The Waco, Texas, ATF Raid and Challenger Launch Decision

Abstract

The author argues that the Challenger space shuttle launch disaster and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raid on the Branch Davidian compound both offer insights for managers and organization theorists as to how managers make judgments concerning their employees based on conceptions of how the employees ought to do their work. Managers with a knowledge of “management as science” objectify the work of employees under them. Workers know their work as craft based on firsthand experience. The author argues that traditional management practice results in decision making that does not take into account the knowledge of all organizational participants, and this leads to catastrophe. “Worker” knowledge and “management” knowledge, as well as other kinds of knowledge in organizations, are frequently incompatible. This aspect is characteristic of modern organizations but tends to be accentuated during times of organizational crisis. These two cases illustrate well the problems involved in decision making within complex organizations.