Engineering Management Quiz

Engineering and Project Management Introduction to Management

• Ricky Griffin's 5th edition of Management and input from Dr. A.A. Elimam were used as resources
• Course outline focuses on principles of engineering management, importance of management to engineers, and applications in engineering organizations.

Management

• Management is getting work done through others
• Requires planning, decision-making, organizing, leading, and controlling organizational resources (human, financial, physical, and information) to achieve goals effectively and efficiently
• An organization is a group of people working together to achieve goals, in a structured and coordinated way.

Management in Organizations

• Inputs from the environment include human, financial, physical and information resources
• Planning and decision-making are followed by organizing activities
• Leading and controlling operations complete the process to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively

Management in Organization (cont.)

• A manager's primary responsibility is carrying out the management process effectively (making the right decisions and successfully implementing them) and efficiently (using resources wisely)
• Example: Setting goals and deciding how best to achieve them (planning).

Management Functions

• Planning: Setting goals and deciding on the best way to achieve them
• Decision Making: Choosing a course of action from a set of alternatives
• Organizing: Grouping activities and resources logically
• Leading: Guiding members of the organization to work collaboratively for the organizational benefit
• Controlling: Monitoring progress toward goals and correcting deviations as needed

Management Functions (Cont.)

• Most managers engage in more than one activity at the same time
• These are interconnected and support each other

Management: Origins

• Ancient civilizations (Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, Romans, Venetians, and Greeks) used management principles and practices for governance, organization structures, and construction
• Management's early application focused on governance, construction, and organizing structures
• Examples of early management included written rules, regulations for governance, management practices, and organizational designs (government agencies & arts)

What is Engineering?

• Applying knowledge of mathematics, natural sciences, study, experience, and practice to develop ways to use natural resources for mankind
• Engineers use their knowledge to solve practical problems.

What is Engineering Management?

• Engineering management is the process of leading and controlling a technical function/business
• Similar to general management, but emphasizes technical issues.

Management Levels and Areas

• Levels of management are hierarchical (top, middle, first-line managers) covering various functions (marketing, finance, operations, human resources, administration, etc.)

Management Levels (cont.)

• First-line managers: Direct non-management staff, execute plans, supervise, and evaluate individual employee performance
• Middle managers: Manage through other managers, create short-term/intermediate plans, coordinate with supervisors and top management
• Top managers: Establish organizational character, mission, and objectives, define long-term plans, and evaluate senior management

Basic Managerial Skills

• Top managers: High conceptual skills and diagnostic skills
• Middle managers: Balance of conceptual, technical, and interpersonal skills.
• First-line managers: High technical skills and interpersonal skills

Basic Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal: Figurehead, Leader, Liaison
• Informational: Monitor, Disseminator, Spokesperson
• Decisional: Entrepreneur, Disturbance Handler, Resource Allocator, Negotiator

Reasons Engineering Background Helps in Engineering Management

• Engineers are logical, methodical, objective, and make decisions based on facts.
• Use technical knowledge to evaluate information validity.
• Analyze problems thoroughly, looking beyond the immediate issues, exploring alternatives.
• Understand engineer motivations.
• Evaluate subordinates effectively due to their understanding of their work.

Reasons Engineering Background Helps in Engineering Management (cont.)

• Plan for the future considering technology and cost-effectiveness.
• Increase credibility with employees, customers and supervisors; enabling influencing those perceptions.
• Aid in technical discussions involving customers.

Role Differences Between Engineers and Managers

• Engineers are technical/science-focused, making decisions with high certainty and focus.
• Managers are people-focused, making decisions with limited information and uncertainty, leading others toward goals
• Focus on facts (engineers) or fewer measurable outcomes, and interpersonal skills (managers).

Role Differences Between Engineers and Managers(cont.)

• Engineers are generally autonomous with individual accomplishments. Managers are interdependent with multiple objectives and tasks simultaneously.
• Managers have creativity in people and organizations.

Engineers Versus Managers

• Engineers minimize risk and emphasize accuracy; Managers take calculated risks and rely on intuition.
• Engineers emphasize data and facts in decisions; Managers often rely on limited information.
• Engineers work mostly alone; Managers employ others to achieve common goals.

Philosophical Similarities Between Engineering and Management

• Both are skilled at decision-making in complex environments
• Both allocate resources and consider the impact on existing or newly developed systems.
• Recognize that interactions among different systems components exist.

The Scope of Management

• Large businesses rely on knowledge accumulated from profitability driven organizations
• Small and start-up businesses are guided by managerial skills since wrong decisions may not be recoverable in these businesses with limited knowledge
• International management is important since large organizations often derive a significant portion of their business from international markets.

Nonprofit Organizations

• Government and Public pressure influence management.
• Educational organizations, healthcare facilities, and nontraditional settings (religious organizations, households) present unique management challenges and administrative problems.

