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Case Method Teaching as Science and Art : A Metaphoric Approach and Curricular Application
Anne M. Greenhalgh Journal of Management Education 2007 31: 181 DOI: 10.1177/1052562906291306 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jme.sagepub.com/content/31/2/181

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CASE METHOD TEACHING AS SCIENCE AND ART: A METAPHORIC APPROACH AND CURRICULAR APPLICATION

Anne M. Greenhalgh University of Pennsylvania

The following article takes a metaphoric approach to case method teaching to shed light on one of our most important practices. The article hinges on the dual comparison of case method as science and as art. The dominant, scientific view of cases is that they are neutral descriptions of real-life business problems, subject to rigorous analysis. The dormant literary perspective enables us to see cases as incomplete natural narratives, open to multiple and diverse interpretations. By taking a stereoscopic view of case methodas a scientific and literary enterprisewe hone our students managerial, problem-solving skills and heighten their leadership potential by developing their abilities as critical and creative thinkers. This article describes The Language of Leadership, an upper-level elective course that illustrates the implications of treating case method as science and art. Keywords: metaphor; case method; management; leadership; education

Bennis (2003) writes that leaders must have the ability to create shared meaning, speak with a distinctive voice, act with integrity, and demonstrate adaptive capacity:
Adaptive capacity allows todays leaders to act, and then to evaluate the results of their actions, instead of relying on the traditional decision-making model, which calls for collecting and analyzing the data, then acting. Todays leaders know that speed is of the essence, and that they must often act before all the data are in. They must assess the results of their actions, correct their course, and quickly act again. (p. xxiii)

As future managers and leaders, our students need to develop the ability to anticipate and respond to organizational issues and business problems in
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a linear, analytic way and also in a creative and intuitive fashion. In short, they need to develop both their critical and creative thinking skills. Case method teaching has great potential to build both sets of skills if management educators reconsider the traditional view of this pedagogy. Faculty have long held that case method is ideally suited to teach students how to identify and solve business problems by unearthing the facts from the case at hand and then subjecting them to logical and rigorous analysis (Desiraju & Gopinath, 2001). In this way, the conversations about case method teaching too often have paid homage to the rhetoric of science. But the metaphors guiding case method teaching and, by extension, the education of business students across the country are not only those of science, but also those of arts and letters. On one hand, we highlight the importance of facts, things, objectivity, analysis, and problem solving; on the other, we engage students in value, words, subjectivity, interpretation, and problem posing. Case studies are real-life business problems confronting business managers at a particular moment (Barnes, Christensen, & Hansen, 1994, p. 44) and also narratives. As such, they lend themselves to demonstrating an open-ended, interpretive, and imaginative mode of contemplating and resolving business problems. If we see case method as a laboratory method of analysis and also a literary method of interpretation, we will be better equipped to train managers who can plan, budget, organize, staff, control, and problem solve and moreover, leaderspeople who can create and communicate visions and strategies (Kotter, 1996, p. 165). The following article takes a metaphoric look at case method to refresh our understanding of its theory and practice. We have known for some time that metaphor is a figure of comparison, that it is omnipresent in everyday language, and that it is the hallmark of what we think of as poetic language (see, for example, Wellek & Warren, 1956). More recently, researchers in the field of management education have considered the use and value of metaphor in the classroom (Fairfield & London, 2003; Weick, 2003) and, moreover, the way that particular metaphors inform management education itself (see, especially, Gross & Hogler, 2005). This article argues that case teaching often is viewed primarily as a problem-solving, scientific method and that its problem-posing, literary character has been overshadowed. By
Authors Note: I would like to acknowledge Donald N. McCloskeys If Youre So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise (1990, The University of Chicago Press). In much the same spirit as my article, he cautions that economists cannot forsake one half of the rhetorical triad for the other: Like other arts and sciences, that is, economics uses the whole rhetorical tetrad: fact, logic, metaphor, and story. Pieces of it are not enough. The allegedly scientific half of the tetrad, the fact and logic, falls short of an adequate economic science, or even a science of rocks or stars. The allegedly humanistic half falls short of an adequate art of economics, or even a criticism of form and color. Scientists and scholars and artists had better be factual and logical. But the point is here that they had also better be literary (p. 1).

