Organizational Learning at NASA: The Columbia and Challenger Accidents

The government investigation into the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003 found similarities to the Challenger disaster 17 years earlier, leading the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to conclude that NASA failed to learn from the earlier tragedy. Mahler (government and politics, George Mason University) offers an account of the processes that constitute organizational learning, then looks at what NASA did and didn't do in response to the two disasters. The book discusses factors such as deficiencies in the safety monitoring systems, excessive external political and budgetary pressures, an obstructive organizational culture, and the difficulties of coordination between NASA and its very large number of contractors. The book concludes with a broadly applicable set of propositions about learning in public organizations. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)