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The Great Reshuffle and how Microsoft Viva is helping reimagine the employee experience

• Seth Patton, General Manager, Customer and Employee Experience Solutions
• Microsoft Viva

Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index found that 41 percent of the global workforce is considering leaving their employer this year due to burnout and a lack of workplace flexibility—this is what industry experts are referring to as The Great Reshuffle 1 . While this figure is staggering, there are actions organizations can take to help attract and retain employees. We believe adopting new flexible workplace approaches, working models, and employee experience platforms are critical to improving engagement, employee wellbeing, and helping people succeed. As companies adapt to hybrid work environments and re-open their physical offices, the time is right to rethink your employee experience strategies. Today, we are releasing new resources, research, and tools to help companies accelerate their employee experience (EX) strategies to meet the ever-changing needs of employees.

We’re also excited to announce that Microsoft has been recognized by Forrester in its report, The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q2 2021, as an innovator in employee experience and intelligent content services. You can learn more about how we are expanding our capabilities to meet the needs of hybrid work in our blog . And in a case study released today , we shine a light on the journey of developing our employee experience platform, Microsoft Viva , which brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights, to help employees stay connected—whenever and wherever they are working.

How Microsoft developed Microsoft Viva to transform its employee experience

Microsoft, with over 175 offices around the globe, offers a unique case study as a company that adopted its own solutions to fuel its next phase of growth.

Before launching Microsoft Viva earlier this year, our team was responsible for rethinking the employee experience at Microsoft and had already begun examining the role technology can play in promoting employee wellbeing and a more connected employee experience for a distributed workforce. Through that work, we found that while employee experience platforms can play a significant role, there must also be a shift in workplace culture to enact real change.

Earlier this month, we shared internal findings that the number of people who report feeling included at Microsoft is at an all-time high of 90 percent . And that’s in a year when 160,000 people went home to work and we remotely onboarded 25,000 new employees.

While there is still so much more we can do in our culture journey at Microsoft, this data shows that we don’t have to be physically together to feel like we’re in it together.

Explore our EX transformation journey at Microsoft in the new case study released today and learn about how Microsoft Viva can help your organization.  

New interactive Employee Experience Maturity Assessment Tool by The Josh Bersin Company and Microsoft

Today, we are also excited to share a new online assessment tool to help company leaders identify strengths and opportunities in their employee experience practices and technologies. A recent study by The Josh Bersin Company , commissioned by Microsoft, showed that companies who implement employee experience and technology best practices are 5.1 times more likely to engage and retain their workforce, 4.3 times more likely to innovate effectively, and 2.2 times more likely to exceed financial targets.

The Josh Bersin Company, in collaboration with Microsoft, created this new assessment tool to help organizations examine EX practices that have the biggest impact on outcomes. We invite leaders interested in assessing the maturity of their EX technologies to take this interactive questionnaire.

Respondents will receive a customized report providing an overview of their company’s organizational maturity in key practices compared to industry benchmarks derived from a survey across 950 organizations spanning 16 industries across the Americas, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Results are broken down into four EX maturity levels, and respondents will get tailored recommendations of practices and technologies they can consider implementing to advance their organizations to the next EX maturity level. Access the assessment tool now .

Learn about the rise of EX in a new multimedia series for HR professionals

The demand for employee experience solutions is growing, but companies around the globe have questions about how to get started. Today, to help demystify EX, we are launching a new on-demand video series that helps organizations ready themselves with additional information about this emerging category of software solutions.

Driving Toward EX Excellence is a new presentation by Josh Bersin , Global Industry Analyst, and Kathi Enderes , Vice President Research, at The Josh Bersin Company. Josh and Kathi provide their unique Josh Bersin Company analysis for how the workplace is evolving. The rise of hybrid work solidifies the importance of employee experience. And to further help plan for your own workplace transformation, they guide you through their new maturity assessment tool, plus highlight key resources like the new knowledge management report and other available materials on The Josh Bersin Company website .

How Microsoft Uses Technology to Accelerate Employee Experiences is a new presentation by Joseph Jassey , Senior Program Manager at Microsoft. Joseph provides an overview of Microsoft HR then and now in the context of hybrid work. This includes new listening strategies with managers and employees, both leading to process and technology change outcomes. It, too, provided early, direct feedback to the engineering team building and designing Microsoft Viva. See and hear how IT supports driving culture change across the entire employee experience.

To continue learning, listen to a special episode of The Intrazone podcast, HR in the cloud , where we talk to Kerry Olin , Corporate Vice President, HR Services, and Jay Clem , General Manager, Employee Experience and Platforms, at Microsoft about how Microsoft is adjusting practices and technology to improve the employee experience for 160,000 full-time Microsoft employees around the world. The episode includes introductory thoughts from Kathleen Hogan , Chief People Officer and EVP at Microsoft.

Discover how knowledge is a key differentiating factor in employee experience

Knowledge management (KM) is a key piece of the employee experience, allowing employees to contribute and find topics and experts in the flow of work. Today, we are releasing a new report in collaboration with The Josh Bersin Company about how KM provides opportunities for AI and machine learning to improve how information is accessed and shared across an organization. Microsoft Viva Topics empowers companies to shift from manual content management to human-centered KM approaches. Read The New World of Knowledge Management to learn more about how human-centered knowledge management can improve the employee experience and the organization.

Amid what’s known as The Great Reshuffle, organizations that prioritize the employee experience will help attract talent while also increasing innovation and profitability. We are learning more as the industry advances, and we hope this new set of research and resources helps accelerate your EX planning and adoption strategies. We wholeheartedly believe employees should be at the center of your organization and are your greatest asset. Companies and leaders that invest in the employee experience become stronger organizations, with increased engagement, innovation, and profitability. In our new world of hybrid work, now more than ever, it’s time to ensure your employees can be their absolute best from anywhere.

