Assessing NASA's Safety Culture: The Limits and Possibilities of High-Reliability Theory
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Boin, Arjen; Schulman, Paul
署名单位：
Louisiana State University System; Louisiana State University
刊物名称：
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
ISSN/ISSBN：
0033-3352
DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00954.x
发表日期：
2008
页码：
1050-1062
关键词：
摘要：
After the demise of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board sharply criticized NASA's safety culture. Adopting the high-reliability organization as a benchmark, the board concluded that NASA did not possess the organizational characteristics that could have prevented this disaster. Furthermore, the board determined that high-reliability theory is extremely useful in describing the culture that should exist in the human spaceflight organization. In this article, we argue that this conclusion is based on a misreading and misapplication of high-reliability research. We conclude that in its human spaceflight programs, NASA has never been, nor could it be, a high-reliability organization. We propose an alternative framework to assess reliability and safety in what we refer to as reliability-seeking organizations.