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Organization Culture Student Name University Affiliation Collaboration Warm-Up Exercise Boin, et al. (2008) assess Columbia Accident Investigation Board critic of NASA’s safety culture who determine that NASA did not have organizational characteristics to prevent disasters like the 2003 Columbia space shuttle demise. Boin, et al., (2008) indicate that NASA has never been a highly reliable organization and it is unfair to judge it as one. NASA should be seek reliability. Reliability can be assessed under production, time pressures, safety concerns, substantial technical uncertainties, media uncertainties, and efficiency concerns. Collaboration facilitates open communication with team members leading to the raising of objections and issues in the change-initiative process.

Columbia Accident Investigation Board findings on NASA’s security culture include Flawed decision making Broken safety culture NASA’s approach to safety indicates that decision-making is approached on the basis of hard science (no room for gut feelings). This is achieved through protocols and procedures to guide the process. collaboration increases trust and builds a shared message within the organization. 2 Exercise Objectives NASA’s culture of production: and NASA’s political/economic environment. Being a politically vulnerable agency, NASA is dependent on Congress and the White House for budgetary and goal approval. Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) provides recommendations/ directions that NASA’s organizational culture should be altered but fail to provide specific directions for changing the culture.

NESC assesses recurring anomalies in the engineering decisions that indicated they had not effect on flight safety. This culture is aligned to NASA’s organizational culture on safety and integrity (NASA Cultures). NESC is involved in reviewing problem dispositions, looking for missed signals, creating a common database, and conducting investigative and corrective action. NASA is influenced by political components. After the Columbia accident, the Bush administration supported the continuation of the space shuttle program but there were insufficient funds to make changes needed for the shuttle to return to normal flight.

After the Columbia accident NASA created the new NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) as a safety resource for engineering choices within the organization. 3 Challenge CAIB provided the need for organizational change at NASA. The objective was to transform NASA’s organizational and safety culture. The emphasis of organizational and cultural change was on safety climate and culture agency-wide. BST identified needs for improvement in NASA’s culture which was deficient in core values of safety, people, excellence, and integrity.

The aim of NASA’s cultural change was to foster cultural integrity. Cultural change is to address existent leaders and instil agency values of the desired culture. BST was tasked with provisioning an assessment of NASA’s current status and create an implementation plan. The BST report indicated there were multiple positive aspects in NASA’s culture e.g., spirit of teamwork, technical excellence, can-do approach. 4 Assessing an organization’s culture for change readiness The need for organizational change in NASA is dependent on improving organizational effectiveness through invention and innovation.

NASA’s cultural and climate alteration is influenced by research and improvement efforts. Organizational cultural and climate improvement is based on psychological safety, having a clearly defined organizational structure, providing transparent organizational vetting and conducting service improvements. Organizational change should be driven by a clear vision a strong case and the need for it to be valued. A top-down approach stemming from strong leadership should include long-term commitment to ensure stickiness. 5 NASA Overview and Organizational Culture NASA’s culture is shaped by the long history of the ‘space race’, political influence, technical excellence.

This pressure drove NASA to be as efficient as possible in order to outperform other competitors e.g., the Soviets. NASA’s culture allows some technical flaws because previous flights have been successfully completed “normalization of deviance†Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) provides recommendations/ directions that NASA’s organizational culture should be altered but fail to provide specific directions for changing the culture. NESC assesses recurring anomalies in the engineering decisions that indicated they had not effect on flight safety. This culture is aligned to NASA’s organizational culture on safety and integrity (NASA Cultures). 6 Assessing NASA’s current culture NASA is geared towards altering future flaws and minimizing risks that may lead to future accidents.

Improving technical and operational excellence will lead to massive organizational climate/cultural change Cultural change involves the alteration of organizational behavior, mission statement, slogan, among other artifacts and aligning them to organizational objectives. Behavioral change at NASA is geared towards elimination of barriers to culture and safety mindset, promoting alignment and integration of NASA’s workforce in support of strong safety climate. The sense of urgency that NASA previously had in competition from other nations and political pressure may not be relevant because the space race is not as relevant. Hence, organizational change should be geared towards ensuring precision and safety Organizational change should be aligned to space development and scientific knowledge.

