Simplistic? Only a bit, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, associate dean of the Yale School of Management. NASA was once defined by adventure and integrity. But sometime between Apollo and the 1986 O-rings disaster of the shuttle Challenger, NASA's cowboy culture was overwhelmed by bureaucracy, Sonnenfeld says. The movie found a humorous way to depict the "pathologies of the NASA culture," he said, and a "Space Cowboys" viewing would be a good place to find ways to weed them out.

The 248-page report last week by a board investigating shuttle Columbia's fiery demise goes on at length about how NASA's culture made it difficult for it to respond to unscripted events, such as when foam insulation fell off. Engineers knew enough to e-mail each other about potential dangers, but they were intimidated by a culture of shooting the messenger.

No employee likes to be disregarded, but it would be especially frustrating to the professionals of NASA, or other knowledge workers in companies today who know they bring something to the table, says Susan Annunzio, CEO of the Hudson Highland Center for High Performance, which trains leaders.

If the NASA saga rings familiar, she says, it's because similar problems have been at the root of recent corporate scandals. "What's sad about this story and what's sad about corporate America is they are exactly the same," Annunzio says.

What can NASA do to change?

Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, says culture is one of those "squishy" words that's hard to understand. Culture is what a company thinks is important, not just what it says is important. It boils down to the difference between lip service and what is embraced, whether organizations are dedicated to safety or diversity of thought or freedom for employees to voice concerns up the chain.

One example of a cultural problem companies face are so-called "silos," where one department refuses to cooperate with another. That's a culture that has crept in at NASA, says Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon in 1969. There is competition between NASA's various centers, such as Johnson in Houston and Kennedy at Cape Canaveral, Fla., Aldrin says.

NASA reminds Useem of IBM when Lou Gerstner became CEO in 1993. IBM had a lot of talent, good but aging products, and a culture of employees feeding off past glory days. Gerstner was able to shift the focus to future performance.

Culture is changed by action, not just words. It's not enough to encourage people to deliver bad news. It must be "forced" up by requiring employees to submit two or three things they expect would go wrong with each proposal, Useem says.