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problem posing, I simply mean the ability to look at a business situation from a variety of perspectives and to frame the issue at hand. As management educators, we typically see cases as neutral descriptions of real-life business problems, subject to rigorous analysis, but we need reminding that they are also incomplete natural narratives, open to multiple and diverse interpretations. We have privileged the rhetoric of science over the language of art. We need to emulate the best teachers who, I believe, have always appreciated the science and art of case method. Recognizing the scientific and literary dimensions of case method enables students and teachers to see the reading of cases as at once analytic and interpretive. Refreshing our stereoscopic view of case methodas a scientific and literary enterpriseallows us to hone our students managerial, problem-solving skills and also to heighten their leadership potential by developing their ability to interpret business situations and influence the way in which events, people, and organizations are seen and understood.

Case Studies as Clinical Studies and Natural Narratives

The dominant view of case studieswhether for accounting, finance, marketing, or management classesis that they are authentic, neutral, and incomplete texts, as Barnes et al.s (1994) working definition affirms:
A case is a partial, historical, clinical study of a situation which has confronted a practicing administration or managerial group. Presented in narrative form to encourage student involvement, it provides datasubstantive and processessential to an analysis of a specific situation, for the framing of alternative action programs, and for their implementation recognizing the complexity and ambiguity of the practical world. (italics added, p. 44)

Despite their verisimilitudetheir seeming authenticity, objectivity, and photographic qualitywe know that cases are not, after all, real life. They are partial, historical, clinical studies presented in narrative formthey are incomplete natural narratives. William Labov (1972) defines natural narrative as one method of recapitulating past experience by matching a verbal sequence of clauses to the sequence of events which (it is inferred) actually occurred (pp. 359-360). A complete natural narrative includes six parts that Labov invites readers to see as a series of answers to underlying questions:
a. Abstract: what was this about? b. Orientation: who, when, what, where? c. Complicating action: then what happened? d. Evaluation: so what? e. Result: what finally happened? f. Coda

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The sixth component, Coda, does not answer a question but puts off a questionit signals that questions c and d are no longer relevant (p. 370). Case studies typically address Labovs (1972) first three questions (a, b, and c): What was this about; Who, when, what, where; and Then what happened. Cases have an abstract and a title. They orient the reader, tell us who, what, when, and where. And they present what happened, a complicating action, a problem that needs a solution. In light of Labovs definitions, we can see that case studies are typically treated as incomplete natural narratives, including abstract, orientation, and complicating action but lacking much overt evaluation and excluding resolution and coda. Cases are unresolved; they end with the questions So what and What finally happened unanswered. What makes cases particularly rewarding for both teacher and student is that wethe readersprovide answers to Labovs last three questions (d, e, and f). Readers evaluate the real-life business problems that cases describe, say what should happen in the short run, and make predictions about long-term outcomes. Mary Louise Pratt (1977) claims, natural narratives invariably deal with states of affairs that are held to be unusual and problematic, in need of experiential and evaluative resolution (p. 140). Because this is also the purpose of literary narratives, both types belong to the same class of utterances. Thus, Pratt erases the conventional distinction between natural and literary narratives. In her words, exclamations, natural narratives, and many if not all literary works fall into the class whose primary point is thought-producing, representative or world-describing (p. 143). For Pratt, natural and literary narratives are display texts in which the speaker or writer presents an unusual state of affairs for consideration by the audience or reader. Following Pratt, we can see cases as incomplete natural narratives, presenting the student reader with a problematic state of business affairs in need of evaluative resolution. Like novels, short stories, plays, or poems, cases are display texts, inviting teachers and students to contemplate, evaluate, resolve, and interpret the business problems they present.

Case Analysis and Interpretation

Students resolve and interpret case studies in preparation for class discussion or in answer to take-home assignments or in-class exams. E. Raymond Corey (1980) has summarized what instructors look for when evaluating and grading the quality of case write-ups:
How well and usefully does the student define the problem? How much of what there is to be observed does the student actually see? What issues? What important facts? Does the student use these observations to draw relevant conclusions?

