Citation (IEEE): D. Vaughan, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. Chicago, IL, USA: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1996.
What it argues
A sociological study arguing that the Challenger disaster resulted less from individual misconduct than from “normalization of deviance.” Over years, anomalies in the booster joints were repeatedly reinterpreted as acceptable risk within NASA’s and its contractor’s production culture and structural constraints. The fatal launch decision followed the organization’s own rules, which is what makes it a warning for any high-technology organization.