Decision of some sort—and the quality that we value as instructors is a kind of “decisiveness” born of a willingness to ignore the complex­ity of the situation at hand. Understandably, this approach makes a lot of us nervous about the real messages that we are sending to stu­dents in case method classrooms. Yet, the potential … Read more

We use field studies in all our modules, but in a particular way: Participants visit the local operations of the companies represented in the class. These are not passive tours, but active investigations, on a subject related to the module, for example, a “cultural audit” at BT in the first module or probing into change … Read more

THE FORMATIVE YEARS Business education is usually traced back to the University of Pennsylva­nia, which set up a bachelors program in business in 1881, thanks to the efforts of businessman Joseph Wharton. In a paper on the origins of business education, J. C. Spender argues otherwise, tracing this effort back to the Prussian school of … Read more