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Teaching Module

Exploring Organizational Sagas: Case Study of Mount Holyoke

by Carrie Kortegast, Northern Illinois University 

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

  • Identify elements of an organizational saga using primary sources
  • Analyze the development of an organizational saga using the case study of Mount Holyoke College
  • Reflect on how organizational sagas inform contemporary higher education practice
  • Apply framework to their own undergraduate institution or workplace setting

Introduction

Organizational sagas focus on the “collective understandings of unique accomplishments in a formally established group.”[1] Organizational sagas in higher education can be powerful in understanding organizational culture, mission, and purpose. They are developed over time and used to connect individuals to the institution across generations. Higher education leaders can leverage organizational sagas to both understand institutional culture and to bind current students, faculty, administrators, and alumni together in supporting the institution.

This activity can be used to understand the history of women’s education in the U.S., rise of U.S. higher education in the nineteenth century, and historical underpinnings of the organization of U.S. higher education. The activity uses a case study approach to explore the organizational saga of Mount Holyoke College. Burton R. Clark’s foundational article “The Organizational Saga in Higher Education,” provides a useful framework for examining organizational sagas. The framework is divided into the initiation stage and the fulfillment stage of a saga. The initiation stage begins with a strong purpose, often introduced a small group. Next, the organization experiences a crisis that leads to testing if the established organization can weather change. The fulfillment stage is when there is a “unified sense of a special history” in which the imagery of the organizational saga is maintained and reified by faculty and administrators, curriculum and programmatic structures, external groups such as alumni, and current students.[2]

Founded by Mary Lyon, Mount Holyoke College (formally Mount Holyoke Seminary) was chartered in 1836 and opened in November 1837 with the first class of 80 students. Mary Lyon sought to establish an institution of higher education for women that adopted a “course of study and standards of mental discipline” similar to those afforded men at the time.[3] The case of Mount Holyoke is a useful example of how organizational sagas are created, sustained, and evolve to have contemporary relevance. This activity allows students to apply concepts from the organizational saga framework to analyze the organizational saga of Mount Holyoke using primary and secondary documents.[4]

Summary of Activity

The learning activity invites students to identify key concepts of the organizational saga and then use that framework to analyze primary and secondary source documents. This activity is designed for an in-person, 90-minute class. However, it could be modified as a synchronous or asynchronous online class activity. Also, the time allocated to this activity could be reduced by assigning aspects of the activity to different groups for review and presentation to the large group.  

Assigned Reading Ahead of Class

Burton R. Clark’s article, “The Organizational Saga in Higher Education,” should be assigned to students ahead of class to read independently.[5]

Materials

Primary and secondary sources can be located on the website, Exploring Organizational Sagas: A Case Study of Mount Holyoke.[6] The site is designed to guide students in identifying key concepts related to the organizational saga and provide examples for students to analyze. Main sections of the article are excerpted to help scaffold the reading of the article by breaking it into smaller sections. Please note that the site provides additional primary and secondary sources that students may explore on their own beyond this guided analysis.

90-Minute Activity

The following outlines the activity and provides framing for the use of primary sources.

Introduction of Article and Activity (5 minutes)

Instructor should provide a brief overview of the article and the concept of organizational sagas. Next, the instructor should summarize the activity and assign students to small groups.

Part 1: Development of the Saga (20 minutes)

Direct groups to review “Development of the Saga.”[7]

Primary source framing:

Institutions of higher education often tell the story of their founding on institutional websites. These institutional stories communicate messages about the institution, mission, and purpose. 

Activity directions:

  1. Read the institutional story of the founding of Mount Holyoke Seminary[8]
  2. In small groups, discuss elements of the organizational saga. Questions to facilitate discussion are on the website[9]
  3. As class, discuss key concepts and students’ analysis of the primary source.

Part 2: Initiation of Saga (20 minutes)

Direct students to review “Initiation of Saga.”[10] 

Primary source framing:

In 1837, Mary Lyon published the pamphlet, “General View of the Principles and Design of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.” The circular outlined the mission, purpose, and design of Mount Holyoke. The second primary source is a letter dated January 16, 1837, from Bethiah A. Miller Nichols to her friend, Priscilla Maxwell, about Mary Lyon visiting the town of Heath, MA, to solicit support for the founding of the seminary. Bethiah went on to attend Mount Holyoke as one of the first students in the fall of 1837.

