NASA Procedural Requirements

NPR 7120.11A Effective Date: September 08, 2020 Expiration Date: September 08, 2025

Subject: NASA Health and Medical Technical Authority (HMTA) Implementation

Responsible Office: Office of the Chief Health & Medical Officer

Chapter 5. Formal Dissents

5.1 Diverse Views

5.1.1 NASA supports and promotes open discussion of issues that can improve safety and mission success throughout the Agency, including alternative and divergent views. To empower team members with the ability to provide their best input during a decision, diverse views are to be fostered and respected, without any suppression or retribution. In assessing a decision or action, an individual member has three choices: agree, disagree but be willing to fully support the decision, or disagree and raise a formal dissent. For disagreements rising to the level of importance that warrant a specific review and decision by higher-level management, NASA has formalized the Formal Dissent process.

5.1.2 A Formal Dissent is a substantive disagreement with a decision or action that is based on a sound rationale (not on unyielding opposition) that an individual judges is of sufficient importance that it warrants a specific review and decision by higher-level management, and the individual specifically requests that the dissent be recorded and resolved by the Agency Formal Dissent process. The decision on whether the issue in question is of the significance that warrants the use of the Formal Dissent process is the responsibility and personal decision of the dissenting individual.

5.2 Process for Handling Formal Dissents

5.2.1 Each program and project team member has a fundamental responsibility to express their views to the appropriate decision maker in a timely manner. Unresolved health, medical, and human performance issues within a program or project team should be quickly elevated to achieve timely resolution at the appropriate level.

5.2.2 Formal dissents adjudicated within the HMTA will be addressed using the process set forth in NPR 7120.5 and the guidance given in NASA SP-2014-3705. Formal dissents are resolved by elevation through conversations between successively higher levels of the involved.

5.2.3 The CHPO shall enable the Formal Dissent process and, if needed, the escalation of an individual formal dissent within their assigned program or project.

5.2.4 The LHIC CMO shall hear appeals of program or project-level HMTA decisions when they cannot be resolved at the program or project level.

5.2.5 The CHMO shall hear appeals of the HMTA L2 decisions at the CHMO Management Board when they cannot be resolved at the HMTA L2.

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