Cutting Down to Size: The Case Study Method

THE RECENT downgrading of the 'case study' as a mode of instruction and as a field of research, in its original home, the Harvard Business School, has not attracted the notice it deserves in the fields of public administration and business management.1 President Derek Bok, in his last annual report, downgraded case studies, recommending less time and resources for developing them and more for traditional research. Such a change had already taken place some time ago in the Stanford and Chicago Business Schools while Harvard continued to give the bulk of the curricula to case study. Criticism of this stress had been gathering momentum for quite some time, even while defenders continued their advocacy. Now a firm stand against its dominance has been taken in its last prestigious stronghold. Now it is an appropriate occasion to reflect objectively on its use, its advantages and disadvantages, particularly in the context of India and the Third World, where it is still being used very much with great faith in its efficacy. Historically, the case study method struck roots at Harvard and other prestigious schools of administration early in this century: (a) when there was not much by way of administrative theory or quantitative tools of decision-making, and (b) when the case study method of teaching through initiating and studying practical business situations appealed to rich business owners who were prepared to subsidise it. It became popular in Britain after World War II and soon after in Commonwealth countries for a practical reason. In Britain, there was no emphasis on training till after the Assheton Committee report of 1945 and, when training was taken up seriously, the established American case study method appeared handy to British administrators who had little liking for theory. In Afro-Asian Commonwealth countries, with the immense expansion of their public services following independence, and their assumption of increasing responsibilities for public enterprises, training assumed supreme importance and the American case study