Impediments to Responsible Decision Making - Case Study Example

Another impediment to pertinent decision-making is a failure to consider the opinion of the experts especially the subordinate members. Roger Boisjoly and Arnold Thompson, seal experts working for the contractor company Thiokol, had consistently explained to the relevant authorities including NASA management, the deficiency of the O-rings and recommended the postponement of the launch (Roland and Martin 115). The contractor company supported this idea but unfortunately, NASA opposed any move to delay the launch.

The eventuality was the Challenger disaster simply because the highest decision-making body ignored the recommendation of the two experts who had the safety of the whole operation in their hearts.Precisely, a great lesson from the Challenger disaster is that professionals are obliged to uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of their profession. The engineering profession has fundamental principles, which entail; use of knowledge and skills to enhance human wellbeing, honesty, impartiality, and serving clients with fidelity, striving to improve the competence and prestige of the engineering profession.

Among the principles that engineers are supposed to observe, safety is paramount amongst health and public welfare (Roland and Martin 114). Considerably, had the engineers entrusted to launch the Challenger had safety as their greatest priority, they would not have hastened to launch this vehicle amidst controversy with regard to the effectiveness of the O-ring seals. Safety is paramount in all engineering activities (Roland and Martin 114)The other good lesson from the disaster is that the engineers at the managerial positions should use their engineering experience and even the expertise of their subordinate engineers while making decisions involving technical matters.

Before the launch, engineers McDonald and Boisjoly opposed the launch and appealed against the launch to NASA management owing to the unfavorable temperatures. Notably, McDonald refused to sign the formal recommendation to launch (Roland and Martin 115). However, the management ignored his concerns and went ahead to approve the launch which later turned out disastrous. Had NASA management taken Macdonald for an expert, this would perhaps have saved them the agony and embarrassment occasioned by the failure of the Challenger.