The Challenger Launch Decision
Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA
by Diane Vaughn
578-Page Paperback
University of Chicago Press paperback ... a whopping 576 pages ! A very thorough look at NASA and the tragic Challenger explosion. Copyright 1996. Publisher's price: $25.00.
"Why did NASA managers, who not only had all the information prior to the launch but also were warned against it, decide to proceed? In retelling how the decision unfolded through the eyes of the managers and the engineers, Vaughan uncovers an incremental descent into poor judgment, supported by a culture of high-risk technology. She reveals how and why NASA insiders, when repeatedly faced with evidence that something was wrong, normalized the deviance so that it became acceptable to them."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
1: The Eve of the Launch
2: Learning Culture, Revising History
3: Risk, Work Group Culture, and the Normalization of Deviance
4: The Normalization of Deviance, 1981-1984
5: The Normalization of Deviance, 1985
6: The Culture of Production
7: Structural Secrecy
8: The Eve of the Launch Revisited
9: Conformity and Tragedy
10: Lessons Learned
Appendix A. Cost/Safety Trade-Offs? Scrapping the Escape Rockets and the SRB Contract Award Decision
Appendix B. Supporting Charts and Documents
Appendix C. On Theory Elaboration, Organizations, and Historical Ethnography
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Brand new merchandise (gift quality) ... no problems.
