PhD Defence: Giorgio Touburg

Abstract

Contrary to common belief, myths are not only found in classical stories. Modern management narratives can also create and perpetuate myths.
This dissertation examines the Harvard Case Method, one of the world’s most influential forms of management education, from a mythographic perspective. For more than a century, students have learned through stories about managers facing difficult decisions. The dissertation shows that such cases do more than describe practical problems: through their narrative structure and language, they also convey ideas about what good management is.
One chapter examines the ten most widely used Harvard cases over a forty-year period. It identifies persistent management myths, including the Unity Myth (the organization as a coherent whole) and the Control Myth (the organization as rationally governable).
This matters because generations of students around the world have been educated using such cases. The stories told in the classroom may help shape how future managers perceive and act toward organizations, employees, competitors, and their own role.
A second chapter analyses two cases through the work of Roland Barthes, who showed how myths can make historically contingent ideas appear natural and self-evident. Building on this analysis, the dissertation develops the Critical Case Lens: a practical tool for making such myths visible and open to discussion. It enables students and educators not only to learn from a management case, but also to critically examine the assumptions it reproduces and the alternative perspectives it leaves out.