Alsayyed

By Author: Anthony W Bills
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ALSAYYED
Introduction
The space shuttle challenger disaster occurred on January 28 in 1986. The disaster occurred and left the seven crews that were on board dead. The launching of the space shuttle is always done after careful analyses of its safety and the members on board.
It has been contradiction as to who should make a decision of launching the space shuttle. The argument has been between the engineering and the managerial sections of the aerospace industry. In both cases the, both the managers and the engineers have the right to claim the authority to make decisions for launching the space shuttle. They both play a vital role in the industry as no one would work independently without the help of the other. In this regard any of them can make a decision that can be beneficial to the whole system as well as making the decision that can disrupt the whole system. Though the management would only make decision that are more or less on human factors and anything that would be beneficial to the industry and the company in general, the engineers would make decisions that would favour and benefit the shuttle ...
... and its crew members as they would make decisions that are limited to the capability of the machine.
The most magnificent factor in decision making is not who is making the decision but what decision is made. The topic in question, the engineers are the most preference decision makers as they have more knowledge and in details of what is supposed to be done and what are the precautions need to be followed before the launching takes place.
The space shuttle took off from the launch pad in Florida. After the space shuttle had attained an attitude of about 104,000 feet at a speed of mach 2, it exploded and a big smoke and steam was see in the sky. The weather was the main blame for the tragedy as there way several aborted flights in past months due to weather. The same day of the tragedy, the weather is in the worst status compared to other days that had passed and even in the prospected day of the launching of the shuttle.
Making launching decisions
Decision making is the most crucial thing in anything. The decision made determines whether the something is going to succeed or is going to fail. This is regarded as the mental process outcome or the cognitive process that will lead to a selection of course of action among the many alternatives that could have been taken. The final choice is got through the process of decision making of which it can be through the opinion or through a choice.
The engineers’ performance in decision making as to when the shuttle should be launched terms is always upon the subject of active and deep research from different perspectives. As from the psychological perspective, it is necessity of an engineer to examine each and every decision in the context of needs, the preferences a particular individual has and values they seek. Looking from a cognitive perspective, the engineers’ decision making process is mostly regarded as a continuous process that is integrated in the interaction with the environment. On the other hand, on a normative perspective, the engineers’ analyses every individual decisions that is mostly concerned with the logic by which the decision made and its rationale choice lead to.
According to the styles of the decision making that were elaborated by Katsenelinboigen, the process by which the engineers could use to make decision is selective and can only favour the right decision depending on the reason as to why that should be done. On revisiting the launching of the space shuttle, the NASA staffs were more concerned on the schedule of the intended launch of the machine not taking in an account that little mistake or ignorant on the critical issue could lead in to fatal accident.
By giving the management an authority to make the decisions on whether or not the space shuttle should be launched or not, will be merely dependant on the schedule and the external analyses of the overall program. The management can only get to know the welfare of the machine through the help of the engineers. The management would make the decisions that would be very risky to the whole program. If the “Challenger” launching was suspended as the previous time, the fatal accident would have been prevented despite of the engineers warning of the unfair weather that was not favouring the flight of the shuttle.
Bureaucracy structures planning could help eliminate variability in results when the engineers and the managers different skills, experiences and goals. According to Max Wember, the rules themselves should be standardized so that decision made do not disrupt the whole launching plans but will have an effect of bettering the whole process. When each individual employs personal skills, ideas, and goals they may not rhyme and this may cause difference in aspired goals and may cause a dire consequence as it was experience on the former launchings.
Bureaucracy position faster specialized skills eliminating many subjective judgments by different individuals where rules and regulations are established properly and have a set method to follow to avoid different individuals employing their rules hence causing a severe problems. (Kemper, 1999)
Problems attributed to decision making
There are several problems that are attributed to the decision making. When the decision was made that the challenger would be launched, it was questionable as the same reason that had contributed to that abortion of the launching few months back still existed and this time was more severe than ever. The main reason was that weather was not conducive for the launching and that management went ahead to make decision and authorise for the launching of the shuttle. This was an avoidable accident if the right decisions were made.
The engineers had all the knowledge concerning any weather condition that could affect the launching of the shuttle. If they had an overall authority in regard to the launching, this could have been avoided as they could not have gone beyond the shuttle limits.
Any decision that is made would always have a positive or negative consequence. (Richard, 1988)
Why the engineers are the best decision makers
The engineers have a high understanding on issues that regard to the machine itself. From the designing table, the engineers follow the assembling of the machine through to the launching pad and still will follow it to the space. This allows the engineer to learn and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the machine as well as the limitations. The management would always depend on the information given by the engineer.
Compared with the management, the engineers have the formal training on the issues that favour and restrict the machines from effective performance that may include:
-Environment
-weather
-Human factor
These factors are the most crucial that would affect any flight machine. The management would only have an understanding on the effect of human factors and how they would either affect of get affected by the shuttle launching. Example, when the Challenger would not have suffered the problem it suffered if the management had vast knowledge on the effect of weather on the machine. When the machine was launched, the weather was not conducive that caused the contraction of an O-ring and allowed the hydrogen leak therefore causing an explosion and terminating the life of the astronauts.(Kemper, 1999)
Conclusion
The engineers are the best decision makers as whether to launch the space shuttle or not. They have wide knowledge on the welfare of the shuttle which in turn its safety will ensure the safety of it crews. Compared to their counterparts, the engineers have less probability of making the wrong decision as far as the launching of the shuttle is concerned. The decisions should always be made by the engineers.
Reference:
Richard S. 1988. Challenger: The Final Voyage. Columbia University Press,
Kemper, D. 1999. Canadian Professional Engineering Practice and Ethics, 2nd editions, Toronto: Harcourt Canada,

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