Management: Driving Forces

• Social forces, encompassing cultural norms and values
• Economic forces, which include economic systems, general economic conditions, market economics, and competition
• Political forces, which consist of governing institutions, general policies, and attitudes impacting businesses, including legal challenges

Management Perspectives

• Classical perspectives emphasize scientific and administrative approaches to management, focusing on individual workers and the entire organization.
• Behavioral perspectives focus on individual attitudes, behaviors, and group processes in organizations.
• Quantitative perspectives apply quantitative techniques in the management process.
• Integrated perspectives incorporate all three perspectives, emphasizing systems and contingency views.

Scientific Management

• Defined by four elements:
  1. replacing rule-of-thumb knowledge with science for each job element
  2. scientifically selecting, training, and developing employees
  3. closely supervising to make sure those methods are being followed
  4. planning the tasks with the workers
• The methods can boost productivity; UPS example demonstrates this through their time-and-motion studies.

Classical Perspective

• Primarily focused on employee productivity.
• Led to the foundation of modern management theory and understanding management processes, functions, and skills.
• Primarily concerned with stability, simplicity, and standardization; less effective in dynamic and complex environments

Behavioral Perspective

• Focused on employees in organizational contexts.
• Led to the understanding of motivation, group dynamics, and other interpersonal processes in organizations.
• Acknowledged the crucial role of human resources and organizational behavior.
• Challenges the idea of employees as tools, emphasizing their value as resources.
• Complexities in predicting employee behavior remain an obstacle.

Quantitative Perspective

• Management science focused on employing mathematical models for making decisions in management problems, operations, and control situations.
• Quantitative methods were instrumental in understanding complex organizational processes.

Integrated Perspective

• Combines classical (efficiency/productivity), behavioral (employee behavior), and quantitative perspectives (applying math/models) to address systemic and situational demands.
• A unified approach to effective and efficient management.
• Emphasis on contingency approach (situational context, rather than static principles) for effective solutions.

Contemporary Perspective (Theory Z)

• Combines American and Japanese management styles — emphasizing long-term employment, collective decision-making and holistic concern, including family needs
• Focuses on increasing managerial effectiveness while accommodating diverse norms and cultural values

Management Context

• External Environment: Factors outside the organization (e.g., international, economic, political-legal, socio-cultural, and technological dimensions, competitors, customers, suppliers and regulators).
• Internal Environment: Conditions and forces within the organization.

The External Environment

• General Environment: Broad dimensions encompassing the organization's context (e.g., economic, technological, socio-cultural, political-legal, and international dimensions).
• Task Environment: Specific organizations or groups interacting with the organization directly (e.g., competitors, customers, suppliers, and regulators).

The General Environment (cont.)

• Key dimensions (economic, technological, socio-cultural, political-legal, international dimensions) influencing organizations and creating their context.
• Examples of how dimensions influence organizations are using specific methods (methods available) to convert resources into goods or services (e.g., technological innovations).

The Task Environment (cont.)

• Detailed examples (competitors, customers, suppliers, and regulators) related to how organizations are impacted.
• Describing various relationships and interactions with the specific organizations that a company deals with directly.

Environmental Response

• Information management systems are used for responses to environmental challenges and opportunities.
• Organizations adapt to environmental pressures through mergers, alliances, acquisitions, and taking direct steps toward influence. Organizational design should adjust accordingly with environmental demands.

Management Ethical and Social Context

• Ethics are individual (personal) beliefs about right and wrong or good and bad.
• Ethical behavior adheres to generally accepted social norms.

Managerial Ethics

• Focuses on how organizations treat employees and economic agents.
• Includes hiring/firing, wages/working conditions, privacy, customers, competitors, stakeholders, suppliers, and dealers.
• Companies handle conflicts of interest and secrecy, while adhering to ethical standards.

An Example Code of Ethics

• Companies such as Martin Marietta establish codes of ethics to guide their unifying principles of integrity, teamwork, excellence, and emphasize their people's value to the company, while striving for success.
• Examples include maintaining integrity and ethical business practices while treating employees fairly, valuing customers and communities, and working with suppliers

Areas of Social Responsibility

• Stakeholders: Broad range of groups that are impacted by the organization (e.g., creditors, customers, local community, foreign government, colleges and universities, employees, etc.).
• Organization's social interactions with the environment create mutual benefits (and responsibilities).

Social Responsibility

• Arguments for social responsibility: Businesses should help solve problems they cause; Corporations are part of the society; Businesses have the need to address the problem and should have the resources to address it. Companies can be partners in the society with the government.
• Arguments against social responsibility: Businesses' purpose is profit generation; Involvement in social programs gives them too much power; conflicts of interest can arise; Businesses lack expertise to manage social programs.