個案資料

During the spring 2020 semester, Botsworth Business School had suddenly moved all classes to remote teaching due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school’s associate dean had to consider the implications of this new learning environment for academic integrity. She also had to manage the challenges of a new infrastructure and differing student and instructor needs. In May 2020, with urgency subsiding, and with the university confirming that classes would be taught remotely through the spring 2021 semester, the associate dean was considering the risks and benefits of what services had been—and what could be—implemented to support remote teaching and learning. Leading up to the remote fall 2020 semester, she was wondering how to best identify and manage risk from contract cheating—a form of academic dishonesty that occurred when a student submitted work for academic credit that was completed by a third party. The associate dean’s task would have been complex and difficult in normal times, but it had become an especially salient problem after moving to online remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This case is suitable for various undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on strategy, decision-making, organizational theory, and business ethics. The case is accompanied by two separate teaching notes: the first focuses on strategy; the second focuses on ethics. The case is well suited for an introductory session in a strategy course dealing with the connection between organizational values, mission, goals, and strategy. It also lends itself well to a discussion on the causes and consequences of emergent, deliberate, and realized strategies. The case also covers the concepts of decision complexity and causal ambiguity, and the importance of considering and managing trade-offs. The objective of the ethics teaching note (see product 8B20M213B) is to foster and guide engagement with, and an analysis of, the accompanying case. In the context of remote teaching and learning, contract cheating by students is explored through an administrator lens, which offers the opportunity to evaluate policy and process decisions in consideration of students, instructors, and the institution. Students are guided through four specific exercises for engaging with the case. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>understand organizational values and their impact on the strategy process;</li><li>align values, missions, goals, and strategic initiatives and action plans;</li><li>understand trade-offs in strategic decision-making;</li><li>distinguish between deliberate, emergent, and realized strategies; and</li><li>understand the risks associated with academic dishonesty.</li></ul>

• Strategy, COVID, Mission, Ethics