Republic of the Philippines

DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE UNIVERSITY

Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

Department of Civil Engineering

A. Course Code / Title : ME212 – Engineering Management

B. Module Number : Module 1 - Field of Engineering Management

C. Time Frame : Weeks 1 and 2

D. Description : This module explains the field of Engineering Management, from

its origin and development to the definition and importance to Civil
Engineers.

E. Objectives : At the end of this module, the learner should be able to:
1. Know the origin and development of Engineering Management
and its relation to the CE profession.
2. Familiarize about the variety of tasks depending on the
engineer’s specialization.
3. Be able to describe the function, skills, and qualifications of
an engineer manager.

F. Contents : I. Manager and Development

A. Definition of Management
B. Process of Management
C. The Engineer in the Various Types of Organization
II. Origin of Modern Management
III. Engineers as Manager
A. Function of an Engineer Manager
B. Skills of an Engineer Manager
C. Qualifications of an Engineer Manager

I. MANAGER AND DEVELOPMENT

Management is universal in the modern industrial world. Every organization requires the making of
decisions, the coordinating of activities, handling of people, and the evaluation of performance directed toward group
objectives. Numerous managerial activities have their own particular approach to specific types of problems and are
discussed under such headings. Management has become more specialized as the scale of operations has
increased. The dynamics of management, therefore, should be characteristic of any study of its theory and practice.

A. Definition of Management
Since the engineer manager is presumed to be technically competent in his specialization, one may now
proceed to describe more thoroughly the remaining portion of his job, which is management.
Management may be defined as “the creative problem solving process of planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling an organization’s resources to achieve its mission and objectives.”
But what is Engineering Management?
Engineering management refers to “the activity combining technical knowledge with the ability to organize
and coordinate worker power, materials, machinery, and money.”
When the engineer is assigned to supervise the work of even a few people, he is already engaged in the
first phase of engineering management. His main responsibility is to lead his group into producing a certain output
consistent with the required specifications.
The top position an engineer manager may hope to occupy is the general managership or presidency of any
firm, large or small. As he scales the management ladder, he finds that the higher he goes up, the less technical
activities he performs, and the more management tasks he accepts. In this case, it is but proper that the
management functions taught in pure management courses be well understood by the engineer manager.

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B. Process of Management
Management is a process consisting of planning, organizing, directing (or leading), and controlling.
Explained in a simple manner, management must seek to find out the following:
 objectives of organization
 think of ways on how to achieve these objectives
 decide on the ways to be adapted and the material resources to be used
 determine the human requirements of the total job
 assign specific tasks to specific persons
 motivate these people, and
 Provide means to make sure that the activities are in the right direction.

C. The Engineer in Various Types of Organization

From the viewpoint of the engineer, organizations may be classified according to the degree of engineering
jobs performed.
1. Level One – those with minimal engineering jobs like retailing firms
2. Level Two – those with moderate degree of engineering jobs like transportation companies
3. Level Three – those with a high degree of engineering jobs like construction firms.
Among the types of organizations, the engineer will have a slim chance of becoming the general manager or
president of level one, unless of course, he owns the firm. The engineer manager may be assigned to head a small
engineering unit of the firm, but there will not be too many firms which will have this unit.
In level two firms, the engineer may be assigned to head the engineering division. The need for
management skills will now be felt by the engineer manager.
Level three firms provide the biggest opportunity for an engineer to become the president or general
manager. In this case, the engineer manager cannot function effectively without adequate management skills.

II. ORIGIN OF MODERN MANAGEMENT

Although great feats of human achievement such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the
Coliseums of Rome and the Taj Mahal in India all bear testimony to skilled management in ancient times, the formal
study of management only began later in the 19th century. One of the early pioneers of management theory was
Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915), a mechanical engineer who believed that it was management’s task to design jobs
properly and to provide incentives to motivate workers to achieve higher productivity.
Stevens Institute of Technology is believed to have the oldest engineering management department,
established as the School of Business Engineering in 1908. This was later called the Bachelor of Engineering in
Engineering Management (BEEM) program and moved into the School of Systems and Enterprises.
Outside the US, in Germany the first department concentrating on Engineering Management was
established 1927 in Berlin. In Turkey the Istanbul Technical University has a Management Engineering Department
established in 1982, offering a number of graduate and undergraduate programs in Management Engineering. In UK
the University of Warwick has a specialized department WMG (previously known as Warwick Manufacturing Group)
established in 1980, which offers a graduate programme in MSc Engineering Business Management.
Michigan Technological University began an Engineering Management program in the School of Business &
Economics in the Fall of 2012. In Canada, Memorial University of Newfoundland has started a complete master's
degree Program in Engineering Management. In Denmark, the Technical University of Denmark offers a MSc
program in Engineering Management (in English).In Russia, since 2014 the Faculty of Engineering Management of
The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) offers bachelor's and
master's degrees in Engineering Management.

Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915)

Principles of Scientific Management (1911)
 Replace the rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on scientific study of tasks.
 Scientifically select, train and develop each worker rather than passively leaving them to train themselves
 Cooperate with workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed
 Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific
management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.

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Jules Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
According to him, specialization promotes efficiency of the workforce and increases productivity. In addition, the
specialization of the workforce increases their accuracy and speed.

Max Weber
He was a German sociologist who approached management by focusing on organizational structures, dividing
organizations into hierarchies with clear lines of authority and control. He believed that an ideal bureaucracy consists
of six specific characteristics: hierarchy of command, impersonality, written rules of conduct, advancement based on
achievement, specialized division of labor and efficiency.

Elthon Mayo (1880-1949)

He was a Harvard professor who proposed that managers should become more “people oriented”. Conducting
experiments on conditions in the workplace and incorporating the well-published findings of hawthorne studies, Mayo
declared that logical factors were far less important than emotional factors in determining productive efficiency”. He
concluded that participation in social groups and group pressure as proposed to organizational structures or
demands from management had the strongest impact on worker productivity.

Peter Greenleaf (1904-1990)

He explained that becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve followed by the
aspiration to lead. Although the concept of servant leader is found in the bible and might even date further back into
antiquity, it was first proposed as a management by him.

III. ENGINEERS AS MANAGERS

Engineers are expected to perform variety of tasks depending on their specialization and job level. It is
important to the engineer that he knows what is expected of him so that he may be able to perform his job effectively
and efficiently. His next concern will be to identify the skills required but which he does not have. As engineers are
not trained to directly deal with people, it is expected that their weakness will mostly often be on people-based skills.
This difficulty will be more apparent once they are assigned to occupy management positions. It follows that if the
engineer manager would want to do his job well, some exposure to engineering management activities becomes
necessary.

A. Function of an Engineer Manager

Specifically, the functions of engineering encompass the following areas.
1. Research - where the engineers 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 part are tested for work ability.
4. Manufacturing – where the engineer is directly in charge of production personnel or assumes responsibility for the
product.
5. Construction – this is where the construction engineer 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 the engineer may find employment in the government performing any of the various tasks in
regulating, monitoring, and controlling the activities of various institutions, public or private
9. Teaching – where the engineer gets employment in a school and is assigned as a teacher of engineering courses.
Some of them later become deans, vice presidents and presidents.
10. Management –where the engineer is assigned to manage groups of people performing specific tasks

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B. Skills of an Engineer Manager
Successful engineer managers do not happen as a matter of chance, although luck is a contributory factor.
It is very important for the engineer manager to know the various factors leading to successful management.
Kreitner indicates at least three general preconditions for achieving lasting success as a manager. They are
as follows:
1. Ability
2. Motivation to manage, and
3. Opportunity

Ability
Managerial ability refers to the capacity of an engineer manager to achieve organizational objectives
effectively and efficiently.
Effectiveness according to Higgins, refers to a description of “whether objectives are accomplished”, while
efficiency is a description of the “relative amount of resources used in obtaining effectiveness.”

Motivation to Manage
Many people have the desire to work and finish specific tasks assigned by superiors, but not many are
motivated to manage other people so that they may contribute to the realization of the organization’s objectives.
A management researcher, John B. Miner, developed a psychometric instrument to measure objectively an
individual’s motivation to manage. The test is anchored to the following dimensions:
1. Favorable attitude toward those in positions of authority, such as superiors.
2. Desire to engage in games or sports competitions with peers.
3. Desire to engage in occupational or work-related competition with peers.
4. Desire to assert one self and take charge.
5. Desire to exercise power and authority over others.
6. Desire to behave in a distinctive way, which includes standing out from the crowd.
7. Sense of responsibility in carrying out the routine duties associated with managerial work.
High scores in the foregoing dimensions are associated with high motivation to manage.

Opportunity
Successful managers become possible only if those having the ability and motivation are given the
opportunity to manage. The opportunity for successful management has two requirements:
1. Obtaining a suitable managerial job, and
2. Finding a supportive climate once on the job.
Newspaper advertisements abound with needs for engineer manager. It is a little difficult to determine if the
firms requiring their services provide a supportive climate for effective and efficient management. A supportive
climate is characterized by the recognition of managerial talent through financial and nonfinancial rewards.

C. Qualifications of an Engineer Manager

Depending on the type of products or services a firm produce, the engineer manager must have the following
qualifications:
1. A bachelor’s degree in engineering from a reputable school; In some cases, a master’s degree in
engineering or business management is required;
2. A few years’ experience in a pure engineering job;
3. Training in supervision;
4. Special training in engineering management.
These qualifications will be of great help to the engineer manager in the performance of the various management
functions.

Reference:
 Engineering Management by Roberto G. Medina

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