Editorial

TCJ and many other case journals publish disguised cases [¹] (but not fictional ones [²]). Disguise is often used if the case situation is too sensitive or to avoid subjecting case characters to embarrassment or criticism. It is permissible to disguise the names of persons, the name of the organization involved, the geographic area and the financials; however, actions of people and the essential issues must stay as close to the actual situation as possible (Seeger and Rock, 2012). If insider information is used in developing the case, a signed release is still necessary for publication (Rock, 2012). Because disguised cases are based on observations of an actual situation, they meet the generally accepted standards for real cases (as opposed to fictional ones) and are considered legitimate intellectual contributions.

Disguise tips. If a disguise is to be used, consider the following:

• Take care in “moving” the organization to a new geographic location. It must make sense in the context of the case. The chosen place must “fit” the demographics, economic, social, political and cultural aspects of the original location if the integrity of the case situation is to be preserved.

• Changing the names of individuals in the case may be necessary. Take care to choose appropriate names and not too “creative.” Names that are very common often signal to students that the case is fictionalized and may shut down discussion. Choose appropriate names given the ethnicity and gender of the actual individual (if diversity or gender issues are a part of the case). Avoid using creative names that signal the disposition or personality of the individual. “Debbie Downer” as a whistleblower in a case comes across more as comedic relief and may distract students from performing the desired analysis and evaluation of the case.

• Using a different name for an organization or its competitors may be necessary but challenging to accomplish. Unless the firm is tiny and the industry is very fragmented, astute readers will penetrate the disguise and identify the actual firm. Make sure that the disguised name you choose is not the actual name of a genuine firm in the industry.

• Changing the products or industry may be going too far as the context of the case may be critical to student understanding of the issues. Most case writers concede that this type of disguise is complicated to pull off effectively.

• Financial data is typically disguised by multiplying all items in the financial statement by a constant factor. If the factor is more than five percent of the actual numbers, it may distort the firm's performance, especially when compared to competitors (Seeger and Rock, 2012). It may be best to find a public source for the financial data that can then be cited or to aggregate the financials to conceal data that the company considers too sensitive to be disclosed. Alternatively, the case writer could overcome requests to disguise financial data by discussing the typical timeline for case publication (it is often a year or more from the interviews to the appearance of the case in a journal). When the case is ultimately published, competitors, board members or others will already know much of the data (Naumes and Naumes, 2012).

Case writers need to remember that disguise is most frequently used to secure a signed consent to publish form for cases that involve primary data sources. The case writer must clearly disclose the nature of the disguise in a footnote on the first page of the case. Sample footnotes are shown in Table 1.

Notice that the authors all chose to emphasize those elements that were real or unchanged while also describing the disguised elements. This format confirms for students that the case was based on facts – real people, actual events in real organizations. The case context is unchanged, but some elements have understandably been changed for confidentiality and privacy reasons. Case writers must also disclose the extent of the disguise in the Instructor's Manual in the Research Methodology section.

Secondary sourced cases use appropriate citations of data sources and typically do not require any form of disguise. However, it would be acceptable for ethics cases or organizational behavior cases to change the names of people in the case rather than subject them to unnecessary scrutiny or ridicule.

Release forms provide assurance that “the participating organization is knowingly and willingly providing information for dissemination and educational use” (Rock, 2012). Signed releases protect the publisher and the case writers for cases based on primary data. If the case included only publicly available (secondary) data sources, the expectation is that the writer will appropriately cite those sources, but no release is needed. A signed release must accompany disguised cases if the case uses internal information to protect sources from criticism and liability if the disguise should be penetrated.

Although disguise is an acceptable practice for published cases, the first preference of a case writer should be to publish cases with as little disguise as possible. Disguise should be the last resort used when obtaining a signed consent to publish release is not possible without altering some aspects of the situation. As researchers, case writers should strive for honesty and integrity in their work. Taken too far, disguise in case writing may violate principles of honesty (do not fabricate, falsify or misrepresent data) and integrity (strive for consistency of thought and action) (Resnik, 2020).

This issue includes eight cases (see Table 2) focused on a wide variety of companies, locations and issues. Each case has a strong IM providing effective teaching strategies, theoretical linkages and complete answers and analysis to all discussion questions. TCJ IMs have been rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure that adopting faculty can teach these cases as well as the authors. Enjoy!

Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.