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Is any quantitative analysis well constructed and computed? Does it seek to answer useful questions? Do recommendations follow from conclusions? Are recommendations well buttressed with supporting data and lines of reasoning? Does the student commit to explicitly stated recommendations and then go on to outline a plan of action? (italics added, p. 16)

The implied format of a case analysisproblem/analysis/solution, recommendation, highlighted by italicspoints to the problem solving and scientific aspirations of case method teaching. This method of problem identification, analysis, and solution aligns the study of business with that of the empirical sciences in which, as Robert Scholes (1991) reminds us, there is little reverence for texts as such. These are disciplines that center themselves around a method or canon of rules rather than a canon of sacred texts (p. 761). Accordingly, management education places importance on a canon of rules: The most fundamental is the method of identifying, analyzing, and solving business problems. Case method teaching aspires to the scientific method by applying a canon of rules to a cannon of secular texts; most notably, Harvard Business School case studies, classic cases that we can see as incomplete natural narratives. From a literary perspective, however, case method has as much to do with art as sciencewith metaphor, narrative, and interpretation as fact, logic, and analysis (for a summary of the impact of both views, see Appendix A).

Implications for Teaching and Learning

The metaphors of science and art enable us to think about case method teaching in revealing ways. The following are four implications for teaching and learning:
1. The metaphor of science reveals cases as things, ready for objective and rigorous analysis; the metaphor of art makes cases words, ripe for subjective interpretation. 2. The metaphor of science privileges the facts of the case; the metaphor of art allows us to appreciate that the act of selecting evidence reflects our values, our sense of what is worth talking about. 3. The metaphor of science turns case write ups into answers and solutions; the metaphor of art makes them responses and readings. 4. Case method provides managerial training because we take cases as the real business problems; case teaching also offers leadership development because cases serve as parables for reflection and learning.

The familiar metaphor of science reveals our assumptions; the dormant metaphor of art gives us an opportunity to reinvigorate our practice. As illustration, let me turn to The Language of Leadership, an undergraduate

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course I have designed and taught for several years. The course is an upperlevel elective based on the notion that mastering the language of leadership means developing the art of reading and writing organizations. Accordingly, course objectives include the following: Increasing student awareness of leadership as a rhetorical enterprise, heightening the students ability to shape meaning in language, and improving writing and speaking competencies. Gareth Morgans Images of Organization (1997) and a packet of articles and cases are required readings for the course.

First Implication: Case StudiesThings and Words

Whereas the metaphor of science reveals cases as things, real-life business problems, ready for analysis, the metaphor of art makes cases words, ripe for interpretation. Independent of its author and distanced from its narrator, a case is a verbal icona factual reporting of real business problems for diagnosis and prescription. The implications for teaching and learning are significant: Presenting cases as the real thing enables us to foster the notion that our students are getting invaluable, practical management training in our classrooms. Emphasizing that cases are also words, enables us to underscore the importance of point of view and framing, essential for leadership development. I illustrate the implications of cases as things and words within the first two weeks of the semester. I title the discussion Framing, because I want my students to understand that the basic premise of the course is that we frame our understanding of organizations through metaphor. Metaphor provides a way of seeing that casts certain perspectives into the light and forces others into the shadow. Morgans book highlights eight particular metaphors: machine, organism, brain, culture, politics, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and domination; each one reveals a way of seeing organizations and exposes their primary perspectives and chief values (see my compilation of Morgans [1989] work, in Appendix B, for elaboration). Although any case will do, I often start this class discussion with Eagle Smelting (Morgan, 1989). Eagle Smelting describes an incident with John Holt, the plant engineer, who promised a rush delivery of a part by 1:45 one afternoon. Holt believed that the rush job could be completed at low speed without risk to the machinery. He assigned Curtis to the job. Curtis was a fully qualified mechanic and one of the most experienced and skilled men in the shop. (At one time, Curtis had been considered for the post of machine shop foreman, but Holt and Don Macrae, the plant manager, both preferred Ed Smith, an excellent mechanic who was just a few years younger than Curtis.) Later in the day, Holt checked in on Curtis, only to find the part falling short of specifications and the lathe itself in jeopardy. He fired Curtis on the spot.

