Cognitive Flexibility Hypertexts: an Alternative to Harvard-style Case Studies

This article discusses how Interactive Communication Technologies, in general, and Hypertexts of Cognitive Flexibility, in particular, may contribute to business learning based on organizational case studies. The proposed hypothesis suggests that the properties of information storage, processing, and distribution inherent in those interfaces may facilitate the use of critical and creative skills during organizational analysis, particularly in socio-constructivist learning environments. Proceeding from such an assumption, we created the PANTEON Interface, a web-based tool for organizational analysis supported by a data base structure. We have applied the interface with a group of students while conducting a series of participant observation experiments in a Business School in Salvador, Brazil, followed by focal group interviews with some of the participants and observers, aiming at comparing the digital case studies interface with the traditional Harvard method in terms of their potential to stimulate “Collaborative Interactivity” and “Integrated Thinking” skills. According to the perception of the 29 senior undergraduate business students and 5 experts involved in the experiments, the unique informational characteristics of PANTEON may indeed stimulate the use of higher cognitive skills in ways that traditional paper-based media cannot, thus presenting itself as a valid alternative to the