This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Schwartz, H. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Organizational disaster and organizational decay: the case of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309-4401, USA

Organizational decay is a condition of generalized and systemic ineffective- ness. It develops when an organization shifts its activities from coping with reality to presenting a dramatization of its own ideal character. In the decadent organization, flawed decision making of the sort that leads to disaster is normal activity, not an aberration. Three aspects of the development of organizational decay are illustrated in the case of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They are (1) the institutionalization of the fiction, (2) per sonnel changes in parallel with the institutionalization of the fiction, and (3) the narcissistic loss of reality among management.

Organization & Environment, Vol. 3, No. 4, 319-334 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/108602668900300404


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?