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Ed Smith told Holt that he was wrong to fire Curtis: Curtis sped up the job because Macrae told him to do so. On hearing this explanation, Holt stormed into Macraes office and quit. Youre right, Macrae shouted back, That locomotive job was a top priority, so why werent you or Smith overseeing it? Was it in danger of interfering with your personal business? I know your Friday morning routine! I accept your resignation (p. 270). Inasmuch as Eagle Smelting is about a manufacturing firm, my students are inclined to see the organization as a machine and to identify the problem as one that plagues bureaucraciesa breakdown in efficiency. The cause is a misalignment of parts (Macrae overriding Holts orders), and the solution is repairing the chain of command. To be sure, reading Eagle Smelting in this way is appropriate, but I like to make this singular reading of the case problematic by challenging students to look at Eagle Smelting through the lenses of Morgans other metaphors. I find my students quick to reframe the problem when prompted. They are quick to see Eagle Smelting as
Organism, falling short of meeting the immediate demand of the external environment, the rush order Brain, not encouraging independent thinking but, rather, following the rules Culture, hampered by the norm of following orders regardless of the consequence Politics, undermined by the conflict between Holt and Macrae, on one hand, and the competing interests of Curtis and Smith, on the other Psychic prison, trapped by subservience to the rules Flux and transformation, suffering from the ironic and dialectical phenomenon of efficiency generating its opposite, inefficiency Domination, characterized by top management serving its own interests at the expense of labor

The value of looking at Eagle Smelting from a variety of perspectives is that the exercise makes clear the multiplicity of ways of approaching and solving organizational problems. In this way, the exercise fosters both creative and critical thinking; students practice their problem-posing and problem-solving skills. By the end of class, they have interpreted, analyzed, and solved the case from a wide variety of perspectives. They understand that leadership is the art of framing (Fairhurst & Sarr, 1996).

Second Implication: Case DiscussionFacts and Values

On one hand, the metaphor of science privileges the facts of the case; on the other, the metaphor of art reveals our values, our sense of what is worth talking about. We hold our students responsible for knowing the facts, but our high regard for facts is tempered by our recognition that the facts do not speak for themselves. Readersstudents and teachers alikespeak for them; the details of a given case are not so much telling as told. As Labov (1972)

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and Pratt (1977) would say, case instructors give students an understanding of what is tellable or remarkable and what is not. Perhaps one of the most obvious ways in which instructors give students an understanding of what facts are worth talking about is through the topic headings listed in their syllabi. I like to use video clips, in addition to traditional cases, to provide organizational examples of Morgans (1989) metaphors, the topic headings of the course. For example, the opening setting, the cotton mill in Norma Rae, foreshadows the dehumanizing impact of the organization as machine on those at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy. The animal imagery that pervades the language of Gordon Gekko and his top trader, the Terminator, in Wall Street evokes the sense of competition and survival characteristic of organizations as organisms. Bunny Watson, the librarian in Desk Set who outsmarts Richard Sumners computer Eniac, reminds us that the organization as brain places a premium on learning to learn. The unexpected opening of Local Hero in which the CEO of Knox Oil is more interested in stargazing than drilling for oil directs our attention to the mysterious and even magical aspects of organizational culture. By countering our expectations about victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, Disclosure confronts us with the organization as power in which every actor is a political actor. In Jerry Maguire, the title characters opening soliloquy, the writing of his mission statement, draws our attention to the organization as psychic prison with its inescapably human and ethical dimensions. Apollo XIII gives dramatic illustration of organization as flux and transformation: Like Eugene Kranz, we may never be in control, but we can act as change agents through the power and control we do possess. And, finally, Catherines exploitation of Tess in Working Girl pictures the organization as domination. With the example of Eagle Smelting in hand, my students know that the placement of these video clips under one heading or another is subjective. They understand that the placement signals how I have framed the films for purposes of discussion. They have no less regard for the facts of the film, and they cultivate a greater appreciation of their relative value.

