Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program (New Series in NASA History). Release Date: 1993-01-01. Notes: Good condition.May contain light marking/highlighting. Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press
ISBN-100801844525
ISBN-139780801844522
eBay Product ID (ePID)961749
Product Key Features
Number of Pages232 Pages
Publication NameInside NASA : High Technology and Organizational Change in the U. S. Space Program
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year1993
SubjectOrganizational Behavior, United States / General, Aeronautics & Astronautics
TypeTextbook
AuthorHoward E. Mccurdy
Subject AreaTechnology & Engineering, Business & Economics, History
SeriesNew Series in NASA History
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height0.8 in
Item Weight23.5 Oz
Item Length9 in
Item Width6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional
LCCN92-018753
Reviews"McCurdy is surely on the right track. His valuable book makes the literature on organizational cultures accessible and reveals new ways to look at high-technology agencies."-- Nature
IllustratedYes
SynopsisInside NASA explores how an agency praised for its planetary probes and expeditions to the moon became notorious for the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and a series of other malfunctions. Using archival evidence as well as in-depth interviews with space agency officials, Howard McCurdy investigates the relationship between the performance of the American space program and NASA's organizational culture. He begins by identifying the beliefs, norms, and practices that guided NASA's early successes. Originally, the agency was dominated by the strong technical culture rooted in the research-and-development organizations from which NASA was formed. To launch the expeditions to the moon, McCurdy explains, this technical culture was linked to an organizational structure borrowed from the Air Force ballistic-missile program. Changes imposed to accomplish the lunar landing--along with the normal aging process and increased bureaucracy in the government as a whole--gradually eroded NASA's original culture and reduced its technical strength.