Description:
This study examines the organizational development of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration from the creation of its
parent organization in 1915 through the 1960s. It focuses especially
on the relationships which the organization's leadership established
with external groups and individuals, as well as with its own employees .
The dissertation intends to: provide a more adequate
explanation of NASA's decline than currently exists; gain some insight
into the management of research and development organizations within the
federal government; and determine the utility of using different
theoretical perspectives for exploring how organizations change. The
findings from the case study are related to existing theories of
organizations, and different explanations of NASA's decline are
evaluated.
Among the various reasons identified for NASA's decline,
management's maladroit handling of several potentially conflicting
organizational goals figures prominently. Steady decline in agency
appropriation levels after 1965, coupled with the lack of widely agreed
upon criteria to evaluate its technical and management decisions,
produced in NASA a striking example of an organization unable to
successfully adapt to changes in its external and internal environment.