The Four Forms Of Accountaability In The Challenger Tragedy

Romzek and Dubnick identified four different forms of accountability in the forms of bureaucratic, professional, legal, and political, each of which are used throughout projects to hold people to keeping their word, finishing projects, and making sure they are held accountable for any failures. In the case of the Challenger tragedy, the four are discussed in detail, however this shall go into covering bureaucratic and professional accountability and comparing what is covered by each form. Starting with bureaucratic accountability, in which those at the top of the bureaucratic organization are held accountable for their actions, whether successes or failures, as they are the ones elected to lead them. This form of accountability is seen in when leaders step down from their positions following scandals in their organizations, scandals that they as the leader are held responsible in preventing and properly fixing before and when the public become aware of the scandal. In the case of the Challenger tragedy, such bureaucratic shortcomings came from lack of communications up the bureaucratic ladder,

This form of accountability is used to keep all workers aware of their actions and hold them to properly doing their jobs to prevent any incidents. In the case of the Challenger Tragedy, the key shuttle program contractor decided to follow through with getting the rocket ready on time to help NASA, rather than delay the launch to remove issues they knew existed with the rocket. If the launch had been delayed, NASA would have possibly lost their largest customer and with it many jobs could have been lost. With this decision to keep their employers happy, safety was sacrificed for timeliness, which is a clear violation of professional accountability in favor of personal