Weick, K. (1997) Book Review: The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA by Diane Vaughan.

Question 1

GOAL

Answer 1

GOAL: discuss the failure of culture in NASA

Question 2

Three elements that caused people to be silenced up:

Answer 2

• An enacted work group culture
• A culture of production built from occupational, organization and institutional influences,
• A structurally induced dispersion of data that made information more like a body of secrets than a body of knowledge

Question 3

Failure of knowledge management

Answer 3

Knowledge was there to show that the launch should not have gone through, but inadequate systems caused them to not be structured credibly on time

Question 4

High performance pressure:

Answer 4

High performance pressure: pressure to launch that stem from three different culture imperatives:
- Political, adhere to cost estimates and schedule
- Bureaucratic, follow procedural rules and relay information consistent with hierarchical authority relations
- Technical, maintain safety and support recommendations with data, engineering analysis, and technical rationale

Question 5

Culture of:

Answer 5

> includes culture; normalizing deviance “we got away with this before”; real organizational phenomenon
- problems compete for scarce attention