Thiffault E, Cyr D, et al. (2024) Are forest management practices to improve carbon balance compatible with maintaining bird diversity under climate change? A case study in Eastern North America. PLOS Clim 3(4): e0000293. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293

Editor: Munesh Kumar, H.N.B. Garhwal University (A Central University), INDIA

Received: August 8, 2023; Accepted: March 4, 2024; Published: April 15, 2024

Copyright: © 2024 Labadie et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study will be made available in the Dryad repository ( https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8w9ghx3v8 ).

Funding: This study was funded by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks (contrats de service de recherche forestier 142332156-2018-A and 142332174-E to ET). This publication is a contribution of the Boreal Avian Modelling (BAM) Project, an international research collaboration targeting the ecology, management, and conservation of boreal birds. We acknowledge BAM’s members, avian and biophysical Data Partners, and funding agencies (including Environment and Climate Change Canada), listed in full at: www.borealbirds.ualberta.ca/about-us/partners- sponsors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

There is mounting evidence that the cumulative effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities can have major impacts on biodiversity and carbon balance [ 1 – 4 ]. Scenarios from general circulation models (GCMs) predict a temperature increase of 3 to 5°C across Canada’s boreal zone by the end of the 21 st century in the absence of greenhouse gas reductions [ 5 , 6 ]. Changes in temperature and precipitation are expected to increase the frequency and severity of natural disturbances, such as wildfire, drought, and insect outbreaks [ 5 – 7 ]. These changes are projected to alter the distribution and availability of key habitat components such as vegetation types and food resources, alter species assemblages, and lead to the establishment of species outside their previous altitudinal [ 8 , 9 ] and latitudinal [ 10 , 11 ] range limits. One of the most apparent changes in eastern North America is likely to be the northward expansion of temperate and hemiboreal ( sensu Brandt [ 12 ]) forests at the expense of boreal forests [ 13 ]. These changes are projected to cause wide-ranging impacts on associated ecosystems and biodiversity, including birds [ 14 , 15 ]. For instance, warmer temperatures may lead to changes in vegetation composition, favoring the expansion of more southern and temperate species while potentially reducing suitable habitat for boreal specialists. In addition, climate change can have direct effects on ecosystem functioning, including changes in photosynthetic and metabolic rates [ 16 , 17 ], and altered trophic interactions [ 18 ]. It is projected that more than half of North American bird species would experience a net loss of climatically suitable habitat at the continental scale following increased anthropogenic climate [ 14 , 15 , 19 ]. This shifting ecological landscape sets the stage for forest management strategies to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of bird assemblages and their habitat.

Building on this ecological context, forest management strategies significantly affect bird assemblages by altering forest stand structure and composition [ 20 – 22 ], including forest age distributions, canopy structure, species composition, and standing dead wood [ 23 ]. Climate change and forest management can thus interact to influence bird assemblage composition and distribution by affecting environmental characteristics [ 24 , 25 ]. Indeed, the distribution and abundance of many bird species are determined by the structure and composition of the vegetation that comprises their habitat [ 21 , 26 , 27 ]. Moreover, modeling studies have projected that many boreal and hemiboreal forest bird species may experience declines due to climate change and the intensification of forest management [ 24 , 25 , 28 ]. This is especially the case for habitat specialists relative to generalist species [ 29 , 30 ]. Bird species are thus not equally vulnerable, due to their specific environmental and climatic requirements and their tolerance to changes [ 31 , 32 ].

Projected climate-induced changes in Quebec’s forest landscapes vary due to climate velocity and a climatic gradient from temperate deciduous forests in the south to boreal coniferous forests in the north [ 33 ]. Most boreal-breeding bird species might be at risk of climate-induced changes in their habitats [ 32 ]. Indeed, in the near-term, climate change is expected to increase the risk of fires and insect outbreaks in the boreal forest, while mostly decreasing the productivity of boreal coniferous tree species [ 5 ]. As a result, pioneer deciduous tree species are projected to be much more abundant in future boreal forest landscapes while old-growth conifer stands decrease dramatically [ 34 ]. Many bird species associated with broadleaf trees or shrubs and/or mixed conifer-broadleaf forests are thus projected to gain habitat within the current boreal forest in the future [ 15 ]. In contrast, hemiboreal forests are likely to experience smaller changes in natural disturbance regimes [ 34 , 35 ]. However, northward range expansions of breeding birds inhabiting this region have already been reported [ 36 ]. Consequently, it is important to consider the heterogeneous impacts of climate change and forest management on boreal and hemiboreal forests, and how they may impact species differently throughout their ranges.

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Canada committed to reduce anthropogenic emissions by 40–45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Yet, the cumulative impacts of anthropogenic disturbances and climate change on forests may affect the ecosystem’s ability to sequester and store carbon [ 35 , 37 ]. According to current estimates, Canada’s forest sector, ecosystems and harvested wood products included, switched from being a net sink of greenhouse gases until 2001 (with exceptions during years of intense fire activity like 1995 and 1998) to a persistent net source in 2002 [ 38 , 39 ]. Both climate-driven increases in natural disturbance and forest management have reduced the capability of Canada’s forests to serve as a net sink in the last decades [ 38 , 39 ]. Considerable uncertainty remains [ 40 ] and, the best strategy for managing carbon balance may vary among forest landscapes [ 41 ]. For instance, net carbon balance may be improved by accumulating larger carbon stocks at the ecosystem level through longer harvest rotations or conservation in some areas [ 41 – 43 ]. In contrast, increasing silviculture and harvest rates so that more carbon can be transferred to wood products that can be used to substitute non-renewable products [ 44 , 45 ] may yield better results in other areas. Landscape characteristics that can be used as initial conditions for simulation models, such as age structure [ 46 ], baseline net ecosystem productivity [ 41 ], management system (e.g., clearcutting vs partial harvesting [ 41 ], disturbance regime [ 47 ], sensitivity to climate change [ 34 ], and substitution markets [ 48 ]), may strongly influence projected outcomes.

In this context and the realm of conservation science, ecological forecasting stands as a pivotal tool for anticipating the impacts of environmental change and guiding management decisions [ 49 , 50 ]. Our study aligns with this emerging field by integrating a spatially explicit forest landscape model that consider interactions between climate and land-use changes with species distribution models to predict trends of avian diversity under shifting climate conditions and forest management practices. By coupling landscape-level vegetation changes with species-specific distribution patterns, we aimed to provide a nuanced forecast that not only predicts changes in bird assemblages but also informs management interventions to mitigate carbon emissions while preserving bird diversity. Such integrated modeling efforts are crucial for advancing the science of ecological forecasting and developing comprehensive tools that can simultaneously consider multiple variables to address the complex challenges posed by climate change [ 51 , 52 ].

