Revisiting NASA as a High Reliability Organization

The implementation and sustainment of High Reliability Organization (HRO) operations for large organizations, such as NASA, is problematic. Using NASA as a case study, the consistency of the intrinsic objectives of large public organizations is assessed with respect to HROs. A novel HRO model is described in terms of ten characteristic dimensions. The intrinsic public organizational objectives are found to be consistent with the HRO model only with respect to effectiveness. Additionally, NASA exhibits characteristics of a HRO only with respect to the degree of complexity and risk involved in operations. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014