{"product_id":"apollo-challenger-columbia-phillip-k-tompkins-9780195330441","title":"Apollo, Challenger, Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program: A Study in Organizational Communication","description":"\u003cem\u003eApollo, Challenger, Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program\u003c\/em\u003e provides unparalleled longitudinal insight into the organizational successes and failures of NASA. The book treats NASA over its 45-year history from 1958 to 2003, concentrating on five \"data points\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e* 1967: when Tompkins first served as a Summer Faculty Consultant in Organizational Communication to legendary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun during the Apollo Program.\u003cbr\u003e* 1968: when he served in the same capacity to help reorganize NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.\u003cbr\u003e* 1986: when he investigated the communication failures that caused the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.\u003cbr\u003e* 1987: when he researched NASA's highly successful Aviation Safety Reporting System.\u003cbr\u003e* 2003: when he interpreted the communication failures leading up to the catastrophic failure of the space shuttle Columbia.\u003cbr\u003eThe result is a presentation of concrete communication correlates of organizational success and failure. Tompkins is a master of what Clifford Geertz called \"thick description.\" The result is a compelling, richly detailed, longitudinal case study concentrating on processual changes in communication-as-organization. In this book, Tompkins introduces theory subtly, inserting it to explain details of the organization that would otherwise defy understanding. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn considering other organizations in trouble, Tompkins identifies ten \"communication transgressions,\" one of which, for example, is \"ignorantia affectata\"--an affected or cultivated ignorance of organizational problems. In contrast to these failed organizations and their pathologies, Tompkins offers a sketch of two healthy organizations that live by \"value logics\"--applying ethical values in the organizational workplace. There are lessons to be learned from NASA's disasters. With all of the high-profile ethical lapses in U.S. corporations, Tompkins advocates individuals and organizations taking responsibility for their actions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Phillip K. Tompkins\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0195330447\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195330441\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/23\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d","brand":"Phillip K. Tompkins","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46135983472895,"sku":"9780195330441","price":128.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4bb4aa1e-c1da-49ff-9b49-8d504aff2a0e.jpg?v=1726415336","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/apollo-challenger-columbia-phillip-k-tompkins-9780195330441","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}