1 73%: The Hybrid Work Paradox , Elise Hu, Jared Spataro, Microsoft Worklab. 08 September 2021.

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Topics in Viva Engage

• 1 contributor

The article covers the Topics migration in the Viva Engage app. You can now access information in Viva Engage through Topics features like the live topic card, highlighted topics, and the topic picker.

Topics migration in Viva Engage

Microsoft is aligning to leverage the advantages and capabilities of Topics across all Microsoft 365 apps and services. To ensure that Viva Engage customers can utilize the benefits of Topics, we're integrating Topics into Viva Engage experiences. To deliver this integration, we're migrating Viva Engage topics to Topics.

As part of the migration, all Viva Engage topics will be migrated to Topics for the tenant. However, only Viva Engage Topics that were used in the last 18 months or are associated with 10 or more conversations, prior to your tenant migration will be available for selection in the topic picker experience.

Migrated topics will also be accessible through other Microsoft 365 apps and services. Knowledge managers will have to confirm migrated topics.

Topics permissions and licenses

There's no requirement for the users to have a paid Topics license for the migration. However, to access the topic center and other Topics features, users must have designated Topics permissions. Topic access can be controlled in the Microsoft Admin Center, as a part of the broader Topics product.

For Viva-licensed tenants, Viva Engage admins will work from Manage topics to manage Viva Engage topics alongside all other Topics. For unlicensed tenants, Viva Engage admins will use the same controls as before to manage topics in Viva Engage.

Experience Topics in Viva Engage

With Topics in Viva Engage, you'll be able to share knowledge and explore more topics in your organization. For example, highlighted topics can appear in conversations and you can provide more content in your Viva Engage posts using the topic picker.

Attaching Viva Engage threads with Topics will have the advantage of ensuring that Viva Engage content shows up across the Microsoft 365 suite wherever the Topics knowledge experiences surface.

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Microsoft viva topics: a complete guide.

We live in the information age. The problem is that with evermore information being continually produced, finding the specific content you need becomes ever more challenging. According to one recent survey , 19% of employees struggle to find the information they need in their enterprise content management systems. And 16% struggle to find an internal subject matter expert in a reasonable time frame.

Viva Topics is Microsoft’s innovative new approach to help organizations deal with this knowledge management headache. Introduced in early February and already available, Viva Topics uses artificial Intelligence and the Microsoft Graph to help improve how knowledge is found.

In our recent webinar on the Microsoft Viva user experience platform, Microsoft MVP Marc Anderson provided us with an essential introduction to Viva Topics.

Below we have summarized Marc’s thoughts on Microsoft Viva Topics, why we need it and his predictions for the technology’s future.

Viva overview: Watch VisualSP’s introduction to Microsoft Viva

What is Microsoft Viva Topics?

Viva Topics applies next generation thinking to knowledge management. In this model, a company’s knowledge is organized into topic cards. Whenever an employee sees an acronym, a project or a specific term mentioned that they are not familiar, they can click on it and see a Topic Card which gives an overview of the subject. Viva Topic cards contain a description of the topic itself, as well as related documents and subject matter experts.

You might find it useful to think of Viva Topics as like an organizational Wikipedia. Whenever a user visits a page and sees a term they are not familiar with, they can hover over it to see a Topic Card which provides more information. If they want to learn more, they can open up the Topic and access additional resources.

Viva Topics uses a combination of your existing knowledge management structure and Artificial Intelligence to create the Topic Cards. Over time Viva Topics will begin to surface information based on what it believes your users need to know. This means that information will never be more than one click away.

Topics can be accessed throughout the Microsoft 365 interface. You will notice them in Microsoft Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and other apps you use.

More Viva: Read our introduction to Viva Connections

Why should you care about Viva Topics?

During the webinar Marc pointed to some of the reasons that Viva Topics is especially interesting for knowledge managers and SharePoint administrators:

• Makes knowledge contextual

Because users can click on terms that they don't understand and see a Topic Card, the knowledge will be delivered contextually, at the moment of need. Just like contextual microlearning , this way of delivering information means users will retain information more effectively. It also means they’re less likely to simply ‘guess’ what a term means. Instead they can verify their understanding of concepts immediately then get on with whatever they were doing before.

• You don't have to go somewhere to find knowledge

Traditional knowledge management systems require employees to visit an organizational knowledge page and seek out the terms or concepts they are interested in. This breaks up the flow of work, and means they might get distracted. They also spend more time looking for the information. Viva Topics brings that knowledge directly to the user, thereby saving time.

• Find subject matter experts faster

In a similar way, Topic Cards will make it much easier for people to find subject matter experts who can provide extra information on one specific field or another. Again, this should save users time and avoid the risk of ‘reinventing the wheel’.

Not a ‘silver bullet’ for knowledge management

While Viva Topics is certainly a significant step forwards in how organizations manage knowledge, Marc warned that it is not a silver bullet solution that will fix all problems on its own. The Artificial Intelligence in Viva Topics scans your content and begins to make recommendations. But you will still need to organize it in such a way that the AI can make sensible suggestions. For example, metadata still needs to be applied consistently to files if you want Topics to ‘find’ them.

He explained that for Topics to really begin to be useful, you are still going to need to think about information architecture and which subjects are important in your organization. Preparing to use Topics will require a deployment plan and mapping out of the kind of information architecture that will be useful for your employees.

More Viva: Read our introduction to Viva Learning

What does Viva Topics cost, and when is it available?

Viva Topics has been made available at the cost of $5 per user per month. It is currently available for testing and deployment. Microsoft report that they will be continually making improvements to Viva Topics over the coming months, including by bringing in information from third party apps such as ServiceNow, Salesforce and file shares. You will also be able to use APIs to connect to knowledge stored in other third-party systems.

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Predictions for Viva Topics

Like many enterprise systems that use Artificial Intelligence, Viva Topics is going to improve over time as it begins to learn more about organizations and how they use information. Here are some of Marc’s predictions about how Viva Topics may evolve in the coming months and years:

• Some issues to iron out

While Viva Topic is a very welcome innovation, the user interface is still evolving and occasionally the way that Topics are surfaced and suggestions made is not always consistent. Marc predicts that in the coming months this will improve significantly.

• Most value at large organizations to begin with

Marc noted that, at least to begin with, Viva Topics is going to have most value when deployed at large organizations with significant quantities of data for the AI to learn from. He noted that right now smaller operations just don’t have enough content for the AI to provide particularly beneficial insights. But, as Microsoft tracks how Viva Topics are being used, we can expect it to become more helpful at small and medium sized businesses too.

• This will become the norm for business systems

Finally, Marc suggested that Viva Topics’ features are likely to come to be seen as the norm for business systems. In the coming years it will seem completely normal that organizational knowledge is structured in this way, with Topic Cards showing relevant information to users whenever they need. We will probably wonder how we ever found information without this technology!

Microsoft is years ahead with Viva Topics

Viva Topics is taking a next generation approach to organizational knowledge management. With this innovation, Microsoft is showing just how far ahead they are when it comes to supporting customers with knowledge management. In the coming years, this form of contextual, intelligent responsive knowledge management will help users become more efficient, save time, and avoid confusion caused by a lack of information when they need it.

Fuel Employee Success

Microsoft Viva Topics – UK Services

Empower people and teams at work.

Using artificial intelligence insights, Microsoft Viva Topics curates a selection of knowledge and information on relevant subjects. Your team can learn around their job and company all within one app for easy access.

Create topics for knowledge learning

Managers and leaders in businesses can share learning, training, important updates and more. Viva automatically creates topic pages which are easily accessed by your team. They can contain information including relevant contacts, important documents and related sites to visit.

Expert help with Microsoft products and services

At Valto we specialise in all things Microsoft. So from implementing Viva Topics to integrating it with the rest of the Viva Suite, to setting up Teams and sorting your Microsoft 365 licence, we can help. We’ll streamline everything so you get the best value and performance.

Manage Viva Topics with Valto

Valto’s team of Microsoft Viva specialists can help you set up topic cards and topic highlights to put knowledge to work. We’ll set your user accounts up, and show you how to integrate the module with the rest of the Viva Topics Suite.

Contact our Microsoft Viva Specialists

Keep me up to date with your latest news and online events

What is Microsoft Viva Topics?

Part of Microsoft Viva – Microsoft’s employee experience platform – Viva Topics arms your team with knowledge and expertise. Connecting people with the right topics automatically, Viva topics uses AI to find relevant topics for every user to help them with knowledge, learning and more.

Working with Viva Connections, Viva Learning and Viva Insights , you and your team will be able to boost the work experience. Viva Topics uses a range of sources – including Microsoft Graph and Microsoft Search – to bring learning right into your Microsoft 365 apps. This way, knowledge happens without interrupting the flow of work, making the workday easier.

What does Microsoft Viva Topics do?

Put simply, Viva Topics uses AI to help connect users with the tools and information they need. Viva Topics automatically finds the right lists, knowledge and expertise to help your employees get ahead. Training and learning new roles can take time. Viva Topics cuts out the time it usually takes to hunt down information and presents it right in Microsoft 365 apps – like Excel, Outlook and Word.

Using AI, Viva Topics searches through your business to create and manage topics automatically. Things like particular files relating to a topic, the team members working on it and the pages about it – these are all included in topic cards. Users can browse topics in depth as they wish, using tools like SharePoint Search.

Topics may be shown on SharePoint pages in highlights, search results, on the topic centre hub, or within office applications.

See Viva Topics in action and learn how you can use it for your team

What is a topic in Viva?

Viva Topics uses AI to identify topics for your users. Topics are terms, phrases and words that are important for your organisation. Of course, every business is different and there are lots of different facets and elements of your business that may be important. Some of the types of information the Topics AI crawls include:

• Organisations
• Creative elements
• Fields of study

Once the AI identifies a topic, the tool creates a topic page. This page will include various bits of information about the topic, including acronyms, a short description, suggested contacts around the organisation, and relevant files and pages.

Who can use Viva Topics?

Using Viva Topics creates a number of different ‘roles’ for your team. While anyone – leaders and managers, specialists and team members – can use Topics, these are the roles available:

Topic Viewers

These users can see topic highlights within Microsoft Search and across SharePoint sites with Read access. Topic details and comments are also accessible.

Topic Contributors

Once assigned, Contributors in Viva Topics can edit and add to existing topics. They can also create new topics for the organisation. For total editability, the user administrator can allow Topic Viewers permission to edit, too.

Knowledge Managers

These users are essentially in charge of the topic process. Knowledge Managers review the topics suggested by the Viva AI and confirm them as cards, remove them or edit existing topics.

Knowledge Admins

Your Knowledge Admin will be in charge of the set up of Viva Topics, and manage all users and content. Knowledge Admins can assign other users to be Knowledge Managers or Topic Contributors.

Set up Topics for Microsoft Insights with the help of a Valto specialist.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Viva Topics?

Viva Topics is a knowledge management system, part of the wider Microsoft Viva Suite. Topics are subjects, names, files and processes identified by an AI system as important to members of your team. The module collects, curates and saves different pieces of learning and knowledge, which are the saved for access by your team. Topics can be viewed in Microsoft 365 apps like Word, SharePoint and Outlook, so learning can be possible without disrupting the flow of work.