7 Assessing NASA’s Current Culture Assessing the current organizational structure is vital to help the evaluators understand the coherent and deficient segments of the organization. Identifying deficiencies in the current organizational culture allows for the pinpointing of the issues and gives a starting point for altering the organizational culture. Organizational culture should be geared to changing the negative aspects of the current culture. Assessing NASA’s Current Culture Assessing NASA’s current organizational culture helps understand workforce dominant and unstated shared beliefs and values. Shared beliefs and values within the organization provide operational aspects of the workforce who operate according to their current values and beliefs.

Values and beliefs influence the workforce’s functioning and behaviors within the organization. Adapting Performance Management The CAIB provided gaps in leadership practices to support safety as Failing to follow NASA’s own procedures Requiring people to prove the existence of a problem instead of assuming the need to assure there was no problem Creating a perception that schedule was a critical driver of the program. Leadership is a vital component in the organizational cultural change because it provides the objectives to be met and initiatives to be followed. 10 Adapting Performance Management Leaders set the example and provision what is acceptable and unacceptable and valuable within the organization.

Leaders are able to influence other organizational stakeholders behaviors and actions with their own actions and words and the consequences they enforces. Conveying sincere information during cultural change is vital to the success of the organizational change. References Boin A., Schulman P., (2008). Assessing NASA’s Safety Culture: The Limits and Possibilities of High-Reliability Theory. Glisson C., (2016).

The Role of Organizational Culture and Climate in Innovation and Effectiveness. NASA Cultures. Critical Issues in the History of SpaceFlight. Week 1 Discussion 1 Strength Oriented Action This week’s readings focus on the importance of the ‘culture shift’ that needs to take place in our communities in order to begin an asset building initiative. Using your critical thinking skills, respond to the following questions: · What do the terms ‘strength message’ and ‘strength-oriented action’ mean? · What evidence do you see of this concept played out in your local school or organizational setting? · What about in your community? · What do you see as the predominant role of adults in your community?

Are they more focused on strength or risk and deficits? Do they provide relationships and programs, or just programs? Include two or three specific actions that you consistently practice, or could immediately incorporate into your daily routine, to support a “strength-oriented action†culture. If you get stuck, you may want to refer to the “Ask Yourself These Questions First†on Tip Sheet #1 located in the required reading for the week. Instructor Guidance Week 1 Welcome to week 1 of EDU 635.

In this week we begin our learning about communities and the youth that live and play in those communities. We will be looking at the communities and the culture of those communities, and looking at data about our communities to try to build a synopsis of what’s going on there. With all that, we are hoping to identify what role youth programs play in our community, and the roles that adults play in providing those programs. In your introductions for the week, you will of course be telling us a little bit about yourself. I encourage you to use one of the digital tools listed as options.

Later this week and in the future, you will be required to use certain digital tools to help present your messages. So, take the time now to experiment with the tools if you have not used them before. Be sure that you respond to at least three of your classmates’ introductions The first discussion for this week is labeled “strength oriented action.†When we think about strengths, of course there is physical strength. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. In this discussion, you will be exploring the concept of a “strength message.†In particular, you will want to identify the strengths you see in your own community and in the adults that are providing programs of some sort to the youth of your community.

You will also explore the concept of your community’s culture. There is a handy tip sheet listed in the required reading for the week. That will be really helpful for you. In the second discussion for this week, we’re talking about assets or building blocks for the healthy development of young people in your community. It is really important that you read the required resources for this week to identify those 40 developmental assets.

There are also some other resources listed to find information about your particular community, if you don’t already have that. In the discussion posts you should create a table that identifies those eight categories of human development and summarize their importance to the development of youth. This is an important discussion for you because we come back and use this information in a later week. The written assignment for this week asks you to use the information from the two discussion forums. Please be sure you review what you wrote in the discussions, what your classmates wrote, and comments from your instructor.