In a previous study, Moreau et al. [ 41 ] examined the cumulative effects of forest management and climate change on carbon dynamics to find optimal solutions for the carbon budget (i.e., sequestration and storage in ecosystems and wood products and market displacement of non-renewable, fossil-based products); management scenarios were tested that increased or decreased harvest levels and used different harvesting practices (i.e., clearcut harvest vs partial cut and longer or shorter rotations between harvests). In this study, we build on these previous analyses to evaluate management measures for sequestrating carbon or replacing fossil fuels with biofuels while maintaining avian diversity on the landscape. While climate change can influence species in many ways, our study focused on the consequences of habitat change. More specifically, our objectives were to 1) identify the cumulative and specific impacts of climate change and forest management on bird assemblages and identify species most sensitive to changes, 2) integrate projected shifts in bird assemblages with carbon emission mitigation strategies explored in Moreau et al. [ 41 ] across diverse management and climate change scenarios, 3) examine if two distinct forest landscapes exhibit similar or divergent responses, and 4) investigate the best management measures to preserve avian diversity and mitigate carbon emissions.

1. Study areas

We focused on two study areas: Montmorency Forest within the boreal region and Hereford Forest within the hemiboreal region ( Fig 1 ).

PPT PowerPoint slide
PNG larger image
TIFF original image

The percentage of coniferous is shown with a gradation of greens. Sources of the basemap: Esri, HERE, Garmin, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community [ 57 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.g001

Montmorency Forest (37,050 ha) is located in the Boreal shield ecozone. The most common stand types are typical of the balsam fir ( Abies balsamea ) and white birch ( Betula papyrifera ) bioclimatic domain of the boreal forest, with a component of white spruce ( Picea glauca ), black spruce ( Picea mariana ), and trembling aspen ( Populus tremuloides ). The main natural disturbances are insect outbreaks, mostly eastern spruce budworm outbreaks ( Choristoneura fumiferana ), and windthrow [ 53 ] Montmorency Forest has a long history of forest management. Clearcut harvesting followed by natural regeneration and, to a lesser extent, partial harvesting that maintains a continuous forest cover are conducted in Montmorency Forest.

Hereford Forest (5,669 ha) is located in the Atlantic Maritime ecozone in the hemiboreal subzone, which is considered to be part of the temperate zone but transitional to the boreal ([ 12 ], Fig 1 ). The vegetation is characteristic of the hemiboreal sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ) and yellow birch ( Betula alleghaniensis ) bioclimatic domain, which is mainly composed of those two species mixed with intolerant hardwoods, balsam fir and red spruce ( Picea rubens ). The main natural disturbances are small windthrow and insect outbreaks [ 54 ]. The region shows centuries of human occupation related to urban and agricultural developments and forest management following to Euro-American settlement resulting in forest fragmentation and a scarcity of old-growth forests. Hereford Forest has been characterized by high-grading selection cutting, which greatly shaped the forest landscapes present today. Before 1850, Hereford Forest was mainly composed of mature forest (i.e., > 70 years old), while 98% of the current forest is < 50 years old. Current forest management practices in Hereford Forest include retaining small patches of partial cuts (1–10 ha per patch) and conservation areas (ca 10% of the territory).

Wildfires are not a major natural disturbance in these areas (e.g., mean fire return interval of more than 1000 years) and are not projected to become major in the near future [ 55 , 56 ]. Forest composition in 2020 for the two types of forests is detailed in S1 – S3 Figs.

2. Spatially explicit forest simulation model

A. climate scenarios..

Future climate projections for the 100 years of simulation were based on three different global warming trajectories:

A baseline scenario with no climate change, which corresponds to a projection of current (1981–2010) climate conditions, with no change in the 100 years of simulation.
Two radiative forcing scenarios: Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 [ 58 ].

Of the two pathways, the RCP 4.5 scenario is more optimistic with a projected increase in future mean annual temperatures of about 3°C. In contrast, the RCP 8.5 scenario is more pessimistic with a predicted increase of 7.5°C in the study area by 2100 (compared with 2000), while average precipitation is projected to increase between 7% and 10% under RCP 8.5 and RCP 4.5 respectively [ 59 ]. We obtained future climate projections from the Canadian Earth System Model version 2 (CanESM2) ran under both scenarios [ 60 ], downloaded from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) archives of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and Ouranos [ 61 ]. CanESM2 data were biased-corrected for the period 1961–1990 to incorporate data from McKenney et al. [ 62 ], particularly for temperature values and precipitation ratios. Climate change (CC) scenarios were produced using data from climate station records [ 62 ]. The ANUSPLIN method was used to downscale climate projection to a 10-km resolution [ 62 ].

b. Forest landscapes simulations with LANDIS-II.

We used LANDIS-II v6 [ 63 ] to simulate the spatial dynamics of forest ecosystems, focusing on the interaction of ecological processes at stand and landscape scales [ 59 ]. This model integrates various ecological processes through distinct extensions, tailored to specific research questions and complexity levels. Our simulations incorporated the effects of climate change on tree growth and establishment, as well as the frequency and severity of natural disturbances. We used the LANDIS-II Biomass Succession extension v3.2 to project forest succession and bird habitats, with parameters derived from PICUS v1.5 [ 64 , 65 ] and climate data from CanESM2. Simulations ran for 80 years from 2020, with a 10-year timestep and 250-m resolution. For a detailed description of the simulation setup and parameterization, refer to the Supporting Information– S1 Text .

c. Natural disturbances.

We simulated spruce budworm outbreaks and windthrow as natural disturbances. Both disturbances historically had major impacts on forest landscapes in these areas [ 66 , 67 ]. Spruce budworm (SBW) outbreaks were simulated using the Budworm Biological Disturbance Agent (BDA) extension (v3.0; [ 68 ]), specifically designed to simulate host tree mortality following insect outbreaks. SBW outbreaks were calibrated using Boulanger et al. [ 34 ] parameters and were set to the maximum severity and to recur every 40 years (2030 and 2070) in accordance with the historical regional outbreak cycle [ 67 ]. Host species included, ranking from the most to the least vulnerable, balsam fir, white spruce, red spruce and black spruce. Forest composition resulting from spruce budworm outbreaks (i.e., the increase in the proportion of mixed stands) was tracked. Windthrows were simulated using the Base Wind extension [ 69 ]. This natural disturbance was set as a background disturbance set to occur most often in older stands regardless of species composition and according to a 2500-year cycle. Although these disturbances were not impacted by climate conditions per se , their severity was a function of stand age and/or forest composition which themselves are strongly function of climate change.

d. Forest management scenarios.

To determine the impact of forest management for each of the two areas, several management scenarios were defined based on inputs from local forest managers, reflecting realistic actions for their respective territories. More specifically, as part of a coordinated project with Moreau et al. [ 41 ], we compared four different possible forest management scenarios that differed in terms of wood volume harvested. The simulated forest management scenarios reflected realistic actions for their respective areas, and were classified as 1) no harvest (no harvesting was performed), 2) business-as-usual (BaU, current forest management strategy) 3) conservation (i.e., reduction of management intensity and volume harvested relative to the BaU), and 4) intensification (increase of management intensity and volume harvested relative to the BaU). Forest management scenarios were modulated according to local characteristics and associated silvicultural practices ( Table 1 ). For Montmorency Forest, intensity of forest management and harvest level varied both by harvested volume (increased or decreased harvested volume) and by type of cut (proportion of clearcut vs. partial cut). For Hereford Forest, the intensity of management and harvest level differed between scenarios according to the rotation time between two partial cuts (either shorter or longer) and by the absence or presence of a conservation area ( Table 1 ). For both areas, partial cutting of forest stands did not reset stand age to 0 (contrary to clearcut), as age is based on the oldest tree cohort.

