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Industry Participation in the Development of Engineers as Leaders in Work Environments

Abstract In the last two decades there has been a growing emphasis on the professional skills that engineering graduates should posses to better function in an industry environment. Recent research primarily emphasizes the importance of communication, people skills, and leadership abilities of engineering undergraduates. While colleges and universities try to improve the qualities of their graduates, there is much to do for the industry as well. To explore the role and the involvement of the industry in leadership development, eleven industry experts were interviewed. The results show that the industry experts see a lack of cooperation between the industry and engineering educators, real life examples/experiences were values much by the experts in the development of leadership skills. The industry experts agreed that there needs to be more involvement from the industry either self-initiated or initiated by engineering educators. A discussion of these issues and suggestions for improvement are also provided.

Introduction It is no secret that the educational process in this country has been rightfully or unrightfully criticized for many years1, 2. This criticism is stronger when it comes to “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” (STEM) education both at the K-12 and college level. While some of these criticisms came from educational groups, the industry that employs individuals with a college degree has also brought many criticisms and claimed that the higher education enterprise is not educating the engineers they need. Among those were the reports from ABET3, the National Academy of Engineering4 and the National Research Council 5. These reports also criticized higher education institutions for their lack of success in instilling leadership abilities along with other skills needed within recent engineering graduates. Some of these concerns from the industry focused on “soft skills”, what was called earlier, or “professional skills” of engineers. Among the professional skills one of the most studied attribute or skill is the engineers’ leadership abilities. Although there has been much emphasis recently on engineering students’ development of professional skills, only recently has an emphasis on engineering leadership education been explored6. With no consistent means of infusing leadership in engineering curricula, engineers have had to rely on studies that have attempted to define leadership 7, to distinguish differences between management and leadership attributes8, and to describe ways to incorporate leadership attributes into the curriculum9-11. Despite these studies, the definition of “leadership” within the context of engineering needs to be examined from the perspectives of practicing engineers who have demonstrated leadership in their environments. Colleges and universities are responsible for educating students to be proficient in their areas of expertise. However, it should not be ignored that industry should also play an important role in the development of these skills and should engage with higher education institutions to help graduates “hit the ground running” in their first few months of the job. Rather than highlighting the types of leadership skills that are needed from engineers or the complains of industry, this

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Cekic, O., & Cox, M., & Zhu, J. (2010, June), Industry Participation In The Development Of Engineers As Leaders In Work Environments Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16119