We discussed the same case on Strategic leadership class, based on Janis' opinion the major contribution for the tragedy is "Group Think". Term created by Irving Janis – 1971 “A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action” Examined historical civilian and non-civilian governmental decision making processes
The major reason for the failure is that the NASA officers neglected expert's opinion. They assume it was no problem as the Engineer could not prove the temperature abnormal will be an issue. Project management is risk management, whenever there is unclear risks, need to minimize the risk or avoid the risk, in this particular case, NASA should demenstrate this was not an issue rather than this was an issue.