Management education for the 21st Century Engineering Manager: An Australian perspective

Engineering Managers in the 21^st Century will be operating in a very different environment compared to 2008. The major change is that it will be a more globalized world. The professional and educational requirements of senior engineering managers will need to noticeably evolve to meet these changes. Thus, there are implications for relevant education providers such as engineering faculties. This paper provides results of a 2007 investigation into the perspectives of CEOs on career progression of engineers from new graduates to CEOs in Australia, and determining the skills and qualities engineers need as CEOs of large companies. The paper also investigates the implication of predicted changes in operating environments in the year 2020 via an environmental scan, and recommends strategies for career development for the potential senior engineering managers of the 21^st century. This paper also proposes potential implications for educators. Some unique findings are that it will be desirable to have an ability to deal with the increasingly globalized nature of engineering projects and an ability to lead multi-disciplinary multi-cultural teams but to also possess deep technical knowledge, as opposed to a generalist background.

Introduction

In the vast majority of cases it is a long and often torturous path to success for a CEO. Generally they start as young professionals learning the basics of their original trade before moving into middle management and then working their way up based on merit.