Is Microsoft Topics free?

Microsoft Topics is available on its own at a price of £3.00 per user per month, if your organisation has an applicable enterprise licence. For access to Viva Topics, Viva Learning, Viva Connections and Viva Insights, you can subscribe to the full Viva Suite annual subscription, which is £6.80 per user/per month. Speak to a Valto specialist for more information and the best pricing option for you.

How do I access Microsoft Viva Topics?

Set up and control Viva Topics in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. You’ll need to have the correct subscription or administrative licence to get started. For a full tutorial on setting up and accessing Viva Topics, check out this Microsoft Mechanics video guide .

To get started with Valto and take your business to the next level, get in touch with our team today

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Case Study Research Method in Psychology

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Case studies are in-depth investigations of a person, group, event, or community. Typically, data is gathered from various sources using several methods (e.g., observations & interviews).

The case study research method originated in clinical medicine (the case history, i.e., the patient’s personal history). In psychology, case studies are often confined to the study of a particular individual.

The information is mainly biographical and relates to events in the individual’s past (i.e., retrospective), as well as to significant events that are currently occurring in his or her everyday life.

The case study is not a research method, but researchers select methods of data collection and analysis that will generate material suitable for case studies.

Freud (1909a, 1909b) conducted very detailed investigations into the private lives of his patients in an attempt to both understand and help them overcome their illnesses.

This makes it clear that the case study is a method that should only be used by a psychologist, therapist, or psychiatrist, i.e., someone with a professional qualification.

There is an ethical issue of competence. Only someone qualified to diagnose and treat a person can conduct a formal case study relating to atypical (i.e., abnormal) behavior or atypical development.

 Famous Case Studies

• Anna O – One of the most famous case studies, documenting psychoanalyst Josef Breuer’s treatment of “Anna O” (real name Bertha Pappenheim) for hysteria in the late 1800s using early psychoanalytic theory.
• Little Hans – A child psychoanalysis case study published by Sigmund Freud in 1909 analyzing his five-year-old patient Herbert Graf’s house phobia as related to the Oedipus complex.
• Bruce/Brenda – Gender identity case of the boy (Bruce) whose botched circumcision led psychologist John Money to advise gender reassignment and raise him as a girl (Brenda) in the 1960s.
• Genie Wiley – Linguistics/psychological development case of the victim of extreme isolation abuse who was studied in 1970s California for effects of early language deprivation on acquiring speech later in life.
• Phineas Gage – One of the most famous neuropsychology case studies analyzes personality changes in railroad worker Phineas Gage after an 1848 brain injury involving a tamping iron piercing his skull.

Clinical Case Studies

• Studying the effectiveness of psychotherapy approaches with an individual patient
• Assessing and treating mental illnesses like depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD
• Neuropsychological cases investigating brain injuries or disorders

Child Psychology Case Studies

• Studying psychological development from birth through adolescence
• Cases of learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, ADHD
• Effects of trauma, abuse, deprivation on development

Types of Case Studies

• Explanatory case studies : Used to explore causation in order to find underlying principles. Helpful for doing qualitative analysis to explain presumed causal links.
• Exploratory case studies : Used to explore situations where an intervention being evaluated has no clear set of outcomes. It helps define questions and hypotheses for future research.
• Descriptive case studies : Describe an intervention or phenomenon and the real-life context in which it occurred. It is helpful for illustrating certain topics within an evaluation.
• Multiple-case studies : Used to explore differences between cases and replicate findings across cases. Helpful for comparing and contrasting specific cases.
• Intrinsic : Used to gain a better understanding of a particular case. Helpful for capturing the complexity of a single case.
• Collective : Used to explore a general phenomenon using multiple case studies. Helpful for jointly studying a group of cases in order to inquire into the phenomenon.

Where Do You Find Data for a Case Study?

There are several places to find data for a case study. The key is to gather data from multiple sources to get a complete picture of the case and corroborate facts or findings through triangulation of evidence. Most of this information is likely qualitative (i.e., verbal description rather than measurement), but the psychologist might also collect numerical data.

1. Primary sources

• Interviews – Interviewing key people related to the case to get their perspectives and insights. The interview is an extremely effective procedure for obtaining information about an individual, and it may be used to collect comments from the person’s friends, parents, employer, workmates, and others who have a good knowledge of the person, as well as to obtain facts from the person him or herself.
• Observations – Observing behaviors, interactions, processes, etc., related to the case as they unfold in real-time.
• Documents & Records – Reviewing private documents, diaries, public records, correspondence, meeting minutes, etc., relevant to the case.

2. Secondary sources

• News/Media – News coverage of events related to the case study.
• Academic articles – Journal articles, dissertations etc. that discuss the case.
• Government reports – Official data and records related to the case context.
• Books/films – Books, documentaries or films discussing the case.

3. Archival records

Searching historical archives, museum collections and databases to find relevant documents, visual/audio records related to the case history and context.

Public archives like newspapers, organizational records, photographic collections could all include potentially relevant pieces of information to shed light on attitudes, cultural perspectives, common practices and historical contexts related to psychology.

4. Organizational records

Organizational records offer the advantage of often having large datasets collected over time that can reveal or confirm psychological insights.

Of course, privacy and ethical concerns regarding confidential data must be navigated carefully.

However, with proper protocols, organizational records can provide invaluable context and empirical depth to qualitative case studies exploring the intersection of psychology and organizations.

