Rack AH (Historical & Archival Methods): Narrative Analysis | Historical Case Studies (AH.H)

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There is much we can learn about management, leadership, and context through the use of historical case studies — including traditional scholarly studies, fictional works based on history, or historical documents re-read through an organizational lens. The curated list here is extensive and covers numerous historically significant cases, some of which could easily be overlooked by busy researchers looking at contemporary matters.

What Makes a Good Historical Case for Organization Studies?

There are several qualities that one might look for in a good historical case in the field of organization studies. However, the absence of any one or more of these qualities does not necessarily weaken the case, but may impose limitations that can only be overcome by more research.

Using reliable primary sources. These might include internal documents, correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, and contemporaneous accounts. The availability of primary sources allows researchers to triangulate information and build a more complete picture of what actually happened. Moreover, for historical cases involving foreign contexts, it is helpful to collect primary sources in the native language whenever possible. The historical case studies we reviewed in Episode 63 of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the smallpox pandemics of early America included a lot of primary source information, greatly enhance the case’s credibility.

Spanning meaningful timeframes to capture organizational processes or changes. Cases should follow a phenomenon that occurred in the past from start to finish, and therefore should be properly bounded in space and time. Sometimes this means collecting information on an organization spanning several decades to understand the long-term evolution of the phenomena under study. Or, it might mean focusing intensively on a shorter period. For example, in Episode 102 we covered an autobiography by Alfred Sloan on his tenure in General Motors. The timeframe of the case included the author’s formative experiences but generally ended at his final departure since he no longer has continuous meaningful contact with the company and new leadership was already taking the organization in different directions.

Situating the organization in context. A good historical case study situates the organization within its broader historical, social, and economic environment. This helps with relating how external forces shaped organizational decisions and how the organization, in turn, influenced its environment. Philip Selnick’s famous study of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which we covered in Episode 75, required understanding the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the political climate that made such a massive public project possible.

Offering analytical value for organizational theory. This means it should illuminate important organizational processes, structures, or phenomena that help us better understand how organizations work. For instance, studying organizational secrecy in the Manhattan Project (Episode 92) provides insights into how organizations manage highly complex technical projects under extreme time pressure while protecting them from observation or detection by adversaries. Historical cases can do this more effectively when the phenomenon can only be efficiently “observed” and analyzed in hindsight or when the effects of actions or decisions are not felt for a long time afterward.

Exhibiting qualities of good qualitative research. Historical case studies are ultimately qualitative studies, subject to similar requirements as field research (see Rack AF). While each historical case is unique, a good case study should be comparable, offering insights that can be meaningfully compared to other cases or contemporary organizations. This allows researchers to develop broader theoretical understanding rather than just describing a single historical instance. The case should also be well-documented enough to allow researchers to examine multiple perspectives and potential interpretations. This helps avoid oversimplified narratives and allows for more nuanced analysis. And, good historical case studies should challenge or extend existing theoretical understanding. This might mean finding cases that don’t fit current theories, or examining well-known cases from new theoretical perspectives. The goal is not just to confirm what we already think we know, but to develop deeper or more nuanced theoretical insights.

Finally, while not a must, historical case studies should be interesting. After all, each case reflects a fully-realized story. There is a situation, a protagonist (e.g., a leader or the organization itself), a series of conflicts and choices, and ultimately a grand triumph or failure. Readers may already know how a particular case turned out (consider, for example, historical cases of disasters that we covered in Episode 64) and so it is important to communicate why the events are compelling as a site for historical research rather than simply providing a documentary of events. Good quality histories engage the reader as much as good fiction. All of the historical episodes highlighted above exhibit this most important quality — they were each very interesting and fun to read!

