Educating the Next Generation Workforce about Organizational Silence

Major space mission failures generally occur in the presence of a technical error coupled with organizational challenges regarding identification and management of the error. For example, the Space Shuttle Columbia was doomed by an errant piece of foam hitting the leading edge of the wing, and while the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report discussed the technical failure in detail, it also focused an entire chapter on organizational challenges contributing to the disaster. Following the release of the CAIB report, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) documented lessons learned about organizational cultures which foment conditions possibly manifesting in space mission failures. NASA desired a culture that valued psychological safety, defined as the belief one can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation. The challenge is that in successful engineering firms, NASA prior to the space shuttle tragedies, and society in general, individuals show a reluctance to convey negative information because of the discomfort associated with being the conveyor of bad news. Approaching the 20-year anniversary of the Columbia Accident, this paper revisits the concept of organizational silence where individuals fail to draw attention to problems. Specific focus is paid to the future generational workforce, many of whom were either not born or in preschool at the time of the Columbia tragedy. To characterize the influence of organizational culture on space engineering workforce psychology, a case study questioning how someone will react in a situation involving mission-critical activities and the need to speak up was created. Case data were collected from different sample populations, and case study results are used to highlight problems for project teams to overcome organizational silence with a special focus on the challenges of university satellite programs primarily staffed by student workers.