• Organizational/industrial psychology research : Organizational records like employee surveys, turnover/retention data, policies, incident reports etc. may provide insight into topics like job satisfaction, workplace culture and dynamics, leadership issues, employee behaviors etc.
• Clinical psychology : Therapists/hospitals may grant access to anonymized medical records to study aspects like assessments, diagnoses, treatment plans etc. This could shed light on clinical practices.
• School psychology : Studies could utilize anonymized student records like test scores, grades, disciplinary issues, and counseling referrals to study child development, learning barriers, effectiveness of support programs, and more.

How do I Write a Case Study in Psychology?

Follow specified case study guidelines provided by a journal or your psychology tutor. General components of clinical case studies include: background, symptoms, assessments, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. Interpreting the information means the researcher decides what to include or leave out. A good case study should always clarify which information is the factual description and which is an inference or the researcher’s opinion.

1. Introduction

• Provide background on the case context and why it is of interest, presenting background information like demographics, relevant history, and presenting problem.
• Compare briefly to similar published cases if applicable. Clearly state the focus/importance of the case.

2. Case Presentation

• Describe the presenting problem in detail, including symptoms, duration,and impact on daily life.
• Include client demographics like age and gender, information about social relationships, and mental health history.
• Describe all physical, emotional, and/or sensory symptoms reported by the client.
• Use patient quotes to describe the initial complaint verbatim. Follow with full-sentence summaries of relevant history details gathered, including key components that led to a working diagnosis.
• Summarize clinical exam results, namely orthopedic/neurological tests, imaging, lab tests, etc. Note actual results rather than subjective conclusions. Provide images if clearly reproducible/anonymized.
• Clearly state the working diagnosis or clinical impression before transitioning to management.

3. Management and Outcome

• Indicate the total duration of care and number of treatments given over what timeframe. Use specific names/descriptions for any therapies/interventions applied.
• Present the results of the intervention,including any quantitative or qualitative data collected.
• For outcomes, utilize visual analog scales for pain, medication usage logs, etc., if possible. Include patient self-reports of improvement/worsening of symptoms. Note the reason for discharge/end of care.

4. Discussion

• Analyze the case, exploring contributing factors, limitations of the study, and connections to existing research.
• Analyze the effectiveness of the intervention,considering factors like participant adherence, limitations of the study, and potential alternative explanations for the results.
• Identify any questions raised in the case analysis and relate insights to established theories and current research if applicable. Avoid definitive claims about physiological explanations.
• Offer clinical implications, and suggest future research directions.

5. Additional Items

• Thank specific assistants for writing support only. No patient acknowledgments.
• References should directly support any key claims or quotes included.
• Use tables/figures/images only if substantially informative. Include permissions and legends/explanatory notes.
• Provides detailed (rich qualitative) information.
• Provides insight for further research.
• Permitting investigation of otherwise impractical (or unethical) situations.

Case studies allow a researcher to investigate a topic in far more detail than might be possible if they were trying to deal with a large number of research participants (nomothetic approach) with the aim of ‘averaging’.

Because of their in-depth, multi-sided approach, case studies often shed light on aspects of human thinking and behavior that would be unethical or impractical to study in other ways.

Research that only looks into the measurable aspects of human behavior is not likely to give us insights into the subjective dimension of experience, which is important to psychoanalytic and humanistic psychologists.

Case studies are often used in exploratory research. They can help us generate new ideas (that might be tested by other methods). They are an important way of illustrating theories and can help show how different aspects of a person’s life are related to each other.

The method is, therefore, important for psychologists who adopt a holistic point of view (i.e., humanistic psychologists ).

Limitations

• Lacking scientific rigor and providing little basis for generalization of results to the wider population.
• Researchers’ own subjective feelings may influence the case study (researcher bias).
• Difficult to replicate.
• Time-consuming and expensive.
• The volume of data, together with the time restrictions in place, impacted the depth of analysis that was possible within the available resources.

Because a case study deals with only one person/event/group, we can never be sure if the case study investigated is representative of the wider body of “similar” instances. This means the conclusions drawn from a particular case may not be transferable to other settings.

Because case studies are based on the analysis of qualitative (i.e., descriptive) data , a lot depends on the psychologist’s interpretation of the information she has acquired.

This means that there is a lot of scope for Anna O , and it could be that the subjective opinions of the psychologist intrude in the assessment of what the data means.

For example, Freud has been criticized for producing case studies in which the information was sometimes distorted to fit particular behavioral theories (e.g., Little Hans ).

This is also true of Money’s interpretation of the Bruce/Brenda case study (Diamond, 1997) when he ignored evidence that went against his theory.

Breuer, J., & Freud, S. (1895).  Studies on hysteria . Standard Edition 2: London.

Curtiss, S. (1981). Genie: The case of a modern wild child .

Diamond, M., & Sigmundson, K. (1997). Sex Reassignment at Birth: Long-term Review and Clinical Implications. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine , 151(3), 298-304

Freud, S. (1909a). Analysis of a phobia of a five year old boy. In The Pelican Freud Library (1977), Vol 8, Case Histories 1, pages 169-306

Freud, S. (1909b). Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose (Der “Rattenmann”). Jb. psychoanal. psychopathol. Forsch ., I, p. 357-421; GW, VII, p. 379-463; Notes upon a case of obsessional neurosis, SE , 10: 151-318.

Harlow J. M. (1848). Passage of an iron rod through the head.  Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, 39 , 389–393.

Harlow, J. M. (1868).  Recovery from the Passage of an Iron Bar through the Head .  Publications of the Massachusetts Medical Society. 2  (3), 327-347.

Money, J., & Ehrhardt, A. A. (1972).  Man & Woman, Boy & Girl : The Differentiation and Dimorphism of Gender Identity from Conception to Maturity. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Money, J., & Tucker, P. (1975). Sexual signatures: On being a man or a woman.

