Two years ago, Markus Hällgren and I got an article accepted where we analyzed the fatal 1996 Mount Everest climbing incident with a focus on team formation. The paper was called “Impromptu teams in a temporary organization: On their nature and role” and was published in International Journal of Project Management. A the end of last semester, we got a request from SAGE who wanted us to develop a teaching case based on the article. We accepted the offer and today, we got the case accepted for publication. The focus is on method issues and it is targeted at post graduate (or PhD) level.

We hope that it will available for download within short.

Abstract

This teaching case focuses on challenges and opportunities of studying extreme contexts in general and the use of retrospective data in particular. The case takes its start in a retrospective case study of the fatal 1996 Mount Everest climbing incident. Based in the case description, the research design of the article, and the practical execution, a number of challenging areas and important lessons in respect to studying extreme contexts are outlined. By working with the method case, we expect students to further their ability to assess the main benefits and challenges when studying extreme contexts, discuss the appropriateness of possible methods when studying extreme contexts, analyze the use of method applied to a specific extreme context, and critically examine the use of method applied to this specific (extreme) case.