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Masculinity In The NASA Space Challenger And Martin Shkreli Cases

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Moreover, the concepts of hegemonic masculinity and organizational deviance are also evident in the NASA Space Challenger and Martin Shkreli cases. The Space Challenger Explosion occurred due to a problem with the O-Ring, however, Morton Thiokol Inc. (MTI) management ignored the engineers’ advice and proceeded with the launch (Messerschmidt 1996:35). MTI was under pressure from Congress to launch the Shuttle on time to keep their funding or would be held bureaucratically accountable. Subsequently, both the MTI management and engineers understood the risks when launching the Shuttle, but NASA labeled it as a ‘normal, acceptable risk’. Here, masculinity is perceived as a structured action, meaning that men take certain actions under particular organizational constraints (Messerschmidt 1996:32). …show more content…

With MTI facing pressure from Congress, the managers engaged in risk-taking behaviours to achieve their valued goals, hence a path that was aimed in enhancing their manly performances and corporate triumph. Their status as men was at risk so they had to become ‘risk-managers’ to ‘ascertain’ their worth and masculine identity to others (Messerschmidt 1996:41). The risk involved rational thinking, which was due to the fact that there were nine prior successful launches; hence the risk became normalized and rationalized. In addition, the risk-taking under these circumstances was due to corporate culture promoting profit, as this is an institutionalized addiction. Therefore, by ‘doing masculinity’, the managers of MTI were largely focused on their funding for the Shuttle than the lives of the astronauts by supressing any emotions and rationalizing their decisions in this corporate

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