In January of 1986 the NASA space shuttle Challenger exploded during takeoff resulting in the tragic deaths of seven crew members. Almost twenty years later, the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry to Earth. In both disasters, an investigation reveals that for both accidents, Organizational culture was a culprit in the tragic accidents. Guiding the action of an organization is its culture. Unfortunately, in NASA people had become complacent in their behavior and seemingly put success of the mission over the importance of safety of individuals or the group (Miller, 2015). During the Columbia disaster, NASA had failed to make significant changes noted to the culture of the organization. While NASA should have been promoting a safety …show more content…
When I think of implementing culture changes I think of a book written by David Marx. In David’s book Whack a Mole, he discusses the notion of just culture. In many companies, there tends to develop a “no harm no foul” attitude, and other times, when something goes wrong, we tend to point the finger and one person (2009). At NASA there seemed to be a culture which censured the voice of the dissenter. People who though it appropriate to stop and not move forward until something was fixed correctly were pushed out of the way in the name of progress and mission. Intangible assets such as shared values, and rites and rituals become a cornerstone to a company’s culture. People should be encouraged to speak up with what they think might be an issue without judgement. When deciding how and what to change at a company, we should look to exchange processes. How organizations communicate is a cornerstone to positive change. Starting with feedback and exchange processes. Interdependence tells us that we should collaborate as one unit because as an organization people rely on each other. At NASA, Engineering must communicate with manufacturing, and manufacturing is involved with finance. Negative entropy is another tool which could have been by NASA to promote cultural change. When companies, or even departments within an organization close themselves off from the rest of the organization (Miller, 2015). In the case of the Challenger crash, could the O-ring issue have been resolved if other people had been empowered to speak up, and leaders required to listen? Business operations don’t always run smoothly; and It’s simply a fact that people in any organization will make an error. Fortunately, we can mitigate the risk, or the number of times errors can
NASA has faced many tragedies during their time; but one can question if two of the tragedies were preventable by changing some critical decisions made by the organization. The investigation board looking at the decisions made for the space shuttle tragedies of the Columbia and Challenger noted that the “loss resulted as much from organizational as from technical failures” (Bolman & Deal, 2008, p. 191). The two space shuttle tragedies were about twenty years apart, they both had technical failures but politics also played a factor in to these two tragedies.
Have you ever attempted to change the culture or behavior within an organization? Many think that when they become the boss of some form of business they will easily walk into that organization and be able to impose their will. I feel that is easier said than done. In this paper, I will apply a strategy to changing the culture within a real world situation of my choice. Furthermore, I will explain why I would choose to use these ideas as my strategy and discuss how the application of these ideas tie to the six influence sources given by the authors of the book Influencer. By using the authors ' theories and ideas, I will best ensure my success as a leader attempting to make a change.
The Challenger space shuttle disaster is a tragedy that defined America in the 1980s. At the time, space exploration was growing at a rapid rate, and NASA had successfully completed a numerous amount of missions. The crew consisted of the typical seven members, however this exploration was especially exciting. NASA would be sending its first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, to space. She would be completing two lessons while aboard the Challenger. The popularity of this specific mission caused Americans of all ages to be glued to their televisions the morning of January 28th, 1986. Children were watching the launch from their classrooms at school, and adults were watching from at work or at home that fateful morning.
The original INSAG report stated that the main cause for the disaster was the workers failing to perform operational procedures properly. However, a later revision on that report established that the actual cause was attributed more to the reactor design. This change does not diminish the fact that training and safety practices of the workers created issues leading up to the disaster. Both the training and safety issues are rooted in the fact that the workers were not properly informed in certain key areas including operational regulations and basic nuclear physics. By not providing this knowledge, the management failed to establish a safety culture for the workers [13]. Safety culture is a term used to describe how an organization views and prioritizes safety in its work [14]. This lack of a safety culture stems from a “lack of adequate training of the operators, inadequate permanent operating procedures, lack of enforcement of the rules and incomplete and imprecise instructions for this [...] low power test” [15]. This disregard for safety began to show itself even before the test ...
Culture at NASA was converted over time to a culture that combines bureaucratic, cost efficiency and schedule efficiency of the flights. This culture of production reinforced the decisions to continue flights rather than delay while a thorough hazard analysis was conducted. Managers were so focused on reaching their schedule targets that the foam insulation problem did not induce them to shift their attention to safety. It appears that at NASA managers overrule engineers when the organization was under budget and time pressure. In my opinion, high-level managers should avoid making important decisions based on beliefs and instead rely on specialist’s opinion.