Activity directions:

  1. Read the introduction and nine principles of design (pp. 1-5) in General View of the Principles and Design of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.[11]
  2. Then read pages 1-3 of Bethiah’s letter to Pricilla regarding meeting Mary Lyon in Heath, MA.[12]
  3. In small groups, discuss elements of the organizational saga. Questions to facilitate discussion are on the website.[13] 
  4. As a class, discuss students’ analysis of the primary source.

Part 3: Fulfillment of Saga (25 minutes)

Direct students to review the information under “Fulfillment of Saga.”[14]

Primary source framing:

Institutional videos provide insights into how colleges and universities uphold organizational sagas over time. They often allude to images and values of the past with an eye to the future. The first video discusses the history of Mount Holyoke and provides an overview of academic and social life at the college. The second is a promotional video from 2023.

Activity:

  1. As a class, watch:
    1. 1960 Campaign Video (10:39 minutes)[15]
    1. The Future is Mount Holyoke (1:26 minutes)[16]
  2. As a class, discuss key concepts and students’ analysis of the videos. Questions to facilitate discussion are on the website.[17]

Part 4: Wrap Up (15 minutes)

            As a large group, reflect upon the key concepts related to the organizational saga and their application for practice. Sample reflection questions could include:

  1. Why are organizational sagas so powerful?
  2. How might offices and departments — such as admissions, development & fundraising, alumni affairs, student activities, and orientation — utilize and evoke these stories? Why?
  3. What might be missing or untold in these organizational sagas? Why might that matter?
  4. Many institutions of higher education have problematic histories related to their founding and/or admissions policies. How do we recognize their contributions to U.S. higher education AND acknowledge problematic aspects?
  5. Clark’s article was published in 1972.[18] What concepts from the article are enduring? What sections might need to be updated?

Assessment options

            An in-class assessment option could ask students to apply the organizational saga framework to their own undergraduate or graduate institution. This could be done through a worksheet that is collected at the end of class. A second option is an out-of-class assignment that requires students to write an analysis paper of the organizational saga of their undergraduate or graduate institution. The analysis paper could require students to identify primary and secondary sources to support their analysis and conclusions.[19]

[1] Burton R. Clark, “The Organizational Saga in Higher Education,” Administrative Science Quarterly 17, no. 2 (1972): 178, https://doi.org/10.2307/2393952.

[2] Clark, “The Organizational Saga,” 181

[3] Mary Lyon, General View of the Principles and Design of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1837). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn54sw&seq=1, p. 428.

[4] Clark, “The Organizational Saga.”

[5] Clark, “The Organizational Saga.”

[6] Carrie Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas: A Case Study of Mount Holyoke https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home

[7] Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas, https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/development-of-saga

[8] Mount Holyoke, “The Founding of Mount Holyoke Female Seminar,” https://offices.mtholyoke.edu/marylyon/founding

[9] Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas, https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/development-of-saga

[10] Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas, https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/initiation-of-saga

[11] Lyon, “General View” (1837).

[12] Bethiah Miller Nichols to Priscilla Maxwell (January 16, 1837), Bethiah Miller Nicols Oaoersm Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections, https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/islandora/object/mtholyoke:47226

[13] Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas, https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/initiation-of-saga

[14] Kortegast, Exploring Organizational Sagas, https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/fulfillment-of-saga

[15] “Mount Holyoke College,” (1960) Campaign Film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZQtS6KNl2I&list=PLMqJPDbf1BYdvA6ctZv5flagh8Ry-Vm24&index=29

[16] Mount Holyoke College, “The Future is Mount Holyoke,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5usSEEx2K6Y&t=2s

[17] https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/fulfillment-of-saga

[18] Clark, “The Organizational Saga.”

[19] See sample assignment with directions: https://sites.google.com/view/organizational-saga-mh-sem/home/additional-resources-learning-activities

How to cite (APA):

Kortegast, C. (2024, November 8). Exploring Organizational Sagas: Case Study of Mount Holyoke. History of Higher Education. https://higheredhistory.gmu.edu/exploring-organizational-sagas-case-study-of-mount-holyoke/