🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <10432@ttidca.TTI.COM> sorgatz@ttidca.TTI.COM ( Avatar) writes:

    Chris' point is an exellent one, but unfortunately it is lost on the real
   target  group;  namely  the  big-shot, NASA MBA-managers that were all too
   willing to let political oneupsmanship superceed crew safety.  The problem
   is  not  a  NASA exclusive!  In general American management is technically
   incompetent, and unwilling to look  at  the  long-term  effects  of  their
   decisions.  

Virtually all of NASA's line management have _only_ engineering
degrees.  Here at Dryden, for example, I would bet that the only MBA's
are in staff positions and there aren't even very many of them (maybe
one or two in Procurement or Financial Management).

The same is true for the rest of Ames Research Center.

NASA does send its managers to training programs, but these are
structured to deal with government situations and bear no resemblence
to an MBA.  (My exposure to MBAs tells me this is no great loss :-).

I'm not prepared to estimate when such managers did their last
"Hands-on" engineering, but to criticize them for being MBAs is
incorrect.  They are also not technically illiterate, although
I will admit that some of them are not state-of-the-art.

Perhaps the moral is, you don't have to be an MBA to make mistakes.

--

Mary Shafer  shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov or ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer
         NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA
                   Of course I don't speak for NASA