Mat D. Duerden and Mark A. Widmer

Evaluation of How Well the Academic Objectives of the Proposal Were Met

Targeted Academic Objectives
Our proposal described the following targeted objectives for this project: Students involved in
the project will gain a rich exposure to case study research skills by learning to conduct field
observations, take field notes, create interview guides, conduct personal interviews, create focus
group questions, conduct focus groups, and analyze case study data. Students will produce a
variety of mini-reports consisting of research question, data description, data analysis, and
conclusions for each method of data collection. After which reports for each company worked
with will be written up followed by a final report consisting of a compilation of all the data
gathered. This data will then be compiled into a manuscript for submission to a journal for
publication.
Over the course of the two-year project students (six undergraduate students and one graduate
student) were able to design and conduct case study research at five different companies. In total,
they interviewed 44 employees at these companies from executives to entry level positions.
Students were also involved in the analysis of the collected qualitative data and took the lead in
writing an article that was recently published by the Marriott Student Review
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/marriostudentreview/vol1/iss3/11).

Evaluation of the Mentoring Environment
We believe the project produced a positive mentoring environment. As we met weekly and
worked in the field with students a strong collaborative relationship was built. Much of the
project was self-directed by the student team members. As faculty, we felt we could turn much of
the project over to the students and they delivered remarkably well.

List of Participating Students
Undergraduate students: Tauni Gassman, Jasmine Li, Anna Samuelson, Jocelyn Murray, Jade
Johnson, and Jessica Selee.
Graduate Student: Andrew Lacanienta
In terms of academic deliverables, these students learned and applied a qualitative case-study
methodology approach. This includes designing interview protocols, conducting interviews and
focus groups, transcribing qualitative data, analyzing qualitative data, and producing research
reports. Several of them have had opportunities to work on additional projects because of the
skill developed in qualitative analysis.

Deliverables
Students submitted an article titled From Play to Performance: Building an Effective
Organization to the Fall issue of the Marriott School Review
(https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/marriostudentreview/vol1/iss3/11). In addition, reports are
being developed to summarize data and findings for each of the companies where interviews
were conducted.

Findings
While this is an ongoing project, the analysis lead by the students with the data collected thus far
was summarized in the aforementioned article. The following table provides an overview of the
key topics from their analysis:

Budget
• Student Wages – $12,772.39
• Travel – $4,239.78
• Supplies – $914.55
• Remaining – $2,073.28