Book Review by M. C. Mathupala
Case studies have become an effective method in management education and training. This method was popularised by the Harward Business School since the middle of the last century. It is now being extensively used by our universities and management institutes as well. It has become an integral part of the limited competitive examination for the recruitment to the Sri Lanka Administrative Service as well from recent times.

Dr. D. S. Bandarage has been helping a large number of managers and potential managers, both in the public and private sectors, to master the case method in order to develop their managerial talents. The ‘Sudarshan’ Management and Industrial Consultancy firm established by him has conducted extensive training courses to familiarise management students in the use of the case method. The recent publication "Case Method’ compiled by Dr. D. S. Bandarage is a compendium of case studies that will benefit anyone who is interested in developing his managerial talents - especially the analytical approaches to managerial decision making.

The compendium contains a large number of local case studies. A few others are adaptations of foreign case studies which are quite popular among management educators the world over. The cases have been categorised in a scholarly fashion with professional guidelines for the analysis and interpretations of the respective cases to highlight the learning elements.

The variety of cases in Dr. Bandarage’s publication makes it useful to all students of management as well as those preparing for the examination for the recruitment to the SLAS. The cases relate to situations and incidents in the public services and the private sector. Interesting examples have been taken from public services like Agriculture, Corporations, Irrigation, Justice, Railway, Social Services etc., and private sector firms like Ceylon Tobacco, Maliban Industries, Unilevers and firms in the FTZ.

Though the focus of most of the cases is on human resources management the publication is a source of useful learning materials to those engaged in the other management disciplines who are interested in learning about practical managerial situations relating to absenteeism, bargaining, discipline, purchasing, tardiness, unions and related subjects.

Some cases, especially the one that relates to the Maliban Biscuit Industries, and other local businesses, show different perspectives on the managerial capabilities and strategic visions of our own leading businessmen who can be rated far superior to their competitors overseas.

The style of presentation in this publication makes it easy and useful reading to the general reader as well. It is definitely a source book to students of higher learning in the fields of management disciplines.