Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2018

Failure Matters: Conflicting Practices in a High-Tech Case

Ehren Helmut Pflugfelder Oregon State University

Abstract

Technical communication researchers have studied failure through a number of different case studies, though none more often than the space shuttle Challenger explosion. While scholars have offered several explanations in the intervening three decades, this work often treats the disaster as a failure of organizational communication, a failure of the material O-ring, or a failure of two discourse communities, engineers and managers, to engage in mutually comprehensible forms of meaningful deliberation. This essay hypothesizes that the real cause of failure was neither positivist nor social constructionist in nature, but discursive-material. I offer discussion of the Challenger case in order to frame a different study of project failure and show that complex technical projects fail for a number discursive-material reasons. Employing assumptions from actor–network theory and Barad’s theory of agential realism, this essay establishes a basis for how to read the Challenger disaster as one of competing and unresolved “conceptual structures of practice.” I then take this framework and apply it to a case study of a transportation project at a large, Midwestern research university. This project, the electric personal transportation vehicle, failed because competing structures of practice generated powerful actants that mattered in different ways. Insufficient project management activities also contributed to failure; the conclusion identifies concepts technical communicators can employ in establishing more effective project management strategies that work to resolve competing actants.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2018-01-01
DOI
10.1177/0047281616662984
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Pflugfelder et al. (2023)
    Expanding the Scope and Scale of Risk in TPC: Water Access and the Colorado Riv…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Brizee (2020)
    What Happens When We Fail? Building Resilient Community-Based Research
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (57) · 27 in this index

  1. Akrich M. (1992)
    Shaping technology/building society
  2. 10.2307/j.ctv12101zq
     ↗
  3. Birsch, D. & Felder, J. H. (Eds.). (1994). The Ford Pinto case: A study in applied ethi…
  4. 10.1007/978-1-349-07408-2_2
     ↗
  5. Choi et al. (2013)
    Analysis of the Interactive Relationship Between Apology and Product Involvemen…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 57 →
  1. Dombrowski (1991)
    The lessons of the Challenger investigations
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  2. Dombrowski (1995)
    Can ethics be technologized? Lessons from Challenger, philosophy, and rhetoric
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  3. Dombrowski (2007)
    The Evolving Face of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication: Challe…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  4. Dombrowski (1992)
    Challengerand the social contingency of meaning: Two lessons for the technical …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. 10.1353/tech.2000.0060
     ↗
  6. Fleckenstein et al. (2008)
    The Importance of Harmony: An Ecological Metaphor for Writing Research
    College Composition and Communication
  7. Fraiberg (2013)
    Reassembling Technical Communication: A Framework for Studying Multilingual and…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  8. Frost (2013)
    Transcultural Risk Communication on Dauphin Island: An Analysis of Ironically L…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  9. 10.1080/10510978609368212
     ↗
  10. Graham (2009)
    Agency and the Rhetoric of Medicine: Biomedical Brain Scans and the Ontology of…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  11. 10.7208/chicago/9780226264196.001.0001
     ↗
  12. Gross et al. (1997)
    The Challenger Disaster And The Revival Of Rhetoric In Organizational Life
    Argumentation
  13. Herndl C. G. (1991)
    Textual dynamics of the professions
  14. Latour B. (1996)
    Soziale Welt
  15. Latour B. (1996)
    Aramis, or the love of technology
  16. Latour B. (1987)
    Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society
  17. 10.1093/oso/9780199256044.001.0001
     ↗
  18. 10.1007/BF01059830
     ↗
  19. Law J. (1994)
    Shaping technology/building society
  20. Miller (1993)
    Framing Arguments in a Technical Controversy: Assumptions about Science and Tec…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  21. 10.1177/030631279402400402
     ↗
  22. MOORE (1992)
    When Politeness is Fatal: Technical Communication and the Challenger Accident
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  23. Pace (1988)
    Technical Communication, Group Differentiation, and the Decision to Launch the …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  24. Pflugfelder, E. H. (2011). Sustaining knowledge work in student engineering clubs. In P…
     ↗
  25. 10.7208/chicago/9780226668253.001.0001
     ↗
  26. Potts, L. (2008). Diagramming with actor network theory: A method for modeling holistic experience. In …
     ↗
  27. Potts (2009)
    Using Actor Network Theory to Trace and Improve Multimodal Communication Design
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  28. Potts, L. (2010). Consuming digital rights: Mapping the artifacts of entertainment. Tec…
  29. 10.4324/9780203366905
     ↗
  30. Potts et al. (2011)
    Contextualizing Experiences: Tracing the Relationships Between People and Techn…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  31. 10.1080/10510978809363235
     ↗
  32. Rice (2009)
    Woodward Paths: Motorizing Space
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  33. Rice J. (2012)
    Digital Detroit: Rhetoric and space in the age of the network
  34. Salvo et al. (2010)
    The Children of Aramis
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  35. Scott J. B. (2003)
    Risky rhetoric: AIDS and the cultural practices of HIV testing
  36. Slattery S. (2005)
    Technical Communication
  37. Slattery (2007)
    Undistributing Work Through Writing: How Technical Writers Manage Texts in Comp…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  38. 10.7551/mitpress/6875.001.0001
     ↗
  39. Spinuzzi (2005)
    Lost in the Translation: Shifting Claims in the Migration of a Research Technique
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  40. 10.2190/CPIC3
     ↗
  41. 10.1017/CBO9780511509605
     ↗
  42. Swarts (2007)
    Mobility and Composition: The Architecture of Coherence in Non-places
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  43. Swarts (2008)
    Information Technologies as Discursive Agents: Methodological Implications for …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  44. Swarts (2010)
    Recycled Writing: Assembling Actor Networks From Reusable Content
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  45. Swarts (2011)
    Technological Literacy as Network Building
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  46. Swarts (2014)
    The Trouble with Networks: Implications for the Practice of Help Documentation
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  47. Tufte E. R. (1997)
    Visual and statistical thinking: Displays of evidence for making decisions
  48. 10.1177/002194360304000303
     ↗
  49. 10.2307/378336
     ↗
  50. Winsor (1988)
    Communication failures contributing to the Challenger accident: an example for …
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  51. Winsor (1990)
    The Construction of Knowledge in Organizations: Asking the Right Questions abou…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  52. Winsor (2006)
    Using Writing to Structure Agency: An Examination of Engineers' Practice
    Technical Communication Quarterly
CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Sep 2016
    Public Engagement in Environmental Impact Studies: A Case Study of Professional Communication in Transportation Planning ↗
    Kristen R. Moore
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis service learning technical communication professional writing qualitative research multimodality
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly Jul 2026
    “Storying the Process”: Intergenerational Succession and Tactical Technical Communication in a Rural Nonprofit ↗
    Jordan P. Woodward
    genre theory technical communication professional writing qualitative research
  3. Written Communication May 2026
    Developing an Integrated Logging Method for Process-Based Assessment and Feedback in Technical Writing ↗
    Lin Dong
    genre theory assessment technical communication professional writing qualitative research
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Mar 2026
    “It's Hard to Show ROI When You’re Preventing Things from Happening”: How Impact Storytelling Frames Community Health Initiatives for Executive Audiences ↗
    Margaret Hsiao
    technical communication professional writing qualitative research
  5. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Mar 2026
    Effective Practices for User-Centered Instant Localization of a Screen Reader Software ↗
    Zsuzsanna B. Palmer
    technical communication professional writing qualitative research