·
Why did NASA
Administrator Sean O'Keefe address NASA employees to describe the plan to bring
about proposed changes to NASA's culture?
·
Was he believable? Is it
important whether he appeared to be believable?
·
Why did he talk about
NASA values?
·
What can you take away
from this exercise to immediately use in your career?
Once you have reflected upon these questions, list any other
questions or insights that have come to you as a result of this exercise.
In the video NASA Cultural Change, NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe speaks to
employees on the proposed changes that the organization will be experiencing in
the next few months to come. The discussion stems from the Columbia Shuttle accident
and concentrates on the safety culture of NASA and the necessary managerial
changes that the space agency will be required to make if they would like to
continue to see their organization be successful. The topics discussed reflect
upon the ineffective strategies, policies or procedures that were the organizations
cultural norm and the new steps that have been taken to become a more effective
and efficient agency with enhanced and stabilized processes.
In his speech, Sean O’Keefe is direct and honest about the
issues that the organization is currently experiencing. He places himself in a
vulnerable position accepting responsibility of the negative effects that
leadership has had on the cultural environment of NASA. O’Keefe does well in touching
upon the pros and cons of the organization and describes the plan to bring
about change to NASA’s workforce. In his efforts to bring awareness to the
issues at hand, O’Keefe allows himself to be just as much of a student in the
scenario, than a teacher. In order to get NASA workers on board he allows himself
to take accountability for being just as much the problem as anyone else.
O’Keefe touches upon a number of factors which have contributed
to the Columbia Shuttle failure and offers suggestions as to how to better the
organization for the sake of creating a safer more effective environment for
the space agency. One of the issues discussed in the speech include the ability
for all employees to have a respect for one another and the capability for them
to carry out the tasks that they were asked to do. O’Keefe states that a survey
that was provided to the NASA workforce proved that this was something the
agency desperately needed to work on. It was said that there needed to be an increase
in the professional respect members of the organization had for one another and
that that there was a lack of communication across all levels of the organization and its
counterparts.
Leadership also holds a major role in the successes of the
organization as effective leadership practices start from the top and find
their way into every inch of organizational practices. It was said that
leadership should be stronger and that safety practices needed to prove to be
fundamentally imperative as they offer a thin margin of either “great triumph
or great tragedy” (O’Keefe, 2004). O’Keefe mentions that in order to build upon
success, they must do so as they materialize and employees should remain
positive and not be so defeated by their failures. It was suggested by NASA
employees that leadership needed to become more involved with what their teams
were doing and that upward communication and management employee interaction
should be increased in order to maintain more enhanced organizational support.
In his speech as well as his question and answer session, O’Keefe
seemed to me to be sincere and believable in his efforts to address both the obvious
and obscure issues that the agency was experiencing. He mentioned his own
faults and actions that were creating ill feelings and environments among NASA
workers and mentioned the consideration of team building exercises as well as
team trainings and the redevelopment of NASA’s core organizational values. I
believe that it was imperative of O’Keefe to remain genuine and candid in his
speech as it allowed for the employees of NASA to feel as though they were free
to speak openly about their concerns of where the organization was headed without
the fear of consequences. If members are afraid of simply mentioning the
possibility of change, then their ability to create change will be impossible.
It seems to me that O’Keefe did a great job at creating a safe haven for those
who may have feared consequence and allowed for open dialogue on the changes
that needed to take place in order for NASA to continue to be successful.
A large topic of discussion for O’Keefe, were the values of
NASA and the ability of reevaluation of organizational values that would assist
with adding credibility to the agency. I believe that O’Keefe discusses the
values of NASA as they create a distinct organizational culture and norm within
the agency that is passed down from generation to generation. I believe that
the values of NASA help to craft the mission and vision of the organization
creating goals for all members to work toward achieving. With this I also believe
that values were discussed intently due to the importance of accountability and
responsibility all members must take when making imperative decisions within
the workplace that can have consequential effects for the members and
organizational counterparts.
In listening to O’Keefe discuss these issues, I learned that
climate within an organization can be everything. Climate should be encouraged as
it allows for those who have a voice to speak up and ensure that their
thoughts, feelings and concerns are heard in a constructive environment. All members
within any organization have a responsibility to facilitate change and should
not live in fear of consequence. In order to create a cohesive organizational structure,
all suggestions of the possibilities of the future of the company should be
looked upon as opportunities to generate, implement and instill effective,
efficient and proactive actions which can help contribute to the overall
success and accomplishment of future organizational ties.
Cassandra
R.
References
C SPAN Video Library (2004, April 13). NASA
Cultural Changes - C-SPAN Video Library [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SACu
