Lessons from the Challenger Disaster

A recent reshowing of the Channel 4 documentary on the Challenger Disaster really brought home how important it is for organisations to listen to the "Scurvy Elelphants" in their midst. Roger Boisjoly fought long and hard to get his colleagues at Morton Thiokeld, the manufacturer of the booster rockets, to listen to his concerns about the reliability of the O rings at low temperatures. He was eventually overruled at a last minute conference with NASA and Challenger was cleared to fly.

Boisjoly was one of the witnesses called at the Presidential Committe set up to review the disaster. He gave accounts of how and why he felt the O-Rings had failed. After the Committee gave its findings, Boisjoly found himself shunned by colleagues and managers and he resigned from the company.

Boisjoly became a speaker on workplace ethics. He argues that the caucus called by Morton Thiokol managers, which resulted in a recommendation to launch, "constituted the unethical decision-making forum resulting from intense customer intimidation."

Visit http://www.onlineethics.org/moral/boisjoly/RB1-4.html for more details and resources to help stimulate your thoughts as to how you might have behaved when faced with such a situation.