Third Implication: Case AnalysisAnswer (Solution) and Response (Reading)

The metaphor of science turns case analyses into answers and solutions whereas the metaphor of art makes them responses and readings. To be sure, teachers and students do give more weight to certain answers and solutions than to others. How do we account for the consistent marshalling of selected facts as evidence and not others? Stanley Fish (1980) helps me respond to this

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question by making the argument that both the stability of interpretation among readers and the variety of interpretation in the career of a single reader . . . are functions of interpretive strategies rather than of texts (pp. 167-168). According to Fish (1980), interpretive strategies are the shape of reading, and because they are the shape of reading, they give texts their shape, making them rather than, as it is usually assumed, arising from them (p. 168). Although presented as business problems necessitating solutions, cases are also narratives open to interpretation. The students job is to make a persuasive interpretation of his or her reading of the facts. The main purpose of the one-page case write ups I assign in the course is to heighten the students ability to read organizations and to influence change through language. I ask students to write in a style that reflects the root metaphor of the organization under analysis. In this way, each write up gives students the chance to practice various writing styles and to master standard types of business genres such as memos and letters. For example, I assign a memo from the point of view of Smith, the foreman, to Macrae, the plant manager of Eagle Smelting. The purpose of the memo is to recommend that Curtis not be fired. Because the organization as machine puts a premium on efficiency and rules, students strive to make their writing correct and to the point. As the Eagle Smelting memo assignment suggests, solutions and recommendations are important, but equally important is each students written response in keeping with the root metaphor of the organization. The assignment, like the others summarized in Appendix C, plays to the metaphors of case method teaching as science and art.

Fourth Implication: Case MethodManagement Training and Leadership Development

Case method provides practical management training because we treat cases as the real thing and also leadership development because cases serve as parables illustrating complex business situations. As Benson P. Shapiro (1984) points out, The situations that a manager faces may differ from the metaphors portrayed in our cases, but taken together, the cases provide a useful and relevant set of metaphors that can be applied to most management situations (pp. 1-2). More recently, Howard Gardner (1995) writes that stories are the measure of effective leadership: the artful creation and articulation of stories constitutes a fundamental part of the leaders vocation (pp. 42-43). With cases as parables and stories the measure of leadership, I make the culminating assignment in the course the students own case study and analysis (10 to 30 pages in length). Students must first write a case study

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about an organization of their choice. The organization they choose to describe must be one they know firsthand and would like to change in some way. Their choices range from student-run organizations (such as fraternities or clubs), to local churches, to national and international companies (Nike). Then, students must take the role of an outside consultant to read and rewrite their organizations so that they maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses. With Morgans (1989) metaphors in hand, they do an analysis of their case study, complete with recommendations for change. Students often tell me they try to implement the solutions they recommend. These are the most rewarding papers, the ones that inspire leadership and change. In this way, the final assignment makes use of case method as the basis of both managerial training and leadership development. Students exercise their critical thinking skills as they analyze and solve real organizational and business problems, but they also use their creative thinking skills to read organizations in various ways and then rewrite them. Most recent course evaluations suggest that the class has been quite successful in meeting its objectives (3.99/4.00 for course quality).

Conclusion
Looking at case method teaching through the dominant and dormant metaphors of science and art reveals a number of implications for teaching and learning. We know the objective value of cases as the real thing, and we recognize their subjective value as words. We know the importance of analyzing facts, and we appreciate the importance of interpretation. We know the standard solutions to familiar case problems, and we realize that they are not self-evident but guided by our shared, interpretive strategies that lead us to conclude that some issues are more problematicmore worth addressing and resolvingthan others. We know that case method is essential to management training, and we also come to appreciate its potential contribution to leadership development. Case method teaching becomes more than showing students how to figure out solutions to business problems. Rather, students learn how to formulate readings and to discriminate among them, to see one reading as standard and another as unorthodox. Case instructors work to define the range of acceptable readings, teaching students which solutions are best and which interpretive strategies are most appropriate. Case method becomes a process of acculturation in which students learn how to frame and resolve business issues in accordance with prevailing values. Not least are the complementary values underpinning their management and leadership educationthose of fact and metaphor, logic and story, analysis and interpretation, science and art.

