The Problems at NASA: Two-Way Communication and Leadership
The late 1960’s were a milestone in the space age. On July 16, 1969, NASA accomplished its mission of putting men on the moon with Apollo XI and succeeded in bringing the astronauts safely back to earth. Two years earlier, Walter Weissman was the coordinator of the internal communication program at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. Weissman invited Phillip K. Tompkins, an associate professor of communication at Wayne State University, to review the organization’s communication practices and make recommendations. Tompkins would later use his study to review the Challenger space shuttle accident in his book, “Organizational Communication Imperatives: Lessons of the Space Program.” Tompkins links the Apollo and Challenger missions to show how the communication practices had changed. The deterioration in communication, caused by the leaders of NASA and at Marshall Center, contributed to the explosion of the Challenger shuttle and later, the Columbia. By first looking at the leaders of the Apollo program during Tompkins study, a comparison can be made of the Challenger and the Columbia mission leaders and their styles of communication. During the time of the Apollo missions, Weissman had i
By 1990, there had been a 50% reduction (Tompkins, 1993, p. 172) in workforce at Marshall, and there were now fewer people monitoring more tasks. There was not the manpower to effectively practice penetration of contractors as in the Apollo era. According to Tompkins, only six of the interviewees knew about the practice of penetration. This is an example of organizational forgetting, where concepts are not passed on to any new people and soon are no longer in use. “Any cost-cutting exercise, however, must pay careful attention to the communication goals of the organization and how these can be achieved with fewer communications” (Miller, 1987).
Some topics in this essay:
Challenger Columbia,
Von Braun,
Center Tompkins,
Marshall Center,
According Tompkins,
Marshall Challenger,
Shuttle Program’s,
McGregor’s Theory,
Journal Communication,
Commission Presidential,
von braun,
marshall center,
von braun’s,
tompkins 1993,
caib 2003,
communication practices,
automatic responsibility,
shuttle columbia,
challenger accident,
challenger columbia,
space flight center,
marshall space flight,
von braun’s notes,
caib 2003 200,
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Approximate Word count = 2012
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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