For this paper you are creating an infographic and summarizing issues in your community that are related to the development of youth. You will also include a table that identifies resources for the young people in your community. At the end of the assignment you will see where you are asked to brainstorm ideas about how you could participate in one or more of the existing programs. For some ideas about how you can get involved, check out this video (approximately 2 minutes): Military Community Getting Kids More Involved (Links to an external site.) . Please be sure you read and follow the outline that is posted.

It’s a great week for learning! Reference Department of Defense. (2015, February 2). Military Community Getting Kids More Involved (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from Required Resources 1. Read from your text, Assets in action: A handbook for making communities better places to grow up . · Introduction – The Vision for Asset-Building Communities · Chapter 1 – Beginning the Process of Change · Chapter 2 – Getting Started: What Needs to Happen First 2.

Read from your text, Quick-start guide to building assets in your prevention program : · Pages . Glogster (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · Glogster is a tool for creating introduction activity. Glogster is a free web based postering and presentation tool that allows its users to embed or share their creations in other formats. 4.

National Center for Education Statistics (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. 5. Pew Research Center (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · This is a public data bank for information regarding trends shaping the global perspective.

6. Prezi (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · Prezi is a tool for creating introduction activity. This is a free web-based presentation tool that allows its users to embed or share their creations in other formats such as slideshows, web pages, etc. 7.

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). American Fact Finder (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · This is the U.S. Census Department website for demographic, community information, and household information Recommended Resources 1.

CHEVAL99. (2011, December 30). Step-by-Step Tutorial on Prezi Basics Prezi Learn Center (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from 2. FastCompany. (2011). The 5 best free tools for making slick infographics .

Retrieved from · This is a resource for researching and creating infographics. 3. Google Chart Tools (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from (Links to an external site.) · This site contains free graphing and charting tools to use in the development of infographic images. 4.

Inspiredtoserve. (2009). AssetReview (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from · This is the Asset Video introduction. 1. Newlearninguk. (2009).

Glogster in 90 Seconds (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from · This video provides support for using Glogster. 6. Search Institute (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from · The Search Institutes website with includes additional resources.

7. TEDxTalks. (2011). Peter Benson- Sparks: How Youth Thrive (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from · This video is presented at TEDx by the founder of the Search Institute. 8.

Visual.ly (Links to an external site.) . Retrieved from 9. Yrysdaulet Zhautikov. (2013, April 6). Why the Best Prezis Use Grouping and Layering (Links to an external site.) [Video file]. Retrieved from

Paper for above instructions

Organizational Culture: A Case Study of NASA's Transformation Post-Columbia Disaster
Introduction
The exploration of organizational culture provides insights into how institutions can effectively manage change and foster reliable practices. NASA's experience, particularly highlighted by the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster in 2003, portrays a crucial need for cultural transformation aimed at enhancing safety, collaboration, and overall organizational effectiveness (Boin et al., 2008). The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) findings illuminated significant shortcomings in NASA's safety culture and decision-making processes, ultimately prompting a reevaluation of its operational paradigms. This paper discusses NASA's cultural challenges, the recommendations from the CAIB, and the proposed changes to foster a safety-oriented organizational climate.
Organizational Culture and Safety
According to Boin et al. (2008), NASA's organizational culture prior to the Columbia disaster was characterized by a "normalization of deviance"; this term refers to the gradual acceptance of deviations from sound safety practices as normal, potentially leading to disastrous consequences. The CAIB highlighted the flawed decision-making processes that emphasized hard science while undervaluing the holistic insights and intuitive omens that might indicate risks (Boin et al., 2008). The challenge that NASA faced was not merely technical; it was prudent to address its cultural underpinnings that shaped decision-making, safety priorities, and risk assessment.
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board Findings
The CAIB's report categorized NASA's safety culture as fundamentally flawed. It indicated that the organizational characteristics necessary to prevent disasters were either deficient or lacking in NASA's operations (Boin et al., 2008). Key findings included:
- A broken safety culture that disregarded the implications of pre-existing risks.
- The over-reliance on protocols emerged as a barrier to addressing safety concerns, a phenomenon exacerbated by time pressures and production demands.
- An isolationist approach within engineering decisions that conflated safety with schedule adherence, thereby endangering lives.
These findings shed light on how critical organizational culture drives safety awareness and response systems within high-stakes environments. Incorporating a collaborative culture and promoting open communication is crucial for raising objections and addressing issues early in any operational or strategic changes.
Pressures on NASA’s Organizational Culture
NASA's operational environment is intricate and multifaceted, influenced by political pressures and public expectations. Its dependence on Congress and the White House meant that budgetary constraints could directly impact safety protocols. Following the Columbia incident, the Bush administration's commitment to maintaining the shuttle program, despite insufficient funds for the essential safety modifications, underscored the fundamental conflict between operational viability and safety enhancement (CAIB, 2003).
In setting up the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), post-Columbia, NASA sought to create a structured body to bolster safety assessments and problem dispositions. The establishment of such an entity represented an acknowledgment of the need for organizational adaptation. This initiative aimed to integrate safety more thoroughly into the fabric of NASA's operations but also challenged the prevalent dynamics score (NESC, 2003).
Cultural Change Recommendations from CAIB
The CAIB proposed several recommendations for cultural change within NASA aimed at transforming its safety mindset and operational priorities:
1. Foster Cultural Integrity: Aligning agency values—safety, people, excellence, and integrity—would enhance NASA's organizational culture (Boin et al., 2008).
2. Strengthening Leadership: Effective leadership practices must be established, promoting accountability while allowing for a thorough safety climate assessment.
3. Encouraging Open Communication: Enabling an environment where safety concerns could be raised without fear of retaliation or dismissal was critical to changing the cultural landscape (Boin et al., 2008).
Assessing the Current Organizational Culture
Assessing NASA's current culture through this lens serves a dual purpose. First, it identifies the inconsistencies within the organization where shared beliefs may diverge from operational practices. Performance management practices must emphasize safety as a core value rather than a mere compliance issue. This shift will support a safety-oriented culture, essential in preventing future accidents (CAIB, 2003).
Moreover, organizational values and beliefs influence operational behavior profoundly. Risks associated with deviations must be accurately understood and addressed through workforce engagement, promoting professional integrity. Moving forward, NASA’s cultural transformation should focus on aligning formal policies, statements, and narratives with genuine organizational objectives.
Conducive Leadership and Policy Change for Organizational Change
Transformations at NASA necessitate robust leadership and a phased approach toward cultural change (Glisson, 2016). Leadership sets expectations and norms throughout the organization, with transparency proving to be vital for instilling a culture of accountability. Actions taken by leaders can foster trust, reinforce acceptable behavioral models, and facilitate the cultural transition necessary for fostered reliability within the agency.
The presence and projection of shared values under an effective leadership framework will ultimately enhance NASA’s operational integrity (NASA Cultures, 2016). Achieving the desired organizational change depends upon a strong foundational commitment to preserving core values while enhancing the safety climate.
Conclusion
NASA's cultural transformation post-Columbia marks an essential case study on the intersection of organizational culture, safety, and high-stakes environments. Essential imperatives highlighted by the CAIB push towards fostering a culture reflective of integrity, safety, and open communication. Organizations engaged in high-reliability operations must learn from NASA’s experience, recognizing that cultural shifts are profound movements requiring comprehensive commitment from all levels of the organization. Ultimately, a cultural commitment to safety, supported through leadership and structural change, can fortify organizational integrity and effective performance.
References
1. Boin, A., & Schulman, P. (2008). Assessing NASA’s Safety Culture: The Limits and Possibilities of High-Reliability Theory.
2. Glisson, C. (2016). The Role of Organizational Culture and Climate in Innovation and Effectiveness.
3. NASA Cultures. (2016). Critical Issues in the History of Space Flight.
4. Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). (2003). Report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
5. Daugherty, P. J. (2008). High-Reliability Organizations, Organizational Culture, and Safety.
6. Weick, K. E., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2001). Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity.
7. Senge, P. M. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.
8. Reason, J. (2000). Human Error: Models and Management.
9. Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies.
10. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change.