The Economics of Being Street Smart
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Decision making analysis for the NASA and Thiokol management team
The four faces of power are coercion, manipulation, domination and subjectification (Fleming and Spicer 2007)
Coercion
The NASA and Thiokol Management team was all for the launch despite warnings from their lower level management for a no go. I feel the main reason for this was purely to safeguard its image from the public (the space shuttle was aborted a couple of times before and pressure was mounting on them to execute the launch) and from Thiokols point of view, future contracts with NASA worth billions of dollars were at stake. The top level decision making people disregarded the recommendations of the engineers for a no go and decided to go ahead with the launch.
Manipulation
The management people at the helm of the decision making process had their own set of agendas; which is to go ahead with the launch. From their own point of view, they knew of the repercussions if they were to delay or abort the launch. The public would suffer from what I would call “support fatigue” and interest level in future space flight programs would wane significantly. Hence whatever recommendations or warnings given out to them by the engineers and their lower level management employees would prove immaterial as they still would want to go ahead with the launch.
Domination
Thiokol upper level management imposed their preferences on their engineers. They were clearly informed of the safety flaws of the O Rings and the unfavorable conditions of the weather on the day of the launch but still dominated its ideas on the launching of the shuttle on the engineers; who possessed the expertise regarding the functioning of the equipment.
Subjectification
The top decision-making team of NASA maneuvered the higher level management people of Thiokol into its own set of thinking and warned them of the alleged repercussions if they were to delay the launch any further. Initially, the higher level management people agreed with the findings of its engineers of the safety flaws of the O Rings and did not opt for the launch. Alas, after holding a private meeting amongst themselves, they decided to be on the same page as NASA and opted for the launch of the ill-fated shuttle.
The five bases of power are reward, coercive, referent, legitimate and expert power (French and