I stumbled across the following article about the Challenger space shuttle disaster that occurred over twenty-five years ago. I was in elementary school at the time but I vividly recall what transpired that fateful day in 1986.
The article itself is a bit old but it is relevant to our last lesson on Ethics. It brings to light the fact that NASA had a company consulting on the shuttle project. This firm, Morton Thiokol, actually warned NASA prior to launch that low temperature launches had demonstrated some risk to certain vulnerabilities with the launch system. They recommended that NASA delay the launch. Rather than gladly taking every precaution to ensure the safety of the astronauts, NASA was instead displeased with the findings.
What followed demonstrates that ethics can be compromised as the result of the power of rewards systems. The NASA contract was a huge moneymaker for Morton Thiokol. Because of this, keeping their customer happy incentivized them. Armed with the knowledge that their original findings would likely result in a displeased customer, they modified their stance to make it more appealing to NASA. A warning of a potential danger and risk to astronauts was modified to an advisory that NASA should delay if they could prove that launching would result in an accident. The framing of these two concepts are drastically different. Their stance was unquestionably altered as a result of personal rewards motivation.
Rost noted that “leaders and followers need to attend to more than their own mutually determined goals. They need to attend to the community’s goals and purpose” (Northouse, 2013, pp. 437). While the Morton Thiokol team may not have realized it at the time, their wavering on their recommendation was a highly unethical move. They had an opportunity to avert a disaster and they did not do it. NASA’s actions speak for themselves but they likely would not have launched had the leadership at Morton Thiokol been more courageous and acted ethically.
A common denominator that I continue to discover in all positive leadership attributes is courage. It takes a lot of courage to do the right thing. It takes even more courage to do the right thing when you know that it directly conflicts with your personal motivation.
References:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc.