NASA: Organizational Design Frontiers for Explorers Space Frontiers
Introduction In the past few years, President Bush ordered NASA to go ahead and create new frontiers that will ensure exploration of other planets in the solar system. NASA was directed to work with any other organizations and people who wished to explore the solar system (Heck, 2000). This move was called “Humans in Space”. For this reason, NASA has more complex structures or designs making it difficult to control the employees. This meant that the organization was expanding significantly and needed creation of the new structure and designs. Therefore, an analysis of the organizational design frontiers in NASA is done.
Discussion Organization’s structure consists of all the duties, how they are allocated, and who supervises the duties in an organization. It is worth noting that the organization structure is designed to meet its needs and goals (Nelson & Quick, 2009). Organization design consists of all the duties and activities, and how they are going to be allocated to the employees in an organization (Nelson & Quick, 2009). In this case, NASA has a complex organization design and structure with every thing designed to work towards the goals of the organization. Therefore, NASA has an excellent structure that ensures that all the protcols and procedures are followed.In NASA facility, different duties and activities exist for the different people.
First, there are scientists who study and create the whole process of space exploration. Scientists provide information about the solar system environment (Heck, 2000). Secondly, there are astronauts who train and learn about space as part of their preparation (Heck, 2000). Thirdly, there are engineers who deal with the creation of these equipments. These equipments involve space ships and communication gadgets (Heck, 2000). The other team that is extremely vital to NASA is the medical team.
This team studies the environment in space by searching every problem that might cause health complications. Therefore, based on the above analysis, it is evident that NASA has the above organization design. According to the many basic forms of organizational structure, NASA applies centralized basic form of the organization structure. In this case, NASA has a centralized management where they make all the decisions in the organization (Daniels & Daniels, 2007). This is where they coordinate all the duties and activities of NASA. It is should be noted that the President of the United States of America is the head of NASA (Daniels & Daniels, 2007).
However, he or she appoints the directors who are running the organization as the management. Finally, the directors appoint the differentt people who are heading the different departments. The communication network of NASA is also centralized. In this case, all the departments in NASA tend to collect and send their information at one central location (Daniels & Daniels, 2007). For instance, the scientists tend to bring information of their findings about space in one central location. In this location, the engineers could access the information and decide which machine or space ship they can build (Heck, 2000).
On the other hand, the doctors have the ability to access this information for the purposes of evaluating the necessary health complications. Finally, the astronauts depend on this information for their survival when they are in space.Conclusion In an organization, all the duties and activities have to be coordinated well to produce excellent results. If they are not, they can lead to chaos in an organization. For this reason, the structure and design are extremely valuable for an organization. Therefore, NASA has one of the most complex organization design and structure.
According to the design, NASA is separating all its duties into small departments. These duties are centrally structured where the flow of information and leadership is centrally located in one place. It is because of this strict structures and design that NASA is successful.
