2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
San Antonio, Texas
February 9, 2025
February 9, 2025
February 11, 2025
Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions
22
https://peer.asee.org/54072
16
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.
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.
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.
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
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