Group Process in Challenger Launch

Decision
As per the details given in the case it can be concluded that there is a
good amount of group thinking involved between both the organizations
NASA and Thiocol related to shuttle development. In the later stages
however, the internal co-ordination of the teams at Thiocol and the coordination between NASA and Thiocol seems to diminish.

During the initial phase, NASA and Thiocol worked together in the building
of the Challenger Shuttle. The engineering teams of both the
organizations co-ordinated together to get the shuttle built and assembled
as per the plan which was completed successfully and demonstrates good
group thinking and co-ordination between both the organisation
The group co-ordination and thinking seems to start diminishing from
within Thiocol itself. The higher officials of Thiocol did not pay heed to the
suggestions made by their own official Bosjoly regarding the weakness of
the O-Rings at lower temperatures. Despite repeated suggestions from
Bosjoly, the management ignored the suggestion initially and regarded it
as his attempt to create melodrama for getting attention. This ignorance
of a peers views goes against the principles of group thinking according to
which the views of all peers must be considered. Only later just before the
launch were they allowed to present the facts to NASA.
During the tele-conference of NASA and Thiocol we can see that the
organizations worked together to arrive at a conclusive decision of the
time when the shuttle challenger is to be launched. Thiocol presented the
facts to the officials at NASA which were discussed in detail to arrive at a
conclusive decision. However the data provided by the Thiocol officials
was not sufficient to convince the NASA officials on delaying the launch.
Despite deep discussions and thoughts together on the appropriate time
of launching the shuttly, both the organizations seem to take opposite
stands and the correct decision could not be made due to lack of
supporting facts from Thiocol.
Group thinking was involved at a high level as the discussions made were
elaborate and detailed between the officials however a concrete decision
was not reached during the discussions.
At the end of the discussions however we see that the higher officials at
NASA take a stand against its supporting organization Thiocol without any
consideration of its views regarding the weakness of the O-rings. There is

no group discussion or group thinking involved at this point and the

decisions seems to be made in a haste of launching the shuttle.
Hence we can see that most of the time, group thinking was involved
between the organizations however uncertain decisions were made when
a conclusion was not reached.

Points that could have been made to avoid the uncertain decision:

At Thiocols end:
1) Thiocol should have communicated about the weakness of O-Rings
to NASA earlier rather than at the day of launch
2) The officials at Thiocol should have paid attention to the
weaknesses being pointed out by their teams instead of ignoring
them and collected the facts needed to prove the facts to NASA.
3) The officials at Thiocol should have indulged in deeper research to
collect the facts and figures to support their assumptions instead of
superficial hypothesis.
At NASAs end:
1) The officials at NASA should have considered the facts and
assumptions provided by Thiocol instead of completely abandoning
them due to lack of supporting facts and figures
2) NASA should have respected Thiocols stand on delaying the launch
instead of completely neglecting it and deciding as per their earlier
plans.
Both the organizations should have researched together in detail
regarding the weakness in O-rings when a conclusion was not
reached during their discussions instead of hastingly making a
decision that was not universally agreed
Team Members:
Swathi Nivarthi
Raubin Chaudhary
Monish T
Akhil Gupta
Amit Prasad