The reference scenario is Business–as–usual.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.t001

The different forest management scenarios were simulated using the Biomass Harvest extension (v3.0; [ 70 ]). Each cell was considered as a stand belonging to a given forest management unit (FMU) in which specific prescriptions were set to occur at specific rates over the FMU. Each prescription is defined according to various stand- and FMU-level parameters including the proportion of biomass harvested at each harvest event, harvested patch size, minimum stand age to be harvested, which cohort should be harvested and the proportion of the FMU that should be harvested according to this prescription per timestep. Harvest rates were held constant throughout the simulations unless not enough stands qualified for harvest. In this latter case, harvest proceeded until no more stands were available.

e. Simulation design.

Each combination of climate and forest management scenarios was replicated 5 times, to consider the effects of stochastic parameters [ 71 ]. For the next steps of the analysis, we used landscapes resulting from LANDIS-II model for the years 2050 and 2100.

3. Bird species models

In order to model bird assemblages in each of the two study areas, we built species-specific predictive abundance models using species and sampling event-specific detectability offsets using the “QPAD” approach (E[Y] = Q × P × A × D where perceptibility [Q], availability [P], area [A] and density [D]) according to methods described in Sólymos et al. [ 72 ]. This approach accounts for variation in sampling protocols and the effects of covariate on detectability. By incorporating offsets in the generalized linear models, this approach enabled to standardize the estimates and reflect density (number of singing individuals per hectare) within different forest landscapes. Bird observations were retrieved from the Boreal Avian Modeling Project database (BAM; borealbirds.ca) which includes data from a variety of sources including the volunteer Breeding Bird Survey (BBS; pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs) and the Québec breeding bird atlas (atlas-oiseaux.qc.ca) with various institutional and individual contributors. We retained only forest landbird species known as common breeders in each area based on the seasonal histograms of ebird sightings (ebird.org), resulting in a total of 51 species for Montmorency Forest and 45 species for Hereford Forest ( S1 Table ). For each of these species, we modeled density (males/ha) as a function of different vegetation and landscape variables using Boosted Regression Trees (BRT; [ 73 ]) with a Poisson distribution. We capped the number of trees at 10,000, and used a learning rate of 0.001, bag fraction of 0.5, and interaction depth of 3, as recommended by Elith et al. [ 74 ] and consistent with Stralberg et al. [ 75 ]. We used 47 variables, characterizing the forest structure and composition at local and landscape scales ( S2 Table ). In order to be compatible with LANDIS-II species biomass and stand age outputs, these vegetation variables were based on vegetation models derived from the Canadian National Forest Inventory [ 76 ]. The covariates used for the bird model fitting were either: (i) assumed static (i.e., varied in space, but did not change in LANDIS-II simulations) over the simulated period (e.g., water bodies, wetland); (ii) dynamic and allowed to change between simulations and time steps in LANDIS-II simulations (tree species, biomass, age, and climate covariates). Variables included the proportion of each cell dominated by different tree species in each region; total live above-ground vegetation biomass in each cell and stand age. We used the compound topographic index (CTI) as a measure of soil moisture based on slope and catchment area: areas with low CTI values have small catchment areas with steep slopes [ 77 , 78 ]. As suggested by Chandler and Hepinstall-Cymerman [ 79 ], we quantified variables at two spatial extents: the original value assigned to each 250-m cell (“local effect”) and mean values at landscape scale based on a Gaussian filter with sigma = 750 m ( focalweight function in “raster” package [ 80 ], in R). We used the gbm . step function in the “dismo” package [ 81 ] in R to build and predict the models. We used cross-validation correlation statistics ( S1 Table ) as indicators of model performance and summed variable importance scores for vegetation and climate predictors to assess the relative importance of vegetation and topography in each species’ model ( S3 Table ). This allowed to track population trends for each bird species, as well as for bird assemblages. The classification of bird species according to their primary habitat associations was achieved by integrating predictions of densities with insights from specialists in the field. Consequently, the composition of bird assemblages was established based on forest cover and age (i.e., habitat) classes ( S1 Table ).

4. Data analyses

A. bird abundance..

We used the predicted density values from BRT models to estimate the relative abundance of each bird species for all LANDIS-II simulations at each time step. The results of the five replicates were averaged for each of the scenario.

b. Trends in bird abundance: Effects of climate change and forest management.

To examine the pattern of bird abundance according to climate change and forest management scenarios, we conducted a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination with a Bray-Curtis distance matrix using the function metaMDS in the “vegan” package [ 82 ] in R. The vectors of climate and forest management scenarios were fitted to the ordination using the envfit function of the “vegan” package in R. Each vector was independently fitted to the underlying ordination. The significance of the fit of each vector to the ordination was assessed with a Monte-Carlo analysis of 999 permutations.

c. Impacts of climate change and forest management on bird assemblages in boreal and hemiboreal forests.

To have an overall overview of the cumulative impact of climate change and forest management on projected bird assemblages, we quantified bird alpha diversity (Shannon diversity) of each study area using the package ‘vegan’ [ 82 ] in R.

We conducted this analysis on bird assemblages in addition to individual species to understand the general trend of the cumulative impacts of climate change and forest management on multiple species of birds sharing similar habitat requirement in boreal and hemiboreal forests and how their response may differ spatially. The cumulative impacts of forest management and climate change are considered important for bird assemblages when an assemblage shows an increase in abundance of more than 10% or a decrease in abundance of less than 10% of the population compared to the reference scenario.

d. Species at risk and sensitive species.

Three forest bird species (i.e., Canada Warbler ( Cardellina canadensis ), Rusty Blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus ), and Eastern Wood-pewee ( Contopus virens )) are considered at risk in our study based on their provincial and/or federal status [ 83 ].

Species were considered sensitive if they demonstrated at least a 25% projected increase or decrease compared to the reference population [ 25 ].

e. Dual-criteria approach.

To assess management measures that best address both criteria (i.e., preservation of avian diversity and mitigation of carbon emissions), we compared our results with those from Moreau et al. [ 41 ], which evaluated the same forest management scenarios with respect to carbon emission mitigation potential within Hereford and Montmorency Forests. That study considered carbon sequestration and emissions in forest ecosystems as influenced by management scenarios, carbon emissions from degradation of harvested wood products during their service life and in landfills, and the avoided emissions (recorded as carbon sequestration) caused by substitution, by wood products, of non-renewable, fossil-based materials and energy sources on markets. The mitigation potential of a given management scenario was calculated as the difference between the total emissions/sequestrations of this scenario (Ecosystems + Products + Substitution) and that of the Business-as-usual (BaU) management scenario; a positive value indicates that the alternative scenario increases emissions to the atmosphere relative to the BaU, while a negative value indicates that it decreases emissions/increases sequestration. We thus compared forest management scenarios that are projected to be the best to maintain bird assemblages (i.e., with a small percent change compared with the reference scenario) with scenarios that best maximize the emission mitigation potential (i.e., enhance net sequestration) relative to the BaU.

All analyses were conducted in program R version 4.2.2 [ 84 ].

1. Cumulative impacts of climate change and forest management on tree species biomass

1.1. boreal forest–montmorency..

