Case Study - Challenger Shuttle Disaster Groupthink PDF

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Case Study - Challenger Shuttle Disaster Groupthink...

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Challenger Shuttle Disaster Groupthink is a phenomenon that can be described as a group of individuals that can become detrimental to a decision-making process; these individuals may consider themselves infallible. Have you ever been in a meeting and thought about speaking up but then decided against it because you didn’t want to appear unsupportive? If so, then you have probably been a victim of Groupthink. The space shuttle launched on January 28, 1986, has become a well-known example of Groupthink because of the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster. Engineers of the space shuttle. Engineers of the space shuttle knew months before lift-off that there were faulty parts. However, they didn’t want the negative press, so they proceeded to launch the space shuttle. When they were preparing for lift-off, the data analyst saw a leak in the booster, but they could not abort the rocket. Later, the O-ring seal caused a mixture of the liquid-oxygen tank to explode and destroy the orbiter. There is always the possibility of catastrophic events occurring due to many factors, including extreme cold. Due to poor decision-making, which ultimately led to a lack of communication, seven lives could have been saved. The ultimate question remains unanswered; why didn’t NASA delay the launch? Seven lives would have been saved if the engineers had identified the problematic concerns, investigated, and addressed them appropriately. If NASA management and the engineers had a communication pathway, management culture, and a safety organization, the top executives would have received incomplete and misleading information. In addition, after reviewing the flight readiness, the O-ring concerns weren’t documented either. If NASA’s top echelons had been made aware of the findings and concerns about the O-rings, the risks that

were deemed appropriate for launch could have potentially been aborted. Suppose all those involved worried about the safety aspect rather than the publicity and political and aborted departure seven lives would have been safe. They could have tested the Challenger Space Shuttle on another cold day to determine if the O-rings were faulty, spoken with NASA’s echelons, explained their findings, and delayed the launch date. Sadly, everyone had been working under stressful situations and pressure to make sure the Challenger Space Shuttle was ready to be launched on Tuesday. President Ronald Reagan was also supposed to hold his State of the Union on that Tuesday night. He would specifically mention McAuliffe, the teacher in space. If the launch date had been delayed, NASA would have missed another public acknowledgment. According to the mission plan, McAuliffe was to broadcast a lesion live from orbit. A Tuesday launch day meant a Friday broadcast, and a Wednesday launch day meant a Sunday broad while students weren’t in school. NASA needed the publicity of her broadcast. While researching the Challenger Shuttle Disaster, I identified many consensuses that resulted in hasty decisions without doing the critical evaluation work requiring a well-thought-out and good decisionmaking analysis.

Work Cited: Teitel, Amy Shira. “Challenger Explosion: How Groupthink and Other Causes Led to the Tragedy.” HISTORY, 16 Apr. 2021, www.history.com/news/how-the-challenger-disasterchanged-nasa....