Columbia Shuttle
Columbia’s Final Mission video case is designed to help you understand how failures occur and how you might prevent them in your own organizational life.
You have previously been assigned to play a role as a manager or engineer role and central figure in the team that managed this mission. Your password for your role is on the role group assignment page in Blackboard. You reach this page by clicking on Groups from the course home page, locate your assigned role and click on that group. If you have difficulties locating your group please contact me. You will note that there are some features to the video (such as a timeline and a calendar and NO back button) that is different from other videos you may have watched. All of the material that you have will be located on your simulated Desktop after you view your role.
During the class section we will talk about the meeting on day 8 and attempt to reenact that meeting. So, as individuals you should prepare yourself to take your assigned role in that day 8 meeting – conduct yourself as you believe that actual person conducted themselves during that meeting
At the end of the assignment you group needs to hand in a written appraisal of the problems. Some of the suggested things that you might evaluate include are:
1. Bazerman’s reading on ethical pitfalls listed several traps we fall into that lead us toward making sub-optimal decisions. In your final analysis include instances where one or more of these traps is evident .
2. How would you characterize the culture at NASA? What are its strengths and weaknesses.
3. How has NASA treated/classified foam strikes in the past. Why have they been treated this way?
4. How did the history of the Space program shape people’s behavior during the first 8 days of the mission?
5. How would you characterize the NASA response to the Columbia incident relative to the Apollo 13 incident. How does it compare to the Challenger incident?
6. What difference in
You have previously been assigned to play a role as a manager or engineer role and central figure in the team that managed this mission. Your password for your role is on the role group assignment page in Blackboard. You reach this page by clicking on Groups from the course home page, locate your assigned role and click on that group. If you have difficulties locating your group please contact me. You will note that there are some features to the video (such as a timeline and a calendar and NO back button) that is different from other videos you may have watched. All of the material that you have will be located on your simulated Desktop after you view your role.
During the class section we will talk about the meeting on day 8 and attempt to reenact that meeting. So, as individuals you should prepare yourself to take your assigned role in that day 8 meeting – conduct yourself as you believe that actual person conducted themselves during that meeting
At the end of the assignment you group needs to hand in a written appraisal of the problems. Some of the suggested things that you might evaluate include are:
1. Bazerman’s reading on ethical pitfalls listed several traps we fall into that lead us toward making sub-optimal decisions. In your final analysis include instances where one or more of these traps is evident .
2. How would you characterize the culture at NASA? What are its strengths and weaknesses.
3. How has NASA treated/classified foam strikes in the past. Why have they been treated this way?
4. How did the history of the Space program shape people’s behavior during the first 8 days of the mission?
5. How would you characterize the NASA response to the Columbia incident relative to the Apollo 13 incident. How does it compare to the Challenger incident?
6. What difference in