General trends in forest compositional changes over the simulated period were directly linked to forest management ( S1 Fig ). An increase in the level of forest harvesting was associated with a decrease in mean aboveground biomass ( S1 Fig ) and a decrease in mean stand age ( S2 Fig ). The proportion of trembling aspen increased with the level of forest harvesting at the expense of white spruce and black spruce ( S3 Fig ). For a given forest management scenario, results also suggested that forest composition was projected to have little variation between the three climate scenarios ( S3 Fig ).

1.2. Hemiboreal forest–Hereford.

General trends in forest compositional changes over the simulated period were linked to both forest management and climate change ( S1 Fig ). An increase in the level of forest harvesting was associated with a decrease in mean aboveground biomass ( S1 Fig ). Climate change and forest management did not influence the mean stand age, mostly due to partial cutting management, which was projected to increase linearly over time ( S2 Fig ). The proportion of sugar maple was projected to increase with the level of forest harvesting, especially under baseline climate scenarios, at the expense of balsam fir and red maple ( Acer rubrum ; S3 Fig ). In addition, the proportion of American beech ( Fagus grandifolia ) and red spruce were projected to increase with the severity of climate change ( S3 Fig ). However, the proportion of sugar maple was projected to decrease with the severity of climate change ( S3 Fig ).

2. Projected bird assemblage changes

2.1. trends in bird abundance: effects of climate change and forest management..

Stable NMDS ordinations of predicted change in bird abundance under cumulative effects of climate change and forest management were obtained after 29 iterations of 20 tries with a final stress of 0.08 in Hereford Forest, and after 110 iterations of 20 tries with a final stress of 0.07 in Montmorency Forest. These low stress values suggest that the ordinations were not arbitrary and that the plots provide a realistic portrait of the distance between change in bird abundance depending on climate change and forest management scenarios. The magnitude of bird abundance change was correlated with both climate change forcing scenarios and the intensity of forest management over time, with the largest value in 2100 ( Fig 2 ). There was a stark change in bird abundance between the baseline climate scenario and both moderate (RCP 4.5) and high (RCP 8.5) climate scenarios across forest management scenarios for both study areas, suggesting that important changes in bird abundance are projected to occur under a warming climate. In both Montmorency and Hereford Forests, the NMDS analysis revealed a consistent gradient in the impact on bird abundance across different forest management scenarios (NMDS 1 , Fig 2 ). This gradient was observed in the order of Intensive > BaU > Conservation > No harvest scenarios. Notably, the Montmorency Forest exhibited a more pronounced change in bird abundance across these scenarios compared to Hereford Forest.

Non–metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination of bird abundance with the most highly correlated climate and forest management scenario variables at years 2050 (left) and 2100 (right) for Montmorency (top) and Hereford (bottom) Forests. Arrows represented forest characteristic variables Age, Biomass, the proportion of balsam fir (ABIE.BAL), white spruce (PICE.GLA), black spruce (PICE.MAR), sugar maple (ACER.SAH), American beech (FAGU.GRA), trembling aspen (POPU.TRE), and red spruce (PICE.RUB). Correlation coefficients between variables and the two axes are presented in S4 Table .

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Close associations between bird abundance changes and several forest characteristics were predicted ( Fig 2 ). In Hereford Forest, bird abundance was mostly linked to the projected proportion of balsam fir (R 2 = 0.70, P < 0.01). In Montmorency Forest, bird abundance was mostly related to the projected proportion of white spruce (R 2 = 0.83, P < 0.01) and black spruce (R 2 = 0.75, P < 0.01).

The Shannon diversity index, indicative of an overall bird abundance changes, exhibited distinct temporal and spatial patterns within Hereford and Montmorency Forests. By 2100, projections suggest a consistently higher Shannon index in Hereford Forest across all climate and forest management scenarios compared to Montmorency Forest ( Fig 3 ). Notably, in Hereford, the index was higher under the RCP 8.5 scenario than the baseline, contrasting with Montmorency where the reverse was observed. Climate change appeared to be the predominant driver affecting diversity in Hereford Forest, with minimal variation across management scenarios. In contrast, forest management played a more significant role in shaping diversity within Montmorency Forest.

Impacts of forest management on Shannon diversity index in a) Hereford Forest and b) Montmorency Forest under Baseline (hatched) and RCP 8.5 (solid) climate scenarios.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.g003

The magnitude of projected changes in bird abundance under high climate warming (RCP 8.5) at year 2100 relative to the one simulated under baseline climate varied greatly among areas, species, habitat type associations and the level of forest harvesting ( Fig 4 , S5 and S6 Tables). Forest generalist species were projected to be favored by the intensification of forest harvesting in both forests ( Fig 4 and S5 Table ). However, the intensification of forest harvesting was projected to have a negative impact on birds associated with mature and coniferous stands (i.e., High percentage of change; Fig 4 ), especially in Hereford Forest. In Hereford Forest, most bird assemblages would be negatively impacted by forest management. In Montmorency Forest, most bird assemblages would be favored, while most had a percent change less than 10% ( Fig 4 and S5 Table ). In addition, the magnitude of change was projected to be generally greater at Hereford Forest than at Montmorency Forest.

Density projections of bird species associated with cover types (top) and age categories (bottom) under Baseline (hatched) and RCP 8.5 (solid) climate scenarios at year 2100 for Hereford Forest and Montmorency Forest. The reference scenario is the baseline–BaU scenario.

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2.2. Specific impacts of climate change and forest management scenarios on bird assemblages.

Climate-driven ecological processes (i.e., tree growth and regeneration) had more important projected influences on Hereford Forest than Montmorency Forest bird assemblages under RCP 8.5 by 2100 ( Fig 5 and S5 Table ). For each study area, the importance of each driver of change (i.e., climate change and forest management) was similar between RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 but varied between 2050 and 2100 ( S4 Fig ). Indeed, in Hereford Forest, the climate-driven ecological processes were projected to have more important projected influences on bird assemblages in 2100 than in 2050; while forest management would have less impact. In contrast, in Montmorency Forest, the climate-driven ecological processes were projected to have a smaller influence on bird assemblages in 2100 than in 2050; while forest management was projected to have more impact.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.g005

Comparatively, in Montmorency Forest, changes in bird assemblage abundance were mostly driven by forest management, a climate-independent driver ( Fig 5B ). Only species associated with closed deciduous forests were projected to be affected primarily by the combined effects of climate change and forest management ( Fig 5B and S6 Table ). While forest management explained more than 46% of the change in all bird species’ abundances by 2100 ( Fig 5B ), the percent change in each species was mostly < 25% ( S6 Table ).

Some species currently occurred in both forests, such as Blue-headed Vireo ( Vireo solitarius ), Yellow-rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata ), and Black-throated Green Warbler ( Setophaga virens ), species associated with closed mixedwood stands. Our analysis revealed that change in abundance of these species would be driven primarily by climate change (ω 2 ≥50%) in Hereford Forest, while it would be driven by forest management (ω 2 ≥88%, except for the Yellow-rumped Warbler where ω 2 = 33%) in Montmorency Forest ( S6 Table ). In Montmorency Forest, of the 6 species that were projected to be mostly affected by climate change by 2100 (ω 2 >59%), 5 (e.g., American Goldfinch ( Spinus tristis ), Philadelphia Vireo ( Vireo philadelphicus ), Canada Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler ( Setophaga fusca ), and Northern Parula ( Setophaga americana ) also in Hereford Forest ( S6 Table ). Moreover, our analysis revealed that change in abundance of Philadelphia Vireo, Canada warbler and American Goldfinch driven by climate change (ω 2 ≥60%) in Montmorency Forest, while it would be driven by forest management (ω 2 ≥58%) in Hereford Forest ( S6 Table ).