Further Information

• Case Study Approach
• Case Study Method
• Enhancing the Quality of Case Studies in Health Services Research
• “We do things together” A case study of “couplehood” in dementia
• Using mixed methods for evaluating an integrative approach to cancer care: a case study

Related Articles

Research Methodology

Qualitative Data Coding

What Is a Focus Group?

Cross-Cultural Research Methodology In Psychology

What Is Internal Validity In Research?

Research Methodology , Statistics

What Is Face Validity In Research? Importance & How To Measure

Criterion Validity: Definition & Examples

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Gabriela Salinas and Jeeva Somasundaram

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

In April this year, Hein Schumacher, chief executive of Unilever, announced that the company was entering a “new era for sustainability leadership”, and signalled a shift from the central priority promoted under his predecessor , Alan Jope.

While Jope saw lack of social purpose or environmental sustainability as the way to prune brands from the portfolio, Schumacher has adopted a more balanced approach between purpose and profit. He stresses that Unilever should deliver on both sustainability commitments and financial goals. This approach, which we dub “realistic sustainability”, aims to balance long- and short-term environmental goals, ambition, and delivery.

As a result, Unilever’s refreshed sustainability agenda focuses harder on fewer commitments that the company says remain “very stretching”. In practice, this entails extending deadlines for taking action as well as reducing the scale of its targets for environmental, social and governance measures.

Such backpedalling is becoming widespread — with many companies retracting their commitments to climate targets , for example. According to FactSet, a US financial data and software provider, the number of US companies in the S&P 500 index mentioning “ESG” on their earnings calls has declined sharply : from a peak of 155 in the fourth quarter 2021 to just 29 two years later. This trend towards playing down a company’s ESG efforts, from fear of greater scrutiny or of accusations of empty claims, even has a name: “greenhushing”.

Test yourself

This is the fourth in a series of monthly business school-style teaching case studies devoted to the responsible business dilemmas faced by organisations. Read the piece and FT articles suggested at the end before considering the questions raised.

About the authors: Gabriela Salinas is an adjunct professor of marketing at IE University; Jeeva Somasundaram is an assistant professor of decision sciences in operations and technology at IE University.

The series forms part of a wider collection of FT ‘instant teaching case studies ’, featured across our Business Education publications, that explore management challenges.

The change in approach is not limited to regulatory compliance and corporate reporting; it also affects consumer communications. While Jope believed that brands sold more when “guided by a purpose”, Schumacher argues that “we don’t want to force fit [purpose] on brands unnecessarily”.

His more nuanced view aligns with evidence that consumers’ responses to the sustainability and purpose communication attached to brand names depend on two key variables: the type of industry in which the brand operates; and the specific aspect of sustainability being communicated.

In terms of the sustainability message, research in the Journal of Business Ethics found consumers can be less interested when product functionality is key. Furthermore, a UK survey in 2022 found that about 15 per cent of consumers believed brands should support social causes, but nearly 60 per cent said they would rather see brand owners pay taxes and treat people fairly.

Among investors, too, “anti-purpose” and “anti-ESG” sentiment is growing. One (unnamed) leading bond fund manager even suggested to the FT that “ESG will be dead in five years”.

Media reports on the adverse impact of ESG controversies on investment are certainly now more frequent. For example, while Jope was still at the helm, the FT reported criticism of Unilever by influential fund manager Terry Smith for displaying sustainability credentials at the expense of managing the business.

Yet some executives feel under pressure to take a stand on environmental and social issues — in many cases believing they are morally obliged to do so or through a desire to improve their own reputations. This pressure may lead to a conflict with shareholders if sustainability becomes a promotional tool for managers, or for their personal social responsibility agenda, rather than creating business value .

Such opportunistic behaviours may lead to a perception that corporate sustainability policies are pursued only because of public image concerns.

Alison Taylor, at NYU Stern School of Business, recently described Unilever’s old materiality map — a visual representation of how companies assess which social and environmental factors matter most to them — to Sustainability magazine. She depicted it as an example of “baggy, vague, overambitious goals and self-aggrandising commitments that make little sense and falsely suggest a mayonnaise and soap company can solve intractable societal problems”.

In contrast, the “realism” approach of Schumacher is being promulgated as both more honest and more feasible. Former investment banker Alex Edmans, at London Business School, has coined the term “rational sustainability” to describe an approach that integrates financial principles into decision-making, and avoids using sustainability primarily for enhancing social image and reputation.

Such “rational sustainability” encompasses any business activity that creates long-term value — including product innovation, productivity enhancements, or corporate culture initiatives, regardless of whether they fall under the traditional ESG framework.

Similarly, Schumacher’s approach aims for fewer targets with greater impact, all while keeping financial objectives in sight.

Complex objectives, such as having a positive impact on the world, may be best achieved indirectly, as expounded by economist John Kay in his book, Obliquity . Schumacher’s “realistic sustainability” approach means focusing on long-term value creation, placing customers and investors to the fore. Saving the planet begins with meaningfully helping a company’s consumers and investors. Without their support, broader sustainability efforts risk failure.

Questions for discussion

Read: Unilever has ‘lost the plot’ by fixating on sustainability, says Terry Smith

Companies take step back from making climate target promises

The real impact of the ESG backlash

Unilever’s new chief says corporate purpose can be ‘unwelcome distraction ’

Unilever says new laxer environmental targets aim for ‘realism’

How should business executives incorporate ESG criteria in their commercial, investor, internal, and external communications? How can they strike a balance between purpose and profits?

How does purpose affect business and brand value? Under what circumstances or conditions can the impact of purpose be positive, neutral, or negative?

Are brands vehicles by which to drive social or environmental change? Is this the primary role of brands in the 21st century or do profits and clients’ needs come first?

Which categories or sectors might benefit most from strongly articulating and communicating a corporate purpose? Are there instances in which it might backfire?