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Appendix A Impact of Case Method Teaching as Science and Art

Impact Developmental Objective Focus Metaphor of Science Management Facts and Things Objectivity Analysis Problem Solving Critical Thinking Linear and Analytic Laboratory Method of Analysis Partial, Historical, and Clinical Studies Case studies are descriptive texts, presenting real-life business problems, requiring solutions. Canon of rules, requiring answer and solution Students present a solution using facts as evidence Cases are things, ready for objective and rigorous analysis. Cases pose problems necessitating solutions. Students get practical management training because cases present real-life business problems demanding solutions. Primacy of Analyzing the Facts Metaphor of Art Leadership Words and Values Subjectivity Interpretation Problem Posing Creative Thinking Associative and Interpretative Literary Method of Interpretation Authentic, Neutral, and Incomplete Narratives Case studies are display texts, presenting problematic situations in need of evaluative resolutions. Canon of secular texts, inviting response and resolution Students make a persuasive interpretation of the facts. Cases are words, ripe for subjective interpretation. Cases are narratives open to interpretation. Students get leadership development because cases are parables illustrating complex business situations. Importance of Interpretation

Skills Developed Case Method Case Studies

Case Analysis

Implications of the Metaphor

Implications for Teaching and Learning

Values Taught

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Appendix B Metaphor, Perspective, and Value

Metaphor Machine Perspective The organization as machine is made up of interlocking parts that play a clearly defined role in the functioning of the whole. The organization as organism focuses attention on understanding and managing organizational needs and environmental relations. The organization as brain emphasizes learning. The organization as culture makes clear that organizations reside in the ideas, values, norms, rituals, and beliefs that sustain them. The organization as politics highlights organizations as systems of government drawing on various political principles to legitimize different kinds of rule. The organization as psychic prison draws attention to the psychodynamic aspects of organizations. The organization as flux and transformation reminds us that organizations are self-producing systems that create themselves in their own image; they are produced as a result of circular flows of positive and negative feedback; and they are the product of a dialectical logic whereby every phenomenon tends to generate its opposite. The organization as domination shows how organizations often use their employees, their host communities, and the world economy to achieve their own ends. Value Efficiency

Organism

Effectiveness

Brain Culture

Innovation Social construction of reality Politics

Power

Psychic prison

Limitation

Flux and transformation

Possibility and change

Domination

Subordination

Appendix C Cases, Assignment, and Style

Cases, From Morgans resourcebook (1989) Eagle Smelting Assignment Style

Write your memo from the point of view As you write your of Smith, the foreman, to Macrae, the memo, keep in mind plant manager. Recommend that the root metaphor of Curtis, one of the senior mechanics, machine: Follow the not be fired. rules of grammar and make every word count. (continued)

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Appendix C (continued) Cases, Assignment, and Style

Cases, From Morgans resourcebook (1989) Acme Electronics Assignment Write your memo down-line, as John Tyler, the President of Acme, to all department heads and executives. Recall that you once credited your firms greater effectiveness to your managers abilities to run a tight ship. This is why you retained the basic structure developed by the parent company: It was most efficient for a high volume manufacture of printed circuits and their subsequent assembly. Indicate the critical time constraints of the most recent contract to produce 100 units for a major photocopier firm, and express how you expect that everyone will perform as efficiently as always. Submit a cover letter and resume to Bill Klee, the founder of Design Inc. You know that his top layout artist has left for another job and understand that Klee himself has stepped into the position until a replacement is hired. Be aware that every staff member has a say in the selection of the new recruit. Recently, you learned about several openings at Rainbow Financial Services. You applied for one of the positions and got an interview with Ms. Doris Golden, the new Vice President of Human Resources. Write a thank you note to Ms. Doris Golden for taking the time to interview you last week. Style As you write, keep in mind the root metaphor of organism. Effectiveness matters: You are more accountable to your reader than to the rules of grammar; getting results is more important than getting the grammar right.

Perfection or Bust

Write your letter in accordance with your sense of the firm's culture.

Rainbow Financial Services

Keep the politics of the firm in mind as you write your thank you note.

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