Understanding strategy implementation processes: An empirical investigation into the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster
Abstract
This dissertation is based on the premise that internalized moral commitments are a source of behavior that, in part, explains behavior that occurs in organizations. Organizational processes, whether they be strategy implementation or formulation processes, then, can in part, be explained by referencing man's moral commitment. The thesis of this dissertation is that organizational or strategy implementation processes are then, in part, a function of the moral response of the organization's members. The Challenger disaster was chosen as the object of study. The primary source of information for this study was the data gathered by the Rogers Commission. Hearings, meetings, and interviews were the methods of data gathering used by the Rogers Commission. The Rogers Commission concluded that flawed decision making processes of the night of January 27, 1985 contributed to the Challenger disaster. A close analysis of the data revealed other organizational problems both within and between NASA and Thiokol. Three models of man were used to explain the organizational problems that were identified. The agentive model, which assumes man is a moral agent, concluded the problems resulted from moral self-betrayal and collusion. The positivistic model, which conjectures man is a rational being, concluded, because of the abundance of dysfunctional affective behavior, the problems were the result of irrationality. The social constructionist model, which presupposes that man is a social actor, attributes the problems to counterproductive defensive routines and corporate cultures. This dissertation demonstrates that understanding strategy implementation processes are as much a function of the metaphysical assumptions adopted by the researcher than of the method of study employed. Determining what goes on in organizations is a matter of empirical investigation, while understanding why things happen as they do is a matter of deductive reasoning.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Schendel, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Management
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