Some Foundational Works on Conducting Historical Case Studies

Most case study and qualitative research books include discussions of historical cases, whether as a separate topic (e.g., Yin, 2014) or as a component or subcategory of other qualitative methods (e.g., Creswell, 2013 and narrative research). The primary differences from other qualitative case methods (see Racks AF and AH) is that only certain sources of evidence will be available — predominately documentation, archival records, and physical artifacts. Yin (2014: 106) lists the following as types of documentation one may find (and we’ve added a few others) but warns that even written documentation that is purported to be primary source can have been edited or filtered in some way. Translated documentation can be particularly challenging if the researcher is not familiar with the original language as translations often have errors:

• Letters, memoranda, diaries or journals, calendars, and other personal notes
• Agendas, announcements, minutes of meetings, and other written reports of events
• Administrative documents such as proposals, progress reports, logs, and other records
• Formal studies or evaluations
• Any form of written or spoken media or artwork/designs

Archival records are similar except they tend to be public records or databases rather than personal property (Yin, 2014: 109) and physical artifacts can be just about any object that is identifiably related to the case such as buildings, vehicles, machines, bridges, and so on.

In addition, these readings from the Management Learning journal are offered as additional resources for the conduct of historical case study research. Credit goes to Cara Reid from ML and Jarryd Daymond.

Fournier, V. (2006). Breaking from the weight of the eternal present: Teaching organizational difference. Management Learning, 37(3), 295-311.

This article reflects on an attempt to encourage students to imagine alternative forms of organizing, and on the ultimate failure of this pedagogical experiment. It explores students’ reluctance to take organizational difference seriously in terms symptomatic of a broader inertia in social sciences that severs ‘difference’ from the realm of possibility, reducing difference to degrees of capitalist practices and the future to an extension of the present. Drawing on the work of Gibson-Graham, it argues that making alternative organizing conceivable requires challenging the capitalocentric reading of the economy, and developing a vocabulary of economic differences. It suggests that to address the common charge that alternatives will not be able to withstand the ‘tide of history’, we also need to work on conceptions of time and history that open the future to the possibility of difference. It draws on Foucault’s genealogy to ‘break history’ and insert points of rupture at which ‘new beginnings’ can be imagined.

Laurell, C., Sandström, C., Eriksson, K., & Nykvist, R. (2020). Digitalization and the future of Management Learning: New technology as an enabler of historical, practice-oriented, and critical perspectives in management research and learning. Management Learning, 51(1), 9–108.

How are historical, practice-oriented, and critical research perspectives in management affected by digitalization? In this article, we describe and discuss how two digital research approaches can be applied and how they may influence the future directions of management scholarship and education: Social Media Analytics and digital archives. Our empirical illustrations suggest that digitalization generates productivity improvements for scholars, making it possible to undertake research that was previously too laborious. It also enables researchers to pay closer attention to detail while still being able to abstract and generalize. We therefore argue that digitalization contributes to a historical turn in management, that practice-oriented research can be conducted with less effort and improved quality and that micro-level data in the form of digital archives and online contents make it easier to adopt critical perspectives. 

Curated List of Resources from Leading Publications

The following list of historical case study readings was curated by the Management Learning journal (with shout outs to Cara Reed from ML and our own Jarryd Daymond). Listeners are encouraged to recommend additional readings!

Alcadipani, R. (2017). Reclaiming sociological reduction: Analysing the circulation of management education in the periphery. Management Learning, 48(5), 535-551.

Management knowledge and practices have been circulating worldwide for a long time, and business and management schools are central locations where management knowledge and practices have been produced. Few studies discuss how this circulation occurs in the periphery in general and how management education from the United States has circulated in the periphery in particular. Using historical research, this article aims to reclaim the notion of sociological reduction, a notion developed by Brazilian scholar in the 1950s, to make sense of how US management education was implemented in a Brazilian management school. By doing so, this article contributes to the analysis of the spread of US management education grounded in a postcolonial approach and addresses calls for analysing epistemologies from the periphery.

Wanderley, S., & Barros, A. (2020). The Alliance for Progress, modernization theory, and the history of management education: The case of CEPAL in Brazil. Management Learning, 51(1), 55–72.

We investigate the case of the Economic Commission for Latin America in Brazil to discuss how modernization theory was mobilized to influence management education. The theories formulated by the Economic Commission for Latin America formed the basis of the courses it offered on development administration and management and the public administration schools it helped create. The theories from the Economic Commission for Latin America were contrary to US interests and to the modernization theory tenets developed by US scholars. The Alliance for Progress, launched in 1961 by US President J.F. Kennedy, was a project informed by modernization theory aimed to foster development in Latin America, and to contain the spread of Communism after the Cuban Revolution. The Alliance for Progress mobilized a network of US-controlled institutions that invested in management education and in an interpretation of development administration and management based on modernization theory that confronted the Economic Commission for Latin America. We make use of Burke’s Pentad to articulate the interactions among (asymmetrical) players at different levels of analysis and along the historical period investigated. We treat science as literature, and we present our analysis in a dramatistic narrative to promote reflexive management learning. We show that US-led investment in management education increased considerably after the launch of the Alliance for Progress, and that it lasted throughout the 1960s.

