Vaughan, Diane (1951–)

DIANE VAUGHAN IS BEST known for her extensive work on the organizational deviance and the development of a general theory of the normalization of deviance. Much of her research explores mistakes and misdeeds that have resulted in disaster—the dark side of organizations. Her seminal work on the space shuttle disaster, The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA, was published in 1996. Vaughan, along with millions of Americans, watched as the space shuttle exploded on national television. The tragedy prompted her search for an explanation of why the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) had failed to prevent the tragedy.

Vaughan's nine-year research endeavor found that common speculations that NASA had ignored potential risks were superficial at best. Based on over 200,000 pages of interviews and internal NASA documents housed at the National Archive, Vaughan discovered officials and managers at the space organization had not violated agency policy and procedures in their decision to launch the Challenger. In fact, the strict adherence to rules and protocol took precedence over indications that forecasted any potential for disaster. “The decision to launch Challenger was, incredibly and sadly, a mistake embedded in the banality of organizational life,” according to Vaughan.

“No fundamental decision was made at NASA to do evil; rather, a series of seemingly harmless decisions were made that incrementally moved the space agency toward a catastrophic outcome.” The book has received numerous accolades, including the Rachel Carson Prize, Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award, Robert K. Merton Book Award, along with nominations for a Pulitzer Prize and National[Page 847] Book Award. Vaughan received her Ph.D. in 1979 from the department of sociology at Ohio State University. She first established her career as a post-doctoral fellow in the sociology of social control at Yale University and then as a research associate at Wellesley College Center for Research on Women from 1982 until 1984. She began teaching at Boston College in 1984 and was 20 years later a professor in the department of sociology. Vaughan received the Donald R. Cressey Memorial Award in 1995 and was a visiting fellow at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago and the Centre for SocioLegal Studies, Wolfson College at the University of Oxford, England.

Vaughan's areas of specialty in research include organizational theory, cultural sociology, qualitative methods, and science, knowledge, and technology. Her contributions to the field of white-collar crime are numerous, including victimology studies; organization, motivation and control of fraud; and social deviance. Vaughan's book, Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior, was published in 1983. Uncoupling is a highly acclaimed book on intimate relationships that examines breakups from sociological and psychological perspectives.