The Irrelevance of Engineering Management

The Irrelevance of Engineering Management

 

The main purpose of this assignment is for the student demonstrate critical
thinking skills as part of the course Management for Engineers.

I am required to prepare a whiteboard presentation using the VideoScribe app  EXAMPLE AS
THE VIDEO ATTACHED
I will do the video so just i want you to prepare for me what i will write in the video and
what i will say in the video for duration of 5 minutes

Assignment Requirement:
-You are requested to write for me reasoned argument on the ‘Irrelevance of engineering’ so i
will use it for the video , covering for example the following issues:
What is engineering?
Why engineering may have been perceived as an important discipline?
What difficulties engineering has faced, especially considering for example, advances
in technology?
Why engineering may now been seen as irrelevant?
How engineering can become relevant again?(let’s make engineering great again!)

i want creative REASONED ARGUMENT ideas such as questions,tables, numbers,
pictures.

Some URLs you can look at–but you are expected to do your own reading:
1- The  Engineers  of  the  Future  Will  Not  Resemble  the  Engineers  of  the  Past;
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/education/the-engineers-of-the-
future-will-not-resemble-the-engineers-of-the-past
1- Engineering transformation for a 4.0 world;
https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/gx/en/insights/2017/engineering-
transformation.html#Download
2- Why Do So Many Women Who Study Engineering Leave the Field?
3- New     laws     ‘will     annihilate     engineering     profession’,
https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/new-laws-will-annihilate-engineering-
profession.749881

4- The  Uncertain  Future  of  Engineering  Disciplines,  through  a  Transport  Lens,
https://medium.com/@philip.blake.026/the-uncertain-future-of-engineering-disciplines-
through-a-transport-lens-e1ae79f988b2
5-Jobs  lost,  jobs  gained:  What  the  future  of  work  will  mean  for  jobs,  skills,
and wages,
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-
the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages

6- How do engineers of the future work?,
https://arts.eu/blog/how-do-engineers-of-the-future-work

 

Solution

The Irrelevance of engineering management

Engineering management has been defined as a career that unites technical problem-
solving capability of the organizational, planning, and administrative abilities of management to
monitor the operational performance of the complicated engineering-driven businesses. Project
management associations are not new for engineering managers; today most of the project
managers have formal characteristics with professional bodies. The impact of the project
managers on project sectors is limited and so is engineering management as a career or
discipline. There are many questions and issues surrounding engineering management, where
the ability of engineers to become managers is often questioned. As a result, it is vital to examine
in depth the irrelevance of engineering management.

Reasons why engineering management is becoming irrelevant
Most of the projects end up failing since companies focus more on the rational factors
instead of the psychological engagement of staff and the cost of such decisions are enormous.
According to Hardy Valle (2012), in project management the majority of the firms prioritize the
practices instead of their employees. Therefore, organizations lay a lot of emphasis on the
rational aspects of the process itself and less focus on the emotional drivers, which could result
to project success, such as employee engagement. However, most of the project managers tend
to force their employees to adapt project management procedures and processes, which increases
the possibility of the project failing. The cost of a bad project management reaching to levels
such as astronomical is devastating (Gallup, 2012). The astronomical levels represent wastage of
money and significantly pose a huge risk to companies that depend on successful large-scale
projects. Behavioral-based project management is an approach that was developed by Gallups

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT3
who argued that high levels of performance and emotional commitment is important for project
groups. This approach enables the entire team to have an increased level of emotional
involvement from the stakeholders in such a way which enhances performance and engagement.
Time and cost have been identified to have huge effect on the national economies it is estimated
that IT failure is between 5% and 15% which is represents a significant loss of $ 500 billion
annually in the United States. In European another study which was conducted showed that $
142 billion are IT project failures a report released in the year 2004. Although most of project
failure causes huge price tag, the issue of cost is not the only problem there are also cases of
death such as Columbia Shuttle disaster. Columbia Shuttle problem led to other organizational
problems such as a weak culture at NASA.
A common project management approach mainly focus on the procedures, policies and
processes. Every step and task is explained in depth by the set rules and regulations. Most of the
organizations implement very strict processes which dictate the use and behavior of statistical
methods which are used to control quality. Rules books and processes are used to enhance
practices whereas quality control systems are used to improve and asses such practices. As such,
every person is concerned more on how to do the task and not the outcome of the job thus
contributing to the failure of the project.

