Implicit Mental Models in Teaching Cases: An Empirical Study of Popular MBA Cases in the United States and China

Abstract

To identify the possible mismatch between what MBA students are supposed to learn and what they are actually exposed to in the case methods, we analyzed the manifest and latent meanings of popular MBA teaching cases in the United States and China. Our findings suggest that despite repeated calls for a more holistic approach to management education, overemphasis on the rational framework persists. We identify five patterns common to both U.S. and Chinese cases; namely, rationalistic framework, undersocialized protagonist, strategy-driven organization, manager-as-analyst, and naïve and biased politics. We also discuss the likely causes for the biases and propose possible ways to develop better-balanced teaching cases.

Rational Decision Making as Performative Praxis: Explaining Rationality's Éternel Retour

“…Generally, Liang and Wang (2004) show that a rational approach to management is implicit in most MBA teaching cases and is the dominant mental model of business schools. These examples illustrate that business schools retain the view of the 'rational man' of economics, in spite of considerable organizational research which emphasizes how unrealistic this approach is.…”

Internationalization at a Distance

“…Drawing on the analysis of MBA programs in South and Southeast Asia, Thompson (2002) and Sturdy and Gabriel (2000) suggested that, despite obvious tensions between the worldviews offered in Western programs of management study and local management know-how, the lure of "international" MBA programs in that part of the world was strong enough to attract students with largely instrumental or practical orientation. Liang and Wang (2004) and Liang and Lin (2008) went further to argue that, owing to the influence of case studies created in Western countries, case studies written for MBA programs in China in the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21 st century were increasingly "de-cultured" and simplified.…”

How do we educate future innovation managers? Insights on innovation education in MBA syllabi

“…Even though case studies are useful to help students understand multiple issues in complex situations and develop an appreciation of real life management issues in a dialectic of discussion (Liang & Wang, 2004), and develop necessary skills for making and implementing decisions in the real world (Banning, 2003) Reflecting the emphasis on explorative and experiential nature of innovation, instructors tend to not to measure student performance through written examinations which are found to be a poor predictors of long term learning of course content or any subsequent performance, such as success at work (Gibbs & Simpson, 2002). They rely more on creative group activities and reflexive individual tasks.…”