Christensen, C. Roland (Carl Roland), 1919-1999

Carl Roland Christensen became a Research Assistant in Business Administration at Harvard Business School in 1946 and an Instructor in Business Administration in 1947. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1948 and Associate Professor in 1954. He became a full Professor of Business Administration in 1958. He was named George F. Baker, Jr., Professor of Business Administration in 1963, and the Robert Walmsey University Professor in 1984. In addition to teaching at the Harvard Business School, Christensen taught at the Harvard Law School, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard School of Public Health, IMEDE, the Stanford Business School, and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carl Roland Christensen was born in Tyler, Minnesota, in 1919, the son of teachers. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1941 and a Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Harvard Business School in 1943 and 1953, respectively. During and immediately following World War II he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, 1943-1946.

Christensen became a Research Assistant in Business Administration at Harvard Business School in 1946 and an Instructor in Business Administration in 1947. He was promoted to Assistant Professor (1948) and Associate Professor (1954), becoming a full Professor of Business Administration in 1958, and the George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Business Administration in 1963. Appointed as the Robert Walmsey University Professor by Harvard president Derek Bok in 1984, Christensen was the first Harvard Business School faculty member to become a University Professor. In fact, Christensen played a major role in the development of the Derek Bok Center, established in 1975 to heighten the quality of undergraduate instruction at Harvard. Within the Harvard community, Christensen taught at the Harvard Law School, the Harvard Medical School, the Graduate School of Education and the School of Public Health. His teaching activities outside of the Harvard community included teaching at IMEDE, an international school of management in Laussane, Switzerland, the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Business Policy, case method instruction and developing discussion leadership skills were Christensen's major areas of teaching, study and research throughout his career. In addition, as the director of many businesses, Christensen observed various problems associated with the decision-making process and the effective functioning of boards of directors. His research interests included investigations into ways of improving the operation of such boards.

Christensen is widely recognized as one of the leading experts on the art of teaching by discussion and on the effective use of the case method and field studies in education. His teaching methods were designed to promote the active involvement of students, encouraging them to express, share, and compare ideas by using classroom techniques that are sensitive to the needs of individual students without surrendering control of the instructional process. The case method at HBS confronts students with problems encountered by managers and uses the problems as a basis for exploring theoretical concepts as well as practical issues. At the request of Derek Bok in the mid 1970s, Christensen built on these concepts and developed two influential seminars designed to improve the quality of teaching: Developing Discussion Leadership Skills and Teaching By the Case Method. For over twenty years, Christensen organized and co-taught classes for university faculty members, both within and beyond the Harvard community, enabling them to hone their skills at leading discussions and molding their abilities to question, listen, and respond. In fact, although formally retired in 1990, Christensen was actively engaged in teaching seminars on discussion and case method teaching until shortly before his death.

Christensen passed away on August 28, 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee.