Asee peer logo

Barriers in the Workplace: An Analysis of Engineering Workplace Culture and Climate

Download Paper |

Conference

2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Location

San Antonio, Texas

Publication Date

February 9, 2025

Start Date

February 9, 2025

End Date

February 11, 2025

Conference Session

Track 5: Technical Session 2: Barriers in the Workplace: An Analysis of Engineering Workplace Culture and Climate

Tagged Topics

Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions

Page Count

22

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/54072

Download Count

16

Paper Authors

biography

Susan Sajadi Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

visit author page

Susan Sajadi is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in the department of engineering education. She has a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education Systems and Design from Arizona State University. Prior, she worked as an engineer in the medical device industry.

visit author page

biography

Olivia Ryan Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

visit author page

Olivia Ryan is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She holds a B.S. in engineering with a specialization in electrical engineering from Roger Williams University. Her research interests include developing professional skills for engineering students and understanding mathematics barriers that exist within engineering.

visit author page

biography

Katherine Drinkwater Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

visit author page

Katie Drinkwater is a recent graduate of Duke University with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering. She is excited to begin working towards her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in the Fall. Her interest in Engineering Education began through a project where she helped to design a makerspace inside a shipping container. Since then, she has explored design and engineering education through independent projects and extracurricular leadership in SWE, FSAE, and Duke Engineers for International Development.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

​​​​Engineering workplace culture and climate have been cited as a reason for attrition in the field. In order to meet the complex needs of the future, we need to retain the population of current engineers and create an inclusive and supportive culture. Therefore, this pilot study investigates barriers to inclusive climate and culture in the engineering workplace through a quantitative survey. This study aims to provide insight into common elements of engineering workplace culture by examining demographic differences in survey responses. The survey was specifically designed based on extant qualitative research studying obstacles faced by millennial engineers in the workplace. Through exploratory factor analysis, we found four factors representing harmful corporate culture aspects that may cause engineers to leave the field. These barriers include Limited Innovation and Growth, Unproductive and Isolated Work, Discriminatory Work Environment, and Imbalanced Workload. The analysis reveals that gender and department age accounts for 11.8% of the output in perceptions of the Discriminatory Work Environment factor, underscoring the influence of these factors on workplace experiences. Further, a third of women reported experiencing harassment or discrimination in their current role, indicating this is a persistent issue in the engineering and technology workplace. Our analysis has identified professional stagnation, isolation, and overwork as harmful elements of workplace climate in addition to harassment and discrimination. Future work should investigate these areas and support efforts to improve workplace culture and climate.

Sajadi, S., & Ryan, O., & Drinkwater, K. (2025, February), Barriers in the Workplace: An Analysis of Engineering Workplace Culture and Climate Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/54072

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2025 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015