Chapter 1 Introduction to Management Challenges for Engineers
planning, project management, and team coordination. Both the new knowledge gained and the experiences accumulated provide them with a decisive advantage over other management candidates (O'Conner 1994; Matejka and Dunsing 1995).
Engineering managers must be able to lead. This is particularly true in the dynamic marketplace of the new century, which is affected by sophisticated communications tools, Web-based enablers, flexible supply chains, and business operations of global proportions. Web-based enablers are tools that are Internet based. These tools enhance the productivity of product design, project management, plant operations, facility maintenance, innovations, knowledge management, marketing and sales, enterprise resources planning and integration, and procurements. Since programs and projects will become increasingly interdisciplinary and complex in the future, decision making is likely to involve the use of Web-based tools and the participation of team members who have divergent cultural backgrounds, value systems, business priorities, and engineering practices. Also much needed is the push for technological innovations, which many engineers are particularly qualified to provide. Those engineering managers who are innovative and have both technological insights and business savvy will have opportunities to create significant value for and be richly rewarded by their employers in the new millennium (Kales 1998; Uyterhoeven 1989; Noori 1990).
This book is written to prepare both engineers to become better technical contributors and engineering managers to become better leaders in engineering organizations, so that all of them will add substantial value to their employers in the new millennium.
This book shows that certain management principles do not change over time
(Shannon 1980, Dhillon 1987; Thamhain 1992; Bennett 1996; Cardulo 1996; Mazda
1997). However, management practices do change in response to changes in customers' needs, employees' attitudes, business models, technologies, organizational structures, resources, and external business relations. Managers must be able to lead and manage these changes.
A good strategy for young engineers is to learn the fundamentals of management
(principles, skills, functions. roles and responsibilities, success factors, etc.), and then seek opportunities to actively practice these skills, functions, principles, and management roles. Opportunities to do so may exist in professional societies and volunteer organizations (e.g., the United Way, churches, boy scouts, girl scouts, and so forth). As more management experience is accumulated, proficiency will result and allow the engineer to naturally stand out when management openings become available in the future.
Example 1.1.
Several U.S. universities offer the academic degree program that is concentrated on engineering management. Others have developed the degree program for Management of Technology. Are they fundamentally different from one another?
Answer 1.1.
These two types of degree programs are essentially similar, with minor differences in the course work involved. Both programs are aimed at training managers to point the way in technology.