Pio, E., & Syed, J. (2020). Stelae from ancient India: Pondering anew through historical empathy for diversity. Management Learning, 51(1), 109-129.

Diversity management is generally considered to be rooted in activism, legislation and scholarship in Europe and North America. In this article, we draw on the notion of historical empathy to analyse and highlight an Eastern legacy, specifically Aśokan (273–232 BC) stelae, for management learning on diversity. Thus, we encourage pondering anew on history based on Aśokan teachings in ancient India, via dhamma (affective connection) and governance (perspective taking). We contribute to an emerging scholarship which uses history for management learning, and we do this through elaborating on the concept of historical empathy. Moreover, we reveal how an Eastern legacy may enable the (re)construction of the present in contemporary organisations which exist in the interstices of history, politics, gender and diversity. Through our analysis, we develop a matrix, which integrates historical empathy with dhamma, governance and historical contextualisation to provide implications for learning in the field of diversity.

Gearty, M. R., Bradbury-Huang, H., & Reason, P. (2015). Learning history in an open system: Creating histories for sustainable futures. Management Learning, 46(1), 44-66.

What kind of learning is required to bring us towards a more sustainable future? We argue that when behaviourally and technically complex issues intertwine, a collaborative social learning process that engages diverse actors in deep systems change is necessary. The learning required includes but overtakes debate, bringing organisations, individuals and communities into cycles of experiential, cumulative, ad hoc and opportunistic, yet systematic, learning. Current conceptualisations and approaches to learning have not been framed with the requisite level of integrated complexity given our sustainability challenges. This article introduces the action research approach of ‘learning history in an open system’ in the service of such learning. Updating the heretofore single-project focussed learning history, we present recent methodological developments for its use in open systems that support a joining up of projects and sites of endeavour to support deeper and accumulating systems’ learning. We explore the links to learning literature drawing on developments in aesthetics and arts-based action research to suggest our approach is one useful way of responding to the more general challenge of scale that concerns action researchers.

Tennent, K. D., Gillett, A. G., & Foster, W. M. (2020). Developing historical consciousness in management learners. Management Learning, 51(1), 73–88.

This article argues and advocates strategies for the development of historical consciousness to stimulate both first- and second-order critical reflexivity in management students with the goal of creating critical management learners. The historic turn in management and organizational studies has demonstrated that history is not the same as the past. This understanding has had implications for many areas of investigation but has not been felt as significantly as it might be in management learning and education. To make our argument, we discuss how archives can be used to stimulate the process of historical consciousness in management learners and we provide an illustrative example of how this can be done, together with a checklist to aid instructors in facilitating student use of archival material.

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References

Alcadipani, R. (2017). Reclaiming sociological reduction: Analysing the circulation of management education in the periphery. Management Learning, 48(5), 535-551.

Anthropic. (2024). What are the qualities of a good historical case study for use in organizational studies; What are some recommended readings for learning how best to do a historical case study in organizational studies. Claude (March 2024 version) [Large Language Model].

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage.

Fournier, V. (2006). Breaking from the weight of the eternal present: Teaching organizational difference. Management Learning, 37(3), 295-311.

Laurell, C., Sandström, C., Eriksson, K., & Nykvist, R. (2020). Digitalization and the future of Management Learning: New technology as an enabler of historical, practice-oriented, and critical perspectives in management research and learning. Management Learning, 51(1), 9–108.

Wanderley, S., & Barros, A. (2020). The Alliance for Progress, modernization theory, and the history of management education: The case of CEPAL in Brazil. Management Learning, 51(1), 55–72.

Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research and applications, 5th ed. Sage.

The inclusion of external links does not necessarily constitute endorsement by TAOP or any of its members.

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