Erroneous Learning From the West? A Narrative Analysis of Chinese Mba Cases Published in 1992, 1999 and 2003

Zusammenfassung

---

The last two decades have witnessed an unprecedented transfer of Western management education theories and pedagogies into China and most Chinese MBA programs are now being modeled on their Western counterparts. To gauge the impact of this infusion of Western methods and theories on China's management educational system, this paper has conducted a narrative analysis of Chinese MBA teaching cases published before and after this transfer. The holistic approach to management, prevalent in early Chinese MBA cases and typical of traditional Chinese culture, has largely disappeared and Chinese cases now exhibit many of the same weaknesses and deficiencies that have been documented in Harvard Business School cases.

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

Erroneous Learning From the West? A Narrative Analysis of Chinese Mba Cases Published in 1992, 1999 and 2003

Introduction

Seizing the learning advantages of a latecomer, China has made dramatic progress in the business education industry. Starting from nothing in 1980, China now boasts well over 122 MBA programs (Academic Degree Office of the State Council of China 2005), and one China-based business school has been ranked as high as 11th worldwide by the Financial Times Global MBA ranking (Financial Times 2008).

Much of the aforementioned progress has been made possible by learning from the successes of established business schools in the West1. Many MBA programs in China are staffed by faculty "borrowed" from partner schools in the West, with curriculum and pedagogy modeled after leading Western business schools, and teaching materials translated from popular textbooks and case studies from the West. The Chinese government has even specified that a minimum of 30 percent of Executive MBA courses must be taught by "international faculty", i.e., visiting faculty from leading business schools in the West. On top of this, 63 percent of China's own MBA faculty have obtained their degrees, or at least studied for some period of time at Western business schools (Wu/Gong 2001). According to statistics compiled from a leading business textbook publisher in China, the percentage of Western MBA textbooks translated into Chinese was nil before 1990, reaching 28 percent in 1999 and rising to as high as 71 percent in 2005. It is no overstatement to say that a massive inflow of Western management education theory and pedagogy has occurred in China.

Some of the most influential management scholars such as Ghoshal (2005), Mintzberg (2004), and Pfeffer and Fond (2002) have criticized conventional Western management education for having several important shortcomings. Bennis and O'Toole (2005) summarized the problem succinctly as "the failure to impart useful skills, the failure to prepare leaders, and the failure to instill norms of ethical behavior" (p. I). Since learning is an experiential process of trial and error (Levitt/March 1988), there is a danger that China may have imported some of the deficiencies of the Western management education model during the learning process. Hence, certain questions inevitably arise: How does the inflow of Western management education programs and pedagogies impact the development of China's management education? To what extent can a developing country like China adopt the many positive and constructive elements of Western management education without simultaneously inheriting its problems and deficiencies?

In this paper, we will attempt to assess the impact of Western management education theories and pedagogies on China by focusing on one key element of management education: MBA teaching cases. The reason for this point of analysis is simple: The case method is centrally important to MBA teaching, and case studies are the cornerstone of that method (Hammond 1980, Lawrence 1953).

Each year, Harvard Business School distributes around seven million copies of MBA case studies, and business schools around the world teach using the case method (Garvin 2003). However, this teaching methodology is not without its critics. The case method has long been and continues to be a controversial teaching device. Criticisms of the method can be grouped into two categories. The first is related to the use of the case method as an educational pedagogy; the method helps students learn how to analyze complex problems, but does not teach the full complement of managerial skills. Garvin (2003) drove this point home by quoting a second-year law student, "if you can 'think' like a lawyer, does that mean you can 'act' like a lawyer?" (p. 59). The second category of criticism addresses the content biases that are embedded in MBA/MPA teaching cases and their impact on MBA/MPA students. Many scholars are concerned that the "reality" depicted in the MBA/MPA cases might be distorted. Not only what students learn from cases analyses is insufficient for "acting" as a manager, but could be misleading and even harmful (Chetkovich/Kirp 2001, Swiercz/Ross 2003). Liang and Wang (2004) concluded that "there exists a major gap between the stated purpose of the case method of 'bringing a chunk of reality' into the classroom and what teaching cases actually depict and convey" (p. 410). Currie et al. (2005) found that some of the ECCH (European Case Clearing House) winner cases were "misleadingly incomplete" (p. 9).

Our study focuses on the content and framework biases of MBA teaching cases (to be discussed further in the literature review section). Building on earlier studies that documented the content biases in popular Western MBA/MPA cases, w...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---