The culture of an organization can simply be defined by its core values, traditions, and beliefs. For over 45 years Southwest Airlines has been successful. Its success has been attributed to a value system that tasks managers with the responsibility
Two tragic incidents, the Challenger Space Shuttle crash of 1986, and the Three Mile Island near meltdown of 1979, have greatly devastated our nation. Both these disasters involved failures of communication among ordinary professional people, working in largely bureaucratic companies. Two memos called the “Smoking Gun Memos,” authored by R. M. Boisjoly, of Morton Thiokol, and D. F. Hallman, of Babcook and Wilcox, will always be associated these two incidents. Unfortunately, neither of these memos were successful in preventing the accidents of the Challenger and the Three Mile Island near meltdown.
The Joint Commission. (2008). Behaviors that undermine a culture of safety. Sentinel Event Alert Issue 40, http://www.jointcommission.org/SentinelEvents/SentinelEventAlert/sea_40.htm.
But equally to blame, investigators said, was NASA's broken safety culture. The agency had grown complacent about the extremely dangerous and still-experimental practice of hurtling humans into space and bringing them back safely. [x] NASA failed to learn from
For this assignment we will discuss some theories on organizational change learned during this class and how they relate to the case study of NASA (The Challenger and Columbia Shuttle Disaster). First we will look the images of managing change used by NASA in the case study. Then we will discuss the types of change(s) NASA under took. Next we will look at some of the challenges of change that NASA faced. Next we will discuss some of the resistance to change that NASA dealt with. Then we look at how NASA implemented change. Next we will discuss vision and change and the impact in the case study. Finally we will discuss sustaining change as it relates to the changes implemented by NASA in the case study.
...the Chevrolet Corvair was given regulations to correct its safety, and how the public created the creation of NASA. By delving into the way the government reacted to the public outcry for increased safety measures, shows that regulations are correlated with the symbols of certain technologies. By comparison the creation of NASA was the governments response to the blow to the United States prestige. Next, we can witness that the original neglect of the government with the Corvair caused many injuries and increased public attention. Finally, NASA was able to achieve its goal and place a man on the moon to reestablish national prestige, and faith from the public. To conclude, the path to success is littered with obstacles, especially obstacles created by the public, and to fix these obstacles the government must step in, fix these problems, and create uniformity
Lind, Michael. "Why We Should Embrace the End of Human Spaceflight."Salon.com. N.p.: n.p., 2011. N. pag. Rpt. in NASA. Ed. Margaret Haerens. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
I. Introduction Southwest Airlines has come from an underdog to being one of the best airlines in the industry. This reputation translates from its strategic management of resources. The Co-founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, established a unique corporate culture that leads to high customer satisfaction, employees’ morale, and is one of the most profitable airlines in the industry (Jackson et al., 2012). Corporate culture concentrates on empowering the workforce. It shows through Southwest Airlines core values that “happy employees lead to happy customers, which create happy shareholders” (Jackson et al., 2012).
The concept of organizational cultures was first raised in 1970s, and soon became a fashionable topic. Organizational culture is the shared beliefs, values and behaviours of the group. Theorists of organizations believe that organizational culture represents the pattern of behaviours, values, and beliefs of an organization. Hence, studies around organizational culture have been seen as great helpful and essential for understanding organizations and their behaviours. Additionally, organizational culture has been considered to be an important determinant of organizational success. Therefore, leaders and managers pay more than more attentions on this topic, focusing on constructing and managing organizational cultures.
Simply speaking, a company’s structure and design can be viewed as its body, and its culture as its soul. Because industries and situations vary significantly, it would be difficult and risky to propose there is a “one size fits all” culture template that meets the needs of all organizations” (Nov 30, 2012). Those organizations who have shared beliefs and values and have organized methods on chain of command going to have positive outcomes. This will help shaping their employees views and performances. The growth and profit of the business relays on their employees and their performances. Culture is the core which will help and encourage all different level workers. If the core itself is weak, it will weaken the atmosphere of the business. Many companies announce that they have great culture but fail to implement to the lower level of workers. The basic issue is when organization has one set of culture and thinks one culture will meet the needs of all the workers. Each business is different and each individual is unique and have different beliefs and behaviors. The culture that is right for one individual might not work the same for the others. The ideal approach in this case would be, looking at the bigger picture of diverse working environment and give importance and respect to what are the ranges of business firms to achieve the perfect culture for organization. Sometimes one size fits all will not going to fit anybody, so the organization have to keep their ideas open and value everyone’s presence respecting all of their culture for the betterment and