Introduction to Management

Principles of Engineering Management

Importance of Management to Engineers

Applications of these principles in
engineering organizations

Is getting work done through others.

Requires a set of activities (including planning
and decision making, organizing, leading, and
controlling) directed at an organization’s
resources (human, financial, physical, and
information), with the aim of achieving
organizational goals in an effective and efficient
manner.

An organization is a group of people working

together in a structured and coordinated
fashion to achieve a set of goals.

Manager:
Manager Someone whose primary
responsibility is to carry out the management
process.

Effective:
Effective Making the right decisions and
successfully implementing them.

Efficient:
Efficient Using resources wisely in a cost-
effective way.

Planning:
Planning Setting goals and deciding how best
to achieve them.

Decision Making:
Making Selecting a course of action
from a set of alternatives.

Organizing:
Organizing Grouping activities and resources
in a logical fashion.

Leading:
Leading Processes to get members of the
organization to work together to further the
interests of the organization.

Controlling:
Controlling Monitoring organizational progress
toward goal attainment and taking corrective
action when needed.
Most managers engage in more than one
activity at the same time
The profession in which a knowledge of the
mathematical and natural sciences gained by
study, experience, and practice is applied with
judgment to develop ways to utilize,
economically, the materials and forces of
nature for the benefit of mankind. (ABET)
Engineer: A person applying his/her
mathematical and science knowledge properly
to solve practical problems.
1. Research – where the engineer is engaged in
the process of learning about nature and
codifying this knowledge into usable
theories
2. Design and development – where the
engineer undertakes the activity of turning a
product concept to a finished physical item
3. Testing – where the engineer works in a unit
where new products or parts are tested for
workability
4. Manufacturing – where the engineer is
directly in charge of production personnel or
assumes responsibility for the product
5. Construction – where the construction
engineer (CE) is either directly in charge of
the construction personnel or may have
responsibility for the quality of the
construction process
6. Sales – where the engineer assists the
company’s customers to meet their needs,
especially those that require technical
expertise
7. Consulting – where the engineer works as
consultant of any individual or organization
requiring his services
8. Government – where engineers perform
various tasks in regulating, monitoring, and
controlling the activities of various
institutions
9. Teaching – engineer gets to teach
engineering courses
10. management – where the engineer is
assigned to manage groups of people
performing specific tasks

Engineering management is a process of
leading and controlling a technical
function/enterprise.

Engineering management is similar to other
definitions of management, but with a slant
toward technical issues.
 Level Type of Job
• Directly supervise non-managers.
• Carry out the plans and objectives of higher management using
the personnel and other resources assigned to them.
First-line Managers • Short-range operating plans governing what will be done
tomorrow or next week, assign tasks to their workers, supervise
the work that is done, and evaluate the performance of individual
workers.
• Manage through other managers.
• Make plans of intermediate range to achieve the long-range goals
set by top management, establish departmental policies, and
evaluate the performance of subordinate work units and their
Middle Management managers.
• Provide and integrating and coordinating function so that the
short-range decisions and activities of first-line supervisory
groups can be orchestrated toward achievement of the long-range
goals of the enterprise.
• Responsible for defining the character, mission, and objectives of
the enterprise.
• Establish criteria for and review long-range plans.
Top Management
• Evaluate the performance of major departments, and they evaluate
leading management personnel to gauge their readiness for
promotion to key executive positions.
1. Engineers: logical, methodical, objective, and
make unemotional decisions based on facts.
2. Use their technical knowledge to check the
validity of information.
3. Can analyze problems thoroughly, look beyond
the immediate ones, and ask good questions to
explore alternative solutions to technical
problems.
4. Understand what motivates engineers.
5. Can review and evaluate the work of their
subordinates since they understand what they
are doing.
6. Can engage in future planning with
appropriate consideration for technology and
its relationship to cost effectiveness.
7. Engineering backgrounds help in technical
discussions with customers.
8. Their background increases the manager's
credibility with subordinates, customers, and
superiors. People attribute qualities, abilities,
skills, and knowledge to them, which allows
the manager to influence those who have that
perception.
Position Engineer Manager
Focus More concerned with More concerned with
things technical/scientific people
Decision making Makes decisions with Makes decisions often
much information, under with inadequate
conditions of greater information, under
certainty conditions of greater
uncertainty
Involvement Works on tasks and Directs the work of
problems solving others to goals
personally
Process outcomes Work based on facts with Work based on fewer
quantifiable outcomes facts, less measurable
outcomes
Effectiveness Depends on person Depends on
technical expertise, interpersonal skills in
attention to detail, communication, conflict,
mathematical/technical management, getting
problem solving, and ideas across,
decision making negotiating, and
coaching
What Engineers Do What Managers Do
Minimize risk Take calculated risks
Emphasize accuracy and mathematical Rely heavily on intuition, take educated
precision guesses, and try to be "about right"
Exercise care in applying sound Exercise leadership in making
scientific methods on the basis of decisions under widely varying
reproducible data conditions based on sketchy
information
Solve technical problems based on Solve techno-people problems based
their own individual skills on skills in integrating the talents of
others
Work largely through their own abilities Work through others to get things done
to get things done
 Both engineers and managers are trained to
be decision makers in a complex environment.
 Both allocate resources for the operation of
existing systems or for the development of
new systems.
 Both have to recognize, identify and evaluate
the interactions among system components.
(Cleland and Kocaoglu 1981)

Large businesses: Most knowledge comes from
large profit-seeking organizations.

Small and Start-
Start-Up Businesses: Management is
key as wrong decisions may never be recovered.
This is how most businesses start. Compaq
started by 3 in 1982. In 1994 76th largest with
sales of $7b.

International management: Most large
organizations derive a significant portion of
their business from international markets.
Effective and efficient use of resources

Government Organizations: Subject to
political and public pressure.

Educational Organizations: Unique
management and administration problems.

Healthcare Facilities: Clinics, Hospitals,
HMOs. New educational programs.

Nontraditional Settings: Religious
organizations, service organizations,
households, …, etc.

Social Forces: The norms and values that
characterize a culture.

Economic Forces: Economic systems and
general economic conditions. Market
economy. Competition.

Political Forces: Governing institutions and
general policies and attitudes. Legal cases
against business.

Classical: Scientific (individual workers) and
Administrative (whole organization)

Behavioral: Individual attitudes and behaviors
and group processes

Quantitative: Applies quantitative techniques
to management.

Integrated: All three perspectives must be
integrated for best performance (Systems and
Contingency perspectives)