Can a Culture be Lethal?Summary & Criticism By 17th Group:

Virpi Hytönen, Mengyuan Yang, Xiaohui Zhu

Agenda

▪ Summary for the article

▪ Implication for management

▪ Criticism and more thinking over culture

The Space Shuttle Columbia

▪ In the February year 2003 the Shuttle was exploded apart

▪ Columbia Accident Investigation Board was set up

▪ The immediate cause to the disaster was a hole in the Thermal Protection System

▪ The indirect causes was found in the organizational culture

Organizational culture▪ From engineering culture to the managerial culture

▪ From open communication to the communication barriers

▪ Efficiency over the risk

▪ “Faster, cheaper, better”

▪ “What can go wrong?”

Agenda

▪ Summary for the article

▪ Implication for management

▪ Criticism and more thinking over culture

Implication

▪ Culture is

▪ a pattern of shared basic assumptions that a group learned as it solved problems of external

adaptation and internal integration,

▪ to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to

those problems.

▪ Culture is learned.

▪ An individual or a group acquires patterns of thought and behavior by processes of

socialization and acculturation.

▪ Leaders play a major role in shaping organizational culture.

▪ When norms of safety, respect, honesty, fairness and the like are integral parts of a

culture, its people make ethical decisions.

Agenda

▪ Summary for the article

▪ Implication for management

▪ Criticism and more thinking over culture

Criticism 1

Strategy wrong or culture wrong?

▪ Usually we only judge culture as “suitable” or “unsuitable”

▪ Long-term: Whether it’s suitable for Vision or Core Value

▪ Short-term: Whether it’s suitable for Strategy

▪ “Wrong culture” = “unsuitable Culture”

▪ NASA’s vision and mission remain unchanged; However, NASA’s culture change

keeps close pace with strategy change (see next slide)

▪ If culture is suitable and right, what is wrong ???? STRATEGY !!!

Criticism 1 (cont’d)NASA Established

1958 1972

Nixon’s announcement

1986

Challengerdisaster

2003

Columbiadisaster

2011

Space Shuttle Program end

• Core Value: Safety / People / Excellence / Integrity

• Strategy Change: • All eggs in one basket:

Shuttle Program• Heavy schedule of

Shuttle launch, e.g. target 714 flights 1978-1990

Stop Mars project and Space Platform

1982

Reagan’s declaration

Shuttle was “fully operational”

• Strategy Change: • Internalize the

commercial and military goals

• More launch pressure• Outside economic

resources, e.g. contractor which designs O-ring for Challenger

• Strategy Change: • “Manage risk and cost to

ensure success”• Make individual

manager understand risk and cost estimation

Culture focus on Excellence

Culture focus on Production and Bureaucracy

Criticism 2

How to develop HRO (Highly Reliable Organization)?

▪ For NASA, we suggest to establish hypocrisy

▪ Image to government: promising economy engine in the future

▪ Image to public: world’s hero, safety first, meaningful work

▪ Image to internal: still care about technical problems and engineers’ opinions

▪ Maybe by PR management and cautious Scorecard design

Criticism 3

Can culture really be changed individually?

▪ Culture is a comprehensive “side product” of other factors: History, Leader,

Strategy, Performance Management, HR Management, Internal Control......

▪ Changes must start from factors other than Culture

▪ For NASA, we suggest change from STRATEGY DESIGN !!

▪ Prioritize safety, at least measure technical risk and financial risk separately

▪ Cost control can be included, but cannot be aggressive

▪ Strongly advise to put all commercial projects in one business unit

▪ ......

Thanks for listening and sharing !By 17th Group:

Virpi Hytönen, Mengyuan Yang, Xiaohui Zhu

Discussion

… …

Have you ever experienced

interesting or freaky working cultures?

How to change culture?

What is culture in your opinion?

Any suggestion for such political

economy as NASA?

A case about “lethal culture”

▪ Foxconn: largest employer in China ( 1 million+), manufacturer for BlackBerry,

iPad, iPhone, Kindle, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U

▪ During the whole year of 2010, 14 employees took suicide at plant site, aging

from 18 to 24

▪ Some clues for working culture:

▪ 12 hours’ working / day

▪ If unable to meet hourly quota, no rest

▪ Conversation in the workshop is forbidden

▪ Every movement is standardized for maximum efficiency

▪ So hard to make friends because work shift changes quite often

▪ Modern factory facility: swimming pool and cinemas