Busy School Men Must Play Detective in Case System

The suspects were gathered at the scene of the crime. The detective paced back and forth nervously. "O.K., you guys, come clean; who killed production?"

"Not me, boss, I just take orders from the production manager," said the factory superintendent.

"I got the stuff there on time," volunteered the purchasing agent.

"We gotta pin this on someone," shouted the vice-president in charge of sales to the harassed detective.

This is a setting for the mystery thriller that faces the B School student every day. It is the foundation of the case method of business education.

Actual Cases Given

Given the clues, the student appraises them and seeks a workable solution. Every case comes from an actual business situation which has plagued some manager. The student must place himself in the position of the operating official involved. He must decide on a definite course of action, preferably one that would not cause bankruptcy if followed in actual business.

The case method of business study has been refined over the past thirty years until it has become a more effective teaching tool than the textbook. A good case combines the suspense of a Hitchcock movie with the pedagogy of Socrates. Teachers no longer labor to illustrate theories with "I knew a guy. . ." stories. In the case system, the illustration is primary, but the principle emerges as the actual situation is discussed. Collection and editing of good cases is, obviously, a difficult job.

Donham Strengthened System

After the last war, instruction at the B School was divided evenly between cases and textbooks. Soon, however, under the guiding genius of Dean Wallace B Donham, the case method became all important.

From the dozen agents who scoured the business world for illustrative cases in the summer of 1921, the work has grown until 538 cases were prepared during the pat year. Two hundred and fifty-eight were obtained at first hand from business firms and government agencies; 144 were based on published material; 68 were examples; and 41 were revisions of old cases. Fifty-eight persons were included among those who wrote one or more cases during the year. Research Assistants and instructors devoting practically full time to such work wrote 282 cases. The remaining nine were prepared by editorial assistants under Faculty direction.

Interesting to note is the fact that more than 50 per cent of the cases dealing with war problems became obsolete within several months after release. The timeliness of these war industry cases, conversion problems, and consequences of WPB and OPA edicts keeps the students very much aware of current conditions.