3. Identification of bird species sensitive to climate change and forest management

Of the 45 bird species in Hereford Forest, we identified 8 (16%) and 4 (9%) species that were projected to decline and increase in abundance, respectively, by more than 25% by 2100 for the most severe climate change scenario (RCP 8.5) under the BaU management scenario compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6 and S6 Table ). Of those 12 species, the abundance of 11 species was driven by climate change (ω 2 >25%), including two species with mixed effects (i.e., the difference between both ω 2 <25%; S6 Table ). Species that were projected to increase greatly were generalist species and bird species associated with deciduous stands (average increases of 28% and 48%, respectively). Of all increasing species in Hereford Forest, only Pine Siskin ( Spinus pinus ) also occurred in Montmorency Forest ( S6 Table ). Moreover, 62% of the predicted declining species (i.e., 5 species) were birds associated with closed coniferous and mixedwood stands (average decline by -39% and -33%, respectively). Except for Scarlet Tanager ( Piranga olivacea ), the other seven declining species in Hereford Forest also occurred in Montmorency Forest, but were projected to be less impacted by climate change and forest management (i.e., Percent change < -25%; S6 Table ). In addition, under RCP 8.5 and the BaU management scenario, three species were projected to decline and by more than 25% and one species was projected to increase by more than 25% by 2100 compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6 and S6 Table ).

a, c, d) Percent change in abundance of sensitive bird species under RCP 8.5 at year 2050 and 2100 relative to the change simulated under the reference scenario (Baseline–BaU scenario) in (a) Montmorency, and (c,d) Hereford Forests; b, d, f) represent the temporal trends of the relative contribution of drivers of change (climate change and forest management) as values of ω 2 under RCP 8.5 in (b) Montmorency, and (d,f) Hereford Forests. Shaded areas represent |%change| < 25%. Species indicated with an asterisk represent species at risk. Birds represented are Philadelphia Vireo ( Vireo philadelphicus , PHVI), American goldfinch ( Spinus tristis , AMGO), Black–throated Blue Warbler ( Setophaga caerulescens , BTBW), Canada Warbler ( Cardellina canadensis , CAWA), Rusty Blackbird ( Euphagus carolinus , RUBL), Black–backed Woodpecker ( Picoides arcticus , BBWO), Indigo Bunting ( Passerina cyanea , INBU), Baltimore Oriole ( Icterus galbula , BAOR), Warbling Vireo ( Vireo gilvus , WAVI), Pine Siskin ( Spinus pinus , PISI), Brown Creeper ( Certhia Americana , BRCR), Gray Catbird ( Dumetella carolinensis , GRCA), American redstart ( Setophaga ruticilla , AMRE); Eastern Wood–pewee ( Contopus virens , EAWP), Dark–eyed Junco ( Junco hyemalis , DEJU), Black–throated Green Warbler ( Setophaga caerulescens , BTNW), Yellow–rumped Warbler ( Setophaga coronata , YRWA), Scarlet Tanager ( Piranga olivacea , SCTA), Magnolia Warbler ( Setophaga magnolia , MAWA), Golden–crowned Kinglet ( Regulus satrapa , GCKI), Blue–headed Vireo ( Vireo solitarius , BHVI), and Northern Parula ( Setophaga Americana , NOPA).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.g006

In Montmorency Forest, of the 51 species, we identified one (Black-backed Woodpecker ( Picoides arcticus ), 2% of the total) and two (American Goldfinch and Philadelphia Vireo, 4% of the total) species with populations that were projected to decline or increase by more than 25% compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6 and S6 Table ). Of those 3 species, all were predicted to be impacted by climate change (ω 2 >25%). American Goldfinch and Philadelphia Vireo were predicted to increase greatly (average increase of 30%), and the declining species, Black-backed Woodpecker, was projected to decline by 39%. Black-backed Woodpecker decline was projected to be mostly driven by forest management (ω 2 = 60%). Except for this declining species, the two increasing species in Montmorency Forest also occurred in Hereford Forest, but were projected to be less impacted by climate change and forest management (i.e., Percent change < 25%; S6 Table ). In addition, one species (Rusty Blackbird) was projected to decline by more than 25% and two species (Black-throated Blue Warbler ( Setophaga caerulescens ) and Canada warbler) were projected to increase by more than 25% by 2100 compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6 and S6 Table ).

Interestingly, the relative influence of the drivers of change did not show similar patterns under RCP 4.5 and 8.5 for some species, such as Yellow-rumped Warbler in Hereford Forest, and American Goldfinch in Montmorency Forest ( S5 Fig ). For Yellow-rumped Warbler, and American Goldfinch, forest management was predicted to be more influential for a shorter period of time under RCP 4.5 compared to RCP 8.5 ( S5 Fig ).

4. Impacts of climate change and forest management scenarios on species at risk

The relative contribution of climate-driven ecological processes and forest management scenarios varied among species at risk, but also between simulated forests within species ( Fig 6 ). For example, in Montmorency Forest, our projections indicate that climate-driven ecological processes will predominantly influence the abundance of the Canada Warbler throughout the entire simulation period ( Fig 6B ). A similar trend is expected in the Hereford Forest until around 2075. However, post-2075, forest management is projected to become the more dominant influence on the Canada Warbler’s abundance in Hereford Forest, where its impact is estimated to be 88% (ω 2 2100 , Fig 6D ). While the drivers of change were projected to differ among areas for Canada Warbler at the end of the century, we predicted that this species would be more or less sensitive to the vegetation changes induced by climate change and forest management depending on the period of time ( Fig 6A and 6c , S6 Table ). In Montmorency Forest, we predicted that Canada Warbler and Rusty Blackbird would be more sensitive to climate change and forest management in 2050, compared to 2100 under RCP 8.5 and BaU management scenario ( Fig 6A ). The same pattern was projected in Hereford Forest: the two species at risk occurring in this study area (Canada Warbler and Eastern Wood-pewee), were projected to not be sensitive to the vegetation changes in 2100 under RCP 8.5 and BaU scenario compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6C and 6D ). However, Canada Warbler is predicted to largely increase in abundance by 2050 under RCP 8.5 and BaU management scenario compared to the reference scenario ( Fig 6C ).

The relative influence of the drivers of change showed a similar pattern under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 in 2100 for Rusty Blackbird and Canada Warbler in both study areas ( S5 Fig ). For Eastern Wood-pewee, the climate-driven ecological processes were predicted to be more influential for a short period of time (before 2040) under RCP 4.5 while this influence should remain longer (up to 2070) under RCP 8.5 ( S5 Fig ). Moreover, for Eastern Wood-pewee and Rusty Blackbird, the magnitude of change was predicted to be greater under RCP 4.5 compared to RCP 8.5.