In your opinion, is it necessary for brands to take a stance on social issues? Why or why not, and when?

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AI Is Making Economists Rethink the Story of Automation

• Walter Frick

Economists have traditionally believed that new technology lifts all boats. But in the case of AI, some are asking: Will some employees get left behind?

Will artificial intelligence take our jobs? As AI raises new fears about a jobless future, it’s helpful to consider how economists’ understanding of technology and labor has evolved. For decades, economists were relatively optimistic, and pointed out that previous waves of technology had not led to mass unemployment. But as income inequality rose in much of the world, they began to revise their theories. Newer models of technology’s affects on the labor market account for the fact that it absolutely can displace workers and lower wages. In the long run, technology does tend to raise living standards. But how soon and how broadly? That depends on two factors: Whether technologies create new jobs for people to do and whether workers have a voice in technology’s deployment.

Is artificial intelligence about to put vast numbers of people out of a job? Most economists would argue the answer is no: If technology permanently puts people out of work then why, after centuries of new technologies, are there still so many jobs left ? New technologies, they claim, make the economy more productive and allow people to enter new fields — like the shift from agriculture to manufacturing. For that reason, economists have historically shared a general view that whatever upheaval might be caused by technological change, it is “somewhere between benign and benevolent.”

• Walter Frick is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review , where he was formerly a senior editor and deputy editor of HBR.org. He is the founder of Nonrival , a newsletter where readers make crowdsourced predictions about economics and business. He has been an executive editor at Quartz as well as a Knight Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism and an Assembly Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. He has also written for The Atlantic , MIT Technology Review , The Boston Globe , and the BBC, among other publications.

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Beach erosion will make Southern California coastal living five times more expensive by 2050, study predicts

by Nina Raffio, University of Southern California

Rising sea levels and urban development are accelerating coastal erosion at an alarming rate in Southern California with significant ripple effects on the region's economy, a USC study reveals.

The study , published in Communications Earth & Environment , predicts that Southern California's coastal living costs will surge fivefold by 2050 as a direct result of beach erosion. This erosion will require more frequent and costly beach nourishment projects to maintain the state's treasured shorelines, consequently driving up the cost of living along the coast.

"Our study presents compelling evidence of the rapid deterioration of Southern California's coastal landscapes," said Essam Heggy, a geoscientist in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering/Electrophysics at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the study's corresponding author.

"The challenges facing Southern California mirror a growing threat shared by coastal communities worldwide. The environmental and economic implications of coastal erosion reach far beyond California's shores and demand interdisciplinary, global solutions," he said.

Coastal erosion: Cost of living sure to surge as sandy beaches disappear

To predict future changes along California's sandy coastlines, the researchers focused on the Gulf of Santa Catalina, which stretches over 150 miles from the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County to the northern tip of Baja California in Mexico.

They used a combination of historical and recent satellite images as well as advanced algorithms to analyze coastline movement and predict future erosion based on different trends and environmental factors.

The study predicts a tripling of erosion rates by 2050, increasing from an average of 1.45 meters per year to 3.18 meters by 2100. Consequently, the annual sand requirement for beach nourishment could triple by 2050, with costs rising fivefold due to the global increase in sand prices. This will exacerbate economic and logistical pressures on coastal communities.

Beach nourishment is adding sand to an eroded beach to rebuild it and create a wider barrier against waves and storms.

"Our investigation suggests that coastal problems start inland due to the rapid growth of cities along the coast, which compromise inland sediment replenishment of sandy beaches ," said Heggy, whose research focuses on understanding water evolution in Earth's arid environments.

"As our beaches shrink, the cost of maintaining them will rise. Finding innovative solutions is key to securing a sustainable future for our shores and local economies," he said.

Coastal erosion in California: A case study for a global problem

Coastal cities in Southern California and those in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea face a common challenge: a semi-arid climate year-round coupled with the growing threats of rising sea levels and eroding shorelines.

A significant portion of Earth's landmass, roughly 41%, falls under arid or semi-arid classifications, and these areas support over a third of the global population.

To understand this global challenge, the researchers focused on two specific locations: Corona del Mar in Orange County, Calif.—an example of the typical Southern California coastline—and Hammamet North Beach in Tunisia. Both are densely populated and share similar climates, prone to increasing droughts, flash floods and unpredictable rainfall patterns. These characteristics mirror the challenges faced by countless coastal communities worldwide.

The findings showed that the average rate of shoreline retreat in these areas varies. In Southern California, beaches are receding between 0.75 and 1.24 meters per year. In Hammamet North Beach, the retreat rate ranges from 0.21 to about 4.49 meters annually.

"While beach nourishment can temporarily combat erosion, however, it presents significant challenges for developing countries," said Oula Amrouni, a sedimentologist at the National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies at the University of Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia, and one of the study's co-authors.

"The high cost of acquiring the right sand, with the specific grain size, quality and composition, and the technical complexity of extracting and laying it are major hurdles. Additionally, worsening erosion in previously stable areas compels more frequent nourishment projects, straining already limited budgets and leading to unplanned expenditures for many communities."

Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment

Provided by University of Southern California

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Home / Case Studies / Northumbrian Water Limited

Northumbrian Water uses SharePoint Syntex and Microsoft Viva Topics for knowledge delivery

Published on July 14, 2021

Northumbrian Water Limited

Clearpeople.

Atlas is the only all-in-one platform for knowledge, communications, and collaboration, built for and on Microsoft 365 while leveraging Microsoft Viva features. ClearPeople's continues to innovate and push the boundaries further with Atlas, benefitting organizations across the world. Atlas ensures capturing, sharing, and searching for knowledge is easy across Teams, SharePoint, and Yammer, and amplifies human expertise with support for both Viva Topics and SharePoint Syntex to automate and discover knowledge.

