"Houston, We Have A Problem.

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Instructions
Watch the Apollo 13 clip (linked here) and respond to the questions below. Each question should be
answered with a 150-200 word response. Use terminology introduced in the textbook, session meeting,
and the ToKnight Show videos in your responses when possible. Once you’re finished, upload this file to
Session Deliverable 1: Understanding Managers.

Purpose: These questions are to help you consider management in context, answering them will help
you apply what you have learned from your readings and in class to a critical situation inspired by real
events. This exercise will help you think like a savvy manager or team member when working through
your own projects and situations.

1. How did the NASA team use the four basic management functions in this video?
The four basic management functions are planning and decision making, organizing, leading and
controlling. In the video, you saw that the astronauts in space suddenly had a problem in the spaceship.
In the planning and decision-making stage, the NASA team, especially the manager in Houston tried to
find out where the problem was and how it could best be solved. Also, in the spaceship, they were trying
to come up with a plan on how they could best fix the problem. After that, the astronauts divided
themselves in the
and everyone took over different functions. In Houston, too, different employees were assigned to
different functions. As things became more and more hectic, the manager in Houston briefly stopped his
team and reorganized it. Then he gave orders, such as that everyone should find people to come and he
tried to guide the team through the crisis. Here we are in the leading stage. His decisions were passed
on to the astronauts through the staff and they tried to implement them. After that, the results were
always controlled and evaluated by the manager and the staff, reaching the last function of the four
basic management functions.

2. What technical and interpersonal skills did the NASA team use?
Technical skills are necessary to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work done in an
organization. It is very important that managers know how to perform the tasks assigned to their team
they supervise. Furthermore, the team member needs to have a good understanding of what they are
doing. In the video, we could see that the NASA team had a very good understanding of the technical
programs they were using. The astronauts know very well how to handle the different problems related
to the spaceship, and the NASA team in Houston used their computers efficiently to work out statistics

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and numbers to get an overview of the whole problem. Interpersonal skills, however, refer the ability of
a manager to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups. Interpersonal
skills were, for example, that the Houston manager got along with her co-workers, she could
communicate well, and suggestions were accepted. Although the manager is more senior than his
employees, he still took advice from them, which is very important for good management.

3. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the NASA team?

First of all, strength and weaknesses are the internal factors. Strengths are things that an organization
does especially well. The strengths of the NASA team were the great technological knowledge about
spaceships, the very well-trained team, the programs they could use to evaluate the problems, the good
working atmosphere, the cohesion during this crisis and the calmness of the astronauts. In addition, the
good connection to space was also very helpful to give tips to the astronauts and they were not alone
with their problem. The will to work and the need to solve this problem was also very great in the team,
which is why so many ideas developed as to how the problem could be solved. Weaknesses are all those
things a company does not perform well. Weaknesses of the NASA team were that the spaceship was
out of control which should normally not happen. Also, they were not sure what the problem was in the
beginning and this could have been prevented by better training.

4. What opportunities and threats did the NASA team face?

Evaluating opportunities and threats requires analyzing an organization’s environment. Opportunities
are chances for something positive to happen. They benefit those who can take advantage of them. In
this case, one of the main opportunities has been the very good communication channel between the
control room and the astronauts. Another opportunity was the technological possibilities that already
existed at that time, which made it possible to access data in space.
Threats include anything that can negatively affect your business from the outside. Taking them into
account can help in making the best decisions, and not doing so can cause sudden damage. A threat was
when the crew discovered that the primary energy source failed a problem which made use of the fuel
cells impossible threatening the eventual loss of all electrical power and water. Another threat was the
enormous time pressure and that the spaceship would simply crash in the next few minutes.

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5. Describe the organizational culture the NASA team exhibited while they were solving the
problem? Did it change as time ran out?
Simply stated, organizational culture is “the way things are done around here” (Deal & Kennedy, 2000).
It includes an organization’s values, expectations and philosophy. Especially leaders are vital to the
creation and communication of their workplace culture. In my opinion, the NASA team had a good
organizational culture. The employees shared the same values, the interactions were friendly, and they
really tried to work as a team. You could see that it was not important that one person was the center of
attention in solving the problem, but that everyone tried to solve the problem together. That speaks of a
strong organizational culture. There was also a willingness to work effectively and solve conflicts
together, which is also very important for a successful organization. Nevertheless, one could see that as
the chances for the team were worse, there was briefly no longer this verve. The team was not that
optimistic anymore.