5. Best management measures for the dual-criteria approach

Moreau et al. [ 41 ] demonstrated that decreasing the level of forest harvesting had contrasting effects on the carbon emission mitigation potential of the forest sector in hemiboreal and boreal forest sectors, regardless of the climate change scenario. Hemiboreal landscapes were projected to be more vulnerable to climate change than boreal landscapes, and thus were predicted to become a net source of carbon over time. Scenarios projected to be best for carbon emission mitigation were not always optimal for avian conservation, depending on the region ( Table 2 ). In the Montmorency Forest, relative to the BaU scenario, lower harvest rates increased carbon storage by preserving stands that remained important carbon sinks and limiting short-term emissions caused by harvest. Moreover, lower harvest rates reduced emissions from degradation of wood products during their service life and in landfills [ 41 ]. Similarly, these scenarios were projected to best maintain the regional bird diversity under climate change relative to the reference scenario (i.e., smallest change in bird abundance). In this context, increased conservation of this boreal forest landscape represents an optimal solution for the conservation of bird diversity and the mitigation of carbon emissions. However, forest management intensity was projected to have opposite effects in the hemiboreal forest area. Indeed, in Hereford Forest, the decrease in forest harvesting level, relative to BaU, reduced the mitigation potential by increasing net carbon emissions; in this area, the growth and carbon sequestration potential of otherwise stagnating stands were stimulated by harvesting [ 41 ]. Yet, our results showed that such a strategy would result in much larger changes in bird assemblages than decreasing forest harvesting intensity.

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According to the simulations, a decrease in the level of forest harvesting could benefit bird conservation while also possibly contributing to climate change mitigation in the boreal forest study area, due to a reduction of carbon emissions from forest ecosystems and wood products [ 41 ]. However, it is important to recognize that such changes in management practices will have varied effects on different bird species. For instance, while some species that thrive in older, undisturbed forests may see population increases, others that depend on early successional habitats or mixed-age forests might experience reduced habitat suitability [ 85 ]. This underscores the complexity of forest ecosystems and the need for a nuanced approach to forest management that considers the diverse requirements of different species. In comparison, in the hemiboreal forest study area, strategies that increase forest harvesting levels could contribute to climate change mitigation by stimulating carbon sequestration in ecosystems, but they would have negative effects on bird conservation. Trade-offs would be thus necessary as the objectives of the dual objectives are not simultaneously accommodated. Furthermore, this study improves our understanding of how bird assemblages in the boreal and hemiboreal forests of eastern North America are likely to be differentially vulnerable to the combined effects of climate change and forest management. We found that the increase in deciduous vegetation resulting from both forest harvesting and climate change should favor bird assemblages associated with mixed and deciduous stands, to the detriment of assemblages associated with old-growth coniferous stands. Our simulations thus suggest an important future shift in the composition and abundance of boreal and hemiboreal bird assemblages. The magnitude of change was projected to be generally greater in more southerly hemiboreal forests than in boreal forests to the north. In addition, hemiboreal bird assemblages were projected to be mainly affected by climate change, whereas boreal bird assemblages were projected to be more affected by forest management. We estimated that 25% of the species in the hemiboreal forest study area and 6% in the boreal forest area are sensitive to climate change (defined as projected changes in abundance greater than 25%).

Contrasting effects in hemiboreal and boreal forests

Forest management and climate change were projected to have impacts on tree species composition in both boreal and hemiboreal forests. Yet, we detected contrasting agents of change between the hemiboreal and boreal study areas, which then influenced bird abundances. In the simulations, climate change influenced stand-scale processes, such as tree growth and regeneration. In the absence of wildfire, forest inertia is high, leading to relatively low proportions of pioneer and deciduous vegetation in the boreal forest study area. This is in contrast with most of Quebec’s boreal forest, where wildfires are a major disturbance and for which climate models suggest a strong increase in the upcoming decades [ 34 , 86 ]. Such a climate-induced increase in wildfire would lead to an increase in pioneer and deciduous vegetation (e.g., trembling aspen) within younger naturally disturbed landscapes, resulting in a global northward expansion of temperate and hemiboreal at the expense of boreal forests [ 13 ]. The relatively small changes in vegetation observed in the boreal forest study area may be partly attributed by its higher elevation, which, while not mountainous, is higher than the surrounding lowland regions, ranging from approximately 600 to 1000 meters above sea level. This elevation, albeit moderate, may offer some degree of buffering against the more immediate impacts of climate change due to the cooler temperatures associated with increased altitude [ 24 ]. Therefore, within the current century, these factors could contribute to the limited climate-induced changes in forest composition and consequent subtle shifts in bird abundance projections locally [ 24 , 87 ].

Larger climate-induced changes in forest composition were projected in the hemiboreal study area relative to the boreal study area. The Hereford Forest is located at the edge of the transition zone between temperate and hemiboreal forests, with many boreal tree species being near their southernmost range. Consequently, those mostly coniferous tree species coexist with more thermophilous deciduous species in a highly unstable and competitive ecosystem. Small variations in climatic conditions can thus result in changes in forest structure and composition [ 88 ] with pure conifer stands likely to be replaced by deciduous and mixed stands [ 89 ]. Accordingly, our simulations projected that bird species associated with boreal conifers, such as the Magnolia Warbler ( Setophaga magnolia ) and the Golden-crowned Kinglet ( Regulus satrapa ), would decrease, while species associated with deciduous forest, such as Baltimore Oriole ( Icterus galbula ) and the Warbling Vireo ( Vireo gilvus ) would increase under RCP 8.5. These changes in species composition are captured by an increase in the Shannon diversity index, which in our study is driven by variations in evenness rather than richness. Models consistently projected no change in bird species richness; thus, the observed increase in the Shannon index underscores a greater evenness in species abundances. Specifically, it reflects a shift towards a more balanced community, with deciduous-associated species becoming more prevalent and reducing the abundance of conifer-associated species, thereby increasing the evenness across the bird community. Our results are consistent with other studies suggesting climate-induced decreases in bird species associated with mature coniferous and mixedwood stands [ 25 , 75 ]. The findings of our research indicate that hemiboreal forests, which are transitional zones between boreal and temperate forests, are likely to experience more pronounced changes in bird assemblage composition as a result of increased anthropogenic climate forcing, especially if these forests remain largely free of wildfires, as reflected in our boreal forest simulations. Furthermore, bird populations at the southern edge of their distributions—often referred to as ’trailing-edge’ populations—are particularly at risk. These populations tend to be smaller, more isolated, and thus more susceptible to environmental disturbances compared to their counterparts in the central part of the range [ 90 – 92 ]. In addition, these trailing-edge populations may be exposed to increased competition and predation pressures from species that are expanding their range due to shifting climatic conditions [ 91 ].

In our boreal forest study area, bird assemblages were projected to be more strongly impacted by forest management compared to the hemiboreal forest study area, even though the projected percent change in bird abundance and the variations in the Shannon diversity index remained low. In the boreal forest area, forest management is mainly based on clearcutting and will thus alter stand age by targeting older stands [ 93 , 94 ]. This strategy favors species associated with young stands, such as Lincoln’s Sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ), Mourning Warbler ( Geothlypis philadelphia ) and Wilson’s Warbler ( Cardellina pusilla ). While mixed and coniferous stands are projected to persist, forest management involving higher harvested volume or shorter rotations may have important impacts on bird assemblages by removing mature stands with which many bird species are associated (i.e., Bay-breasted Warbler ( Setophaga castanea ), Brown Creeper ( Certhia Americana ) and Black-backed Woodpecker) [ 95 , 96 ]. These results are also consistent with studies in both in eastern and western [ 21 , 96 , 97 ] boreal regions of North America, highlighting historical declines for bird species associated with coniferous and mixedwood forest types [ 98 , 99 ].