Water is an essential resource for life and according to Water UK , the average person in the UK alone uses nearly 142 liters of water each day. To put this in perspective, that’s about 3.5 times the amount of fluid in the average human body. But the water we rely on doesn’t magically appear in our drinking glass or flow through our showerheads – it’s delivered through intricately planned, maintained, and monitored piping and waterways. It requires an abundance of human thought, planning, and infrastructure. The delivery of clean water requires the care and hard work of companies like Northumbrian Water.

Serving over 4.4 million people in the United Kingdom, Northumbrian Water provides water and sewage services across the northern English counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham, and parts of North Yorkshire. Dedicated to delivering the reliable, resilient water services that are vital to public health, while providing an unrivaled customer experience, Northumbrian Water has become a leader in their space, leveraging new innovation and technology to deliver on its promises.

Much like other service industries, sanitation, purification, and distribution of water often rely on outdated traditional processes – including paper documentation and mapping, manual data logging, and more. But over the years Northumbrian Water has begun taking a different approach, looking to utilize technology and innovation to simplify processes and manage organizational knowledge, ultimately ensuring they deliver the best product and the best customer experience.

To serve the vast population across the region, Northumbrian Water manages thousands of kilometers of water and sewage network, making sure that it is adequately maintained. Doing so requires detailed documentation of every asset in the network, resulting in what now amounts to around 20 million documents. How does one sort through this massive archive to find a specific document? And is there a way workers can quickly connect with other experts on a given asset, location, or process? How can they access the intrinsic knowledge stored within the minds of the older workforce or those with local experience?

Keen to tear down the barriers inhibiting the organization from quickly finding and utilizing key organizational knowledge, Northumbrian Water hired Microsoft Gold partner ClearPeople to help resolve their knowledge capture and discovery needs by implementing and leveraging the latest Microsoft 365 technologies.

To start the knowledge transformation journey, Northumbrian Water in migrated all 20 million documents, housed across various systems, to Microsoft SharePoint – so that they would be accessible in one central repository. Northumbrian Water estimates that over the coming year this number of documents will likely more than double – up to 50 million documents.

Following the migration, ClearPeople worked with Microsoft to provide Northumbrian with a Knowledge Discovery Workshop – a Microsoft-funded workshop where partners assess content sources, content types, and user journeys and scenarios to develop a pilot of Microsoft Knowledge and Content Services solutions in combination with their own solutions. As part of this pilot, ClearPeople rolled out their Microsoft 365 solution, Atlas, which combines Microsoft 365 tools such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Microsoft Viva Topics, and SharePoint Syntex into one consolidated platform for a seamless experience.

Leveraging Microsoft Viva Topics and SharePoint Syntex, Northumbrian Water quickly discovered the power and possibility of Microsoft’s latest knowledge solutions. “Our content that had been across the board in file shares and other legacy systems is now in one place. And now we can start to do things that have been very difficult to do in the past. I’m very excited because, for the first time we’ve got insight into all the content that we’ve got and we can start to build on that content and to do some very interesting things with it,” says Northumbrian Water Productivity and Collaboration Consultant, Craig Stanley.

With Microsoft Viva Topics, employees at Northumbrian Water can now identify assets, construction projects, and even processes for the work they do, without leaving the applications they’re working in or running a massive search query. If a worker is aware of a pump that needs to be replaced, they can hover over the highlighted word in SharePoint and view the related topic card, showcasing the experts on that particular pump, reading a description, and accessing the most relevant documents. With Viva Topics, employees at Northumbrian quickly get up-to-date information on the subject matter they need to get their jobs done quickly and efficiently.

Potentially even more game changing is Northumbrian Water’s use of SharePoint Syntex – the latest addition to Microsoft Content Services. SharePoint Syntex uses advanced AI and machine teaching to amplify human expertise, automate content processing, and transform content into knowledge. Using no-code AI models, users can capture expertise to classify and extract information and automatically apply metadata, making the content easier to share and discover.

With SharePoint Syntex and Microsoft Viva Topics, we’ve found a way now, at scale, to bring together all our information and people, and identify those sorts of experts inside our business and also identify and manage information into more manageable topics.

Using the power of AI, Northumbrian Water is teaching SharePoint Syntex how to recognize specific drawings – including maps of infrastructure – so they can capture key information from the drawings, record it, and make it easier for experts across the organization to find.

One example where Northumbrian Water can see SharePoint Syntex becoming incredibly valuable to the organization is in capturing knowledge held by an aging workforce – such as hand-drawn maps – applying an AI model to it that recognizes various key components, and automatically captures and records those components to make the knowledge available to new experts as they onboard.

Craig Stanley shared the following example:

“We had an experienced team member working in a rural area who used a very old van for transportation. The van was due for replacement, but he wouldn’t let us replace it. Eventually, the equipment team learned why. As he drove to different areas, he was drawing on the ceiling where mains and certain assets were.”

With these technologies, Northumbrian Water is tackling the challenges of transitioning knowledge from an aging workforce, making knowledge more discoverable, and shortening the query process. Stanley states, “With SharePoint Syntex and Microsoft Viva Topics, we’ve found a way now, at scale, to bring together all our information and people, and identify those sorts of experts inside our business and also identify and manage information into more manageable topics.” By doing so Northumbrian Water will be able to build on their legacy as an innovative leader in water and sewage services, while moving beyond outdated, legacy processes. By saving time through improved search experiences, eliminating a range of manual tasks, automating the discovery of documents and improving methods of collaboration with SharePoint Syntex and Microsoft Viva Topics, Northumbrian Water estimates that they’ll be able to save £50m over the next 36 months.

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