Repeated Failures in the Management of High Risk Technologies

High-risk technologies often serve as engines of economic growth, but reliable management of these technologies is far from easy. Many organizations managing risky technologies are vulnerable to repeated catastrophic failure. Some organizational theorists posit that high-risk technologies can be managed with little or no failure under the right circumstances, however experience in a number of industries seems to indicate that not only will failure occur, but that it will often be repeated. This paper explores the “cycles of failure” that an organization may find itself trapped in and political and organizational factors which create these cycles. A more detailed application to NASA's Challenger and Columbia accidents illustrates key points in the paper.