In contrast, harvesting practices are exclusively partial cuts in the hemiboreal forest area. Accordingly, forest stands are thus predicted to conserve an uneven-aged structure including old cohorts, which favors the maintenance of species associated with mature forest stands. However, forest management was projected to exacerbate the impact of climate change in the hemiboreal area. For example, under RCP 8.5, deciduous forest-associated species like Warbling Vireo were projected to increase more under intensive forest management than under Business-as-usual (BaU) forest management. Similarly, conifer-associated species like Blue-headed Vireo were projected to decrease more under intensive forest management compared with the BaU forest management. Moreover, moderate disturbances are known to have favored the increase of warm-adapted species and have led to a broad-scale community thermophilization of forests at the hemiboreal–boreal ecotone in Québec in the last decades [ 35 , 100 ]. Under a warming climate, moderate disturbances induced by partial cuts may similarly accelerate forest composition changes through more deciduous and mixed forest stands, consequently favoring associated bird assemblages. Finally, our study highlights the importance of forest landscape conditions (age structure, composition, etc.) at the beginning of the simulations, which were due to both natural disturbances and forest management histories. These starting conditions greatly influenced simulated successional trajectories. Indeed, the effects of historical disturbances on ecological communities may persist for decades to centuries [ 101 ]. The state of the initial ecosystem characteristics induced by past climate and disturbances may also partly explain our contrasting projections between boreal and hemiboreal ecosystems [ 35 ].

Contrasting impacts on bird assemblages between areas

Our projections highlighted great variations in bird abundance within regional assemblages, suggesting that novel species assemblages are likely to emerge [ 3 , 102 ]. Due to differential multivariate habitat associations among species, trends in bird assemblages associated with a particular habitat class could be mixed. For example, in the hemiboreal area, Baltimore Oriole and Black-throated Blue Warbler are both species associated with closed deciduous stands. However, Baltimore Oriole would be favored by climate change and intensive forest management, while we projected an opposite effect for Black-throated Blue Warbler. At the assemblage level, we determined a global positive effect of climate change and intensive forest management for the assemblage of birds associated with closed deciduous stands. This contrasting effect between two bird species within the same assemblage highlights the importance of incorporating species-specific information to assess their relative risk of local or global extinction.

We also showed that drivers of change (i.e., climate change and forest management) are not projected to impact bird species equally across regions and time scales. Indeed, several species showed opposite trends between the boreal and the hemiboreal areas, as a response to climate- and forest management-induced changes on forest landscapes. As management strategies may sometimes be based on species’ rangewide trends, our projections highlighted the need to consider regional differences in projected bird assemblage change.

The consideration of threatened and non-threatened species is also crucial because of the spatial heterogeneity in bird responses. For instance, Canada Warbler is listed as Threatened in Canada because of steep long-term and large-scale population declines (Species at Risk Act, Schedule 1). At the regional scale, our projections suggested that Canada Warbler populations are better equipped to cope with the effect of changing climate than other non-threatened species, such as Black-throated Green Warbler and Blue-headed Vireo. The mismatch between historical trends and future projections could signal that non-breeding factors are driving declines [ 99 , 103 ]. Conversely, bird species that are currently not considered at risk may be strongly impacted by the effects of climate change, and thus may require specific conservation measures before their situation becomes concerning. For instance, Northern Parula is classified as a least concern species [ 104 ], while our results projected a strong decline under RCP 8.5 and for all levels of forest management in the hemiboreal forest area (Mean percent change = - 42%, S6B Table ).

Limitations

Our projections are useful for identifying spatially heterogeneous responses to the cumulative impacts of climate change and forest management. Yet, our simulations focused on bird habitat responses (i.e., climate exposure), and did not consider species sensitivity or adaptive capacity, the other components of climate-change vulnerability [ 105 ]. Heterogeneous climate-change responses among co-occurring species may be based on different life history characteristics, such as life span, fecundity, or migration strategy. As such, our projections may have underestimated the impact of climate change on climate-sensitive species. Moreover, bird assemblages in this study were based on expert opinion and not on BRT results. We thus observed great variations in bird abundance changes within regional assemblages. Also, our projections did not account for potential new species expanding their range into the study area, notably from the south. The novel associations of species that have not co-evolved would result in new interactions and therefore could have negative impacts on the fitness of some species [ 29 ]. Additionally, the arrival of novel assemblages will challenge land managers to consider the functional value of this changing ecosystem. We considered scenarios to be beneficial for bird diversity when the percent change in bird abundance compared to the reference scenario was low. However, we did not consider functional diversity, which that can affect ecosystem resistance and resilience to disturbance [ 106 , 107 ].

In addition, we only used outputs from the CanESM2 model to project the impacts of climate change on forest landscapes. This model is recognized as being on the warm and dry sides of the suite of global circulation and earth system models and so, our results must be interpreted in the light of these constraints. This choice was driven by previous simulations performed by Moreau et al. (2022) who projected carbon outputs used in this study. Further projections should consider an ensemble of different climate outputs to project future forest landscapes and bird habitats although such an endeavour would be computationally intensive.

Furthermore, it is crucial to consider both ecological and technical limitations. Indeed, the use of a 250-m resolution in our LANDIS-II simulations may not fully capture the fine-scale habitat complexities of forest ecosystems; especially in the hemiboreal region, where small, heterogeneous stands and uneven cutting systems prevail. This could introduce a degree of uncertainty in our projections that has not been fully characterized.

Finally, we recognize that our study does not compare the relative magnitude of ecological impacts against the broader backdrop of climate change mitigation (i.e., carbon balance). Conservation thresholds are typically established at local and regional scales, reflecting the varied biodiversity conservation targets across regions. In contrast, climate-change thresholds are assessed on a more global scale. This dichotomy necessitates a multi-scale approach to risk assessment, integrating specific biodiversity targets and emission reduction goals. Such an approach would enable a balanced evaluation, considering both the localized ecological impacts and the broader context of climate change mitigation, facilitating informed decision-making for environmental management at various scales.

Acknowledging these limitations, future studies should aim to enhance model resolution and expand the empirical underpinnings of scenario-based projections. A balanced evaluation of the ecological and economic trade-offs at different scales is essential for informed decision-making in forest management, guiding strategies that judiciously weigh the benefits of climate change mitigation against the imperative of biodiversity conservation.

Implications for dual-objective forest management

We demonstrated spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the cumulative climate- and forest management impacts on hemiboreal and boreal bird assemblages. Moreau et al. [ 41 ] showed that the capacity of forest ecosystems to act as a carbon sink depended on the characteristics and dynamics of the vegetation that can be manipulated through forest management practices. These results call for efficient and regionally specific adaptative strategies [ 15 , 32 ]. Yet, some broad recommendations emerge from this work. Specifically, decreasing forest harvesting rates in this region would have a positive impact on bird assemblages associated with mixed and coniferous forests in both boreal and hemiboreal forests. In boreal landscapes, lengthening cutting rotations and increasing the areas dedicated to partial cutting and conservation should help maintain coniferous species and older stands, even under high anthropogenic climate forcing. It could also potentially increase the reduction of carbon emissions through increased net carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems and reduced emissions from wood products. For instance, we showed the negative effects of an increase in forest harvesting on mature forest-associated species such as the Black-backed Woodpecker, Black-throated Green Warbler, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Eastern Wood-pewee (the latter a species at risk). A lengthening of forest rotations and an increased use of partial cuts can also provide benefits in terms of long-term carbon storage in wood products by increasing the size of timber at the time of harvest, thereby generating higher-quality, longer-lived wood products [ 42 ]. Moreover, our results suggest that in the absence of wildfire, boreal forests are better equipped to retain current bird assemblages compared to hemiboreal forests in this region. Less moisture-limited than their western counterparts, eastern boreal forests may thus provide refugia from climate change for boreal birds.

The conservation of unharvested areas, such as in the conservation management scenario, may mitigate the negative effect of climate and forest management-induced habitat loss for some bird species. Indeed, when the availability of suitable habitat is low, the fragmentation of the forest would decrease the probability of bird occurrence for certain species, such as Ovenbird ( Seiurus aurocapilla ) [ 108 ] and American Three-toed Woodpecker ( Picoides dorsalis ) [ 109 ]. This is particularly important with the historical [ 110 ] and predicted future decline [ 71 ] in mature forest in eastern Canada. We expect that conservation management would also promote a diversity of wildlife habitats, and thus be beneficial for other local taxa, such as mammals (e.g., boreal caribou ( Rangifer tarandus caribou )) and beetles [ 111 ]. The implementation of such practices (i.e., lengthening cutting rotations, increasing the areas dedicated to partial cutting, and maintaining large unharvested areas) is thus projected to have broader biodiversity benefits. Furthermore, other forest management practices could be implemented to help restore or maintain specific habitats, for example with the manipulation of stand composition through selected cutting and planting; such practices are already routinely done by forest managers to ensure the quality of timber supply. However, as we demonstrated, species show heterogeneous responses to both climate and forest management. Thus, we urge caution in generalizing our results to other taxa or boreal regions.

As we showed, it is challenging to manage forests in the context of climate change and find strategies that benefit multiple ecosystem services and functions. Our study suggested that, in the boreal forest region, the implementation of conservation management, including a change in harvesting practices (e.g., partial cut instead of clearcut, lengthening of harvest rotations) and an overall reduction of harvest levels, may be a good opportunity to show that multiple objectives can be jointly met. Conversely, in the hemiboreal forest area, carbon and biodiversity objectives were not simultaneously accommodated. Indeed, strategies that decreased forest harvesting levels reduced carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems relative to the BaU, and thus reduced the carbon emission mitigation potential of the forest sector [ 41 ], but were projected to benefit most of bird species present within the forest. This suggests that trade-offs will be necessary in this area, through more innovative strategies, to improve both bird conservation and carbon emission mitigation. Indeed, for both study areas, an optimal scenario would likely include (1) intensive harvesting targeted at stagnating stands that have a high potential for future growth (thereby stimulating carbon sequestration and ensuring wood production); (2) preservation of specific forest areas with high biodiversity value; (3) and adapted/extensive harvesting practices over the rest of the landscape. This approach aligns with the principles of the triad model of forestry, which offers a framework for achieving such balance across the landscape [ 112 , 113 ].

Our research demonstrates the utility of scenario evaluation through spatially explicit models in informing and guiding forest management and policy decisions [ 114 ]. The modeling approach used in this study, and in various other studies, provides a robust framework for anticipating the impacts of forestry practices on forest structure, composition, and wildlife [ 50 , 115 , 116 ] and can offer a decision support system at different scales. We recommend the adoption of such integrative modeling approaches by policymakers and forest managers to improve regionally adapted conservation efforts, enhance biodiversity, and ensure sustainable forest use.

Supporting information

S1 text. details of the forest landscapes simulations with landis-ii..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s001

S1 Table. Main habitats for the bird species included in the study.

The R 2 of the Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) is also shown.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s002

S2 Table. Details of the variables we used to model the relative abundance of birds.

The variables characterize the forest structure and composition at two spatial extents: the original value assigned to each 250-m cell (“local effect”) and mean values at landscape scale (750-m) based on a Gaussian filter.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s003

S3 Table. Relative importance of vegetation and topography predictors in each bird species BRT model.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s004

a. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination results for Montmorency Forest. b. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordination results for Hereford Forest.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s005

S5 Table. Projections of changes in bird community abundances.

Results are represented for the four forest management scenarios under RCP 8.5 by 2100 (mean ± SE). The relative contributions of key components of change (climate change and forest management) are also presented as values of ω 2 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s006

a. Projections of changes in bird species abundances in Montmorency Forest. Results are represented for the four forest management scenarios under RCP 8.5 by 2100 (mean ± SE). The relative contributions of key components of change (climate change and forest management) are also presented as values of ω 2 . b. Projections of changes in bird species abundances in Hereford Forest. Results are represented for the four forest management scenarios under RCP 8.5 by 2100 (mean ± SE). The relative contributions of key components of change (climate change and forest management) are also presented as values of ω 2 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s007

S1 Fig. Mean aboveground biomass for each land cover.

a. trends and b. differences in the proportion of cover classes for each of the four forest harvesting scenarios under either the baseline, RCP 4.5 or RCP 8.5 climate scenario. balsam fir (ABIE.BAL), white spruce (PICE.GLA), black spruce (PICE.MAR), red maple (ACER.RUB), sugar maple (ACER.SAH), white birch (BETU.PAP), american beech (FAGU.GRA), red spruce (PICE.RUB), and trembling aspen (POPU.TRE).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s008

S2 Fig. Trends in the mean age of forest stands.

Results are represented for each of the four forest harvesting scenarios under either the baseline, RCP 4.5 or RCP 8.5 climate scenario.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s009

S3 Fig. Proportion in land cover aboveground biomass.

Trends in the proportion of cover classes for each of the four forest harvesting scenarios under either the baseline, RCP 4.5 or RCP 8.5 climate scenario. balsam fir (ABIE.BAL), white spruce (PICE.GLA), black spruce (PICE.MAR), sugar maple (ACER.SAH), american beech (FAGU.GRA), trembling aspen (POPU.TRE), and red spruce (PICE.RUB).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s010

S4 Fig. The relative contribution of drivers of change.

The relative contribution of drivers of change (climate change (yellow) and forest management (green)) as values of ω2 (mean), under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 at year 2050 and 2100 relative to the change simulated under baseline climate scenario.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s011

S5 Fig. Percent change in abundance of sensitive bird species.

Results are represented under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 by 2100 relative to the change simulated under the reference scenario (Baseline–BaU scenario) in Montmorency (top), and Hereford (bottom) Forests. The temporal trends of the relative contribution of drivers of change (climate change (yellow) and forest management (blue)) as values of ω 2 under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 is also represented. Shaded area represents |%change| < 25%. Species indicated with an asterisk represented species at risk. Bird abbreviations can be found in S1 Table .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000293.s012

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