Expansion of the Case Method: Header
Expansion of the Case Method
Expansion of the Case Method: Quote
[An] advantage of the case system is its flexibility. . . .The Dean’s program has met the acid test of successful adaptability to radical and unforeseen changes.
Melvin T. Copeland, George F. Baker Professor of Business Administration, “Expansion of the Case Method of Instruction,” Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin, 1942.13
By the 1930s, the case method served as the primary teaching method for the MBA program at HBS.14 As new business education programs emerged, they also successfully incorporated the teaching pedagogy into their curricula. Reaching across Harvard, the program for women studying business, founded in 1937 as the Radcliffe Training Course in Personnel Administration, adopted case method teaching. HBS faculty taught in the program using the case method and HBS case studies. The program became the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration in 1955, and women were admitted to the HBS MBA program in 1963.
Expansion of the Case Method: Slider
Expansion of the Case Method: Body 2
During World War II, HBS suspended the MBA program to focus on training of military personnel for the war effort. HBS faculty wrote hundreds of new case studies that addressed issues specific to wartime production and analysis of statistical information. Dean Donham remarked on the flexibility of the case method that allowed for the “successful conversion of our curriculum to war conditions.”15 The legendary “Umpteenth Fighter Squadron” case used in the Army Air Forces Statistical School, for example, provided Air Force officers-in-training with the opportunity to diagnose scenarios they would face on and off the battlefield. They learned to develop a statistical control system that would more precisely predict the immediate availability of planes for combat.
Quartermaster Advanced ROTC, 1942. HBS Archives Photograph Collection.
Building off the success of the wartime schools, HBS established the Advanced Management Program (AMP) in 1945 for returning military service members, the School’s first executive education program. In explaining the history of the program, HBS noted, “What was developed during a period of national crisis has become, in the eyes of both the School and American Business, a program of such importance and usefulness that it should be continued during the reconversion period immediately ahead and, further, that it should be retained as a permanent feature of the School.”16 AMP continues to be one of HBS’s flagship executive programs. The case method has proved an enduring instructional method for countless senior business leaders who have participated in HBS’s Executive Education programs ever since.
Advanced Management Program Classroom, ca. 1945. HBS Archives Photograph Collection (olvwork380737).
The HBS Summer Venture Management Program began in 1983 as a joint enterprise of HBS, the Executive Council of the Harvard Business School Association, the Harvard Business School Black Alumni Association, and corporate sponsors. The program, which continues today, is a one-week residency at HBS for college seniors designed to increase diversity and opportunity in business education. Students engage in the case method of instruction and learn about opportunities in business careers. Over time, for a wide range of programs and curricula, the case method has served as a valuable teaching practice.
James I. Cash teaching in Summer Venture in Management Program, ca. 1983. HBS Archives Photograph Collection.
Expansion of the Case Method: Footnotes
13Copeland, “The Expansion of the Case Method of Instruction,” Harvard Business School Bulletin, Summer, 1942, 227.
14Copeland, And Mark an Era, 76.
15Wallace B. Donham, Dean’s Report, “Graduate School of Business Administration,” Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1941-1942, Official Register of Harvard University, vol. xli, September 26, 1944, no. 23, 259.
16Advanced Management Program Brochure, 1946. Executive Education Brochures and Promotional Materials. HBS Archives (E25B.4).
Title image: Harry R. Tosdal. Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration Photograph Album. HBS Archives (olvwork703165).