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT4

Figure 1 : new laws on engineering profession

The new proposed law are likely to result to eradication of the engineering profession where is
has been argues by key experts that the proposed law would lead to a whole disintegration of the
profession if they are enforced. Among the proposed changes is the elimination of the legal term
engineer to be replaced with engineering services. According to the engineers this type of move
is highly meant to widen the definition to impress the construction sector. Caruana (2019) states
that the major fear is that this move is likely to permit people with fewer and lower qualifications
than the traditional engineers who will be considered to professionals in this field. The proposed
amendments also redefine activities conducted by engineers to also include electrical and any
engineering service of mechanical nature. These amendments will result to a complete
disintegration of the entire engineering professions since it was established years ago.
In STEM, engineering is highly dominated by male. Engineering is probably the
profession which is highly dominated by men in the US with 13% of women and 87% men as
shown in the chart below;

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT5

MEN AND WOMEN IN
ENGINEERING WORKFORCE

MEN
WOMEN

Figure 2: Men and Women in the Engineering workforce

The engineering educators for decades have concentrated on curriculum reform to attract women
in the field which has involved encouraging girl interest in science and math’s. Although this
efforts have been fruitful and attracted many women to study engineering the issue is that is most
of them quit during school and some after school.

Figure 3 female in the engineering

As a result, focusing only on education does not address the fact that women often leave
the profession faster than men. Engineering graduates has 20% women, however it has been
reported that almost 40% of them who obtain a degree in engineering either never enter the

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT6
professions or quit completely. The culture in engineering such as norms, beliefs and values
might have led to under-representation of women within the profession (Silbey, 2016).

Best engineers should not be promoted to managers

Companies have a behavior or promoting the best developers and engineers to be
managers the effects have been costly. Most of the best engineers have their thinking based on
code on not on people and they are not easy to approach when there is a technical problem. A
manager ought to be an individual that can work with people and not just code build server or
architecture (Brodzinski, 2013). Giving the best managers the position of the managers leaves
the company with many people but with managers who are very crappy. There are skills which
are needed for one to become a people manager and a technical leader which are not the same as
the skills which is required to have to become the best engineer.

Is possible for engineers to be effective managers?

CAN ENGINEERS BE GOOD

MANAGERS?

YES
NO

Figure 4: Can engineers be good managers

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT7
This chart represents the findings of Nathan (2019) who claims that managers that are
very successful are good people. These managers can be approached and enable people to give
out their best by listening, praising good results and giving clear direction. Most of these
attributes however do not come out naturally among to engineers since most of them do not have
the skills to lead people thus eliminating them as good managers to run a project.

Conclusion

In summary, there is wide range of issues surrounding engineering management. This
analysis has presented and argument explaining the reasons why engineering management is
becoming irrelevant. It is important for students to make the right choices when making their
career decisions as some of these courses are becoming irrelevant.

THE IRRELEVANCE OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT8

References

Brodzinski, P. (2013, December 27). Don’t Promote Best Engineers to Management.
Retrieved from https://brodzinski.com/2010/06/dont-promote-engineers-to-
management.html
Caruana, C. (2019, November 15). New laws ‘will annihilate engineering profession’.
Retrieved from https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/new-laws-will-annihilate-
engineering-profession.749881
Gallup, I. (2012, February 7). The Cost of Bad Project Management. Retrieved from
https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/152429/cost-bad-projectmanagement.aspx
Nathan, S. (2015, December 16). Do engineers make good managers? Retrieved from
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/do-engineers-make-good-managers/
Silbey, S. S. (2016, August 23). Why Do So Many Women Who Study Engineering Leave
the Field? Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-
study-engineering-leave-the-field

 

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