Leadership Skills Development for Engineers

Curricular and Co-curricular Influences on Undergraduate Engineering Student Leadership

“…Small-sample, qualitative studies have mainly addressed how students and faculty view leadership within an engineering context (AlSagheer & Al-Sagheer, 2011;Cox, Cekic, & Adams, 2010;Sabatini & Knox, 1999;Schuhmann, 2010). Other literature has described frameworks (Farr & Brazil, 2009;Farr et al, 1997), approaches (Bowman & Farr, 2000;Galli & Luechtefeld, 2009;Hanus & Russell, 2007;Seat, Parsons, & Poppen, 2001), and programs (Bayless, Mitchell, & Robe, 2009;Schuhmann, 2010;Williams, Ahmed, Hanson, Peffers, & Sexton, 2012) that focus on engineering student leadership development. Only a few quantitative studies have developed instruments (Ahn, Cox, London, Cekic, & Zhu, 2014;Gerhart et al, 2010), focused on single-course, team experiences (e.g., Zafft, Adams, & Matkin, 2009), and used predictive mathematical modeling of leader emergence (e.g., Guastello, 2011).…”

“…In addition to the need to increase the numbers of leaders with technical expertise to advance the field, leadership is also important for an engineer's professional success at an individual level (Farr & Brazil, 2009). Globalization has greatly expanded the labor market, and companies can draw on less expensive labor from countries such as India and China for jobs previously held by U.S. engineers (National Research Council, 2007).…”

‘Thinking Before Acting’ or ‘Acting Before Thinking’: Antecedents of Individual Action Propensity in Work Situations

“…This analytical paradigm is emphasized, for example, in management education, where action is described as resulting from ‘deliberate strategies, carefully planned, that unfold as systematically managed sequences of decisions’ (Gosling and Mintzberg, , p. 8), and with prevalence of ‘ “define, diagnose, design, and decide” rational‐analytical approach’ (Mintzberg and Westley, , p. 81). Similarly, engineering education has been described as predominantly emphasizing scientific theory and mechanical analysis over practical action (Farr and Brazil, ).…”

Developing Engineering Managers: The Master of Engineering Management Program at Memorial University of Newfoundland

“…Research has shown that professional, or "soft skills," are equally important in technology-based industries as technical skills [2], as well they are a large component of an engineering manager's day-to-day role [3]; therefore, an evaluation of how well MEM students are developing these "soft skills" through the program of study offered is critical.…”