JohnHays.net

A Few Thoughts on NASA's Problems

Transterrestrial Musings has a post about the draft (which I oppose) that leads to a comment by Chuck Divine that leads to an article he wrote entitled "A Few Thoughts on NASA's Problems". I tend to think that the situations Chuck describes at Goddard also seem to plague other bureacracies and companies. For some reason bad management styles tend to be copied.

Chuck writes:

I am writing to you because of your long standing interest in NASA. I understand Congress is looking into management problems in NASA and the aerospace industry. I must state that such investigation is long overdue. Things I witnessed and experienced in nine years at Goddard Space Flight Center led me to the belief that there are deep problems with our country's efforts in space endeavors that will not be fixed by a mere change of a handful of people at the top of NASA. While at Goddard I saw an increasingly dysfunctional authoritarian management:

• Actively drive talented people away
  
• Prevent employees from taking initiatives to benefit
  NASA's work
  
• Create layers of rules and bureaucracies that stifle
  real progress in the field.
  

I agree with him. Read the whole article.