ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

1 OVERVIEW

1.1 COURSE DESCRIPTION

Engineering management is a specialized form of management that is concerned with

the application of engineering principles to business practice;
1.2 PREREQUISITE

None
1.3 IMPORTANCE OF THE COURSE

Within 3 to 7 years of graduation, engineers often reach a turning point. They select either
the technical management or technical specialty path. Numerous studies have been done,
and it is believed that more than 75% of engineers take the technical manage ment path,
carrying out management duties while retaining their identity as technical specialists.
Despite this, engineers are rarely ready for administrative positions. Through thi s course,
engineers might advance to management positions in their technical fields.

Many of the best corporate managers in the industrial sector have engineering credentials.
Numerous institutions now provide undergraduate and/or graduate Engineering
Management programs and specializations.

1.4 IMPORTANCE OF THE COURSE

• To introduce engineering students to the managerial theories and practices employed

by project managers, technical managers, and other management experts who have
a technical focus in real life.
• To conduct a thorough examination of a few case studies involving engineering
management duties.

1.5 TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES

This course relies on lectures and Power Point presentation by the lecturer. Tutorials will
be offered. Following the explanations, students will be expected to participate in
discussions and study the relevant passage in the given textbook.

1.6 REQUIRED TEXT BOOKS

a) Engineering Management by B S, Dhillon, Technornic Publishing Co., 1987.

b) Essentials Of Management by Joseph L. Massie, Prentice hall Publishing Co.,
4th Edition.
c) Managing Projects: A System Approach by Daniel D. Roman, Elsevier Science
Publishing CO., 1986.
d) Engineering Program Management by Hans J. Tharrihain, John Wiley & Sons,
1984.
e) Engineering Management by D.I. Cleland and D. E Kocaoglu, McGraw-Hill,
1981.

Page 1
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT TERMINOLOGY AND DEFINITIONS

Organizational Structure: The formal arrangement of jobs within an organization.

Organizational Design: A process involving decisions about six key elements: i. Work
specialization ii. Departmentalization iii. Chain of command iv. Span of control v. Centralization
and decentralization vi. Formalization

Work Specialization: The degree to which tasks in the organization are divided into
separate jobs with each step completed by a different person.

Chain of Command: The continuous line of authority that extends from upper levels of an
organization to the lowest levels of the organization and clarifies who reports to who.

Authority: The rights inherent (essential) in a managerial position to tell people what to do
and to expect them to do it.

Responsibility: The obligation (commitment) or expectation to perform.

Unity of Command: The concept that a person should have one boss and should report
only to that person.

Span of Control: The number of employees who can be effectively and efficiently supervised
by a manager.

Centralization: The degree to which decision-making is concentrated at a single point in the

organization. (Organizations in which top managers make all the decisions and lower-level
employees simply carry out those orders.)

Decentralization: Organizations in which decision-making is pushed down to the managers

who are closest to the action.

Employee Empowerment: Increasing the decision-making authority (power) of employees.

Formalization: The degree to which jobs within the organization are standardized and the
extent to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures. (Highly formalized jobs
offer little discretion over what is to be done. Low formalization means fewer constraints on
how employees do their work.)

Mechanistic Organization: A rigid and tightly controlled structure

Organic Organization: Highly flexible and adaptable structure

Page 2
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

Ethics: - The study of moral obligation involving the distinction between right and wrong. -
Ethics involves a discipline that examines good or bad practices within the context of moral
duty. Moral conduct is behavior that is right or wrong

Business Ethics: Right or wrong in the workplace – value management. Business ethics
include practices and behaviors that are good or bad in an organization.

Behavioral Management: The study of how managers should personally behave to

motivate employees and encourage them to perform at high levels and be committed to the
achievement of organizational goals.

Management Science Theory: A contemporary approach to management that focuses on

the use of rigorous quantitative techniques to help managers make maximum use of
organizational resources to produce goods and services.

Operations management — techniques used to analyze any aspect of the organization’s

production system.

Total Quality Management (TQM) — focuses on analyzing input, conversion, and output
activities to increase product quality.

Management Information Systems (MIS) — provides information vital for effective

decision making.

Organizational Environment – The set of forces and conditions that operate beyond an
organization’s boundaries but affect a manager’s ability to acquire and utilize resources.

Open System: A system that takes resources from its external environment, transforms
them into goods and services and then send them back to that environment where they are
bought by customers.

Closed System: A self-contained system that is not affected by changes in its external
environment.

Synergy – the performance gains that result from the combined actions of individuals and
departments

Management: Management is the attainment of organizational goals in an effective and

efficient manner through planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling
organizational resources. Organizational resources include men (human beings), money,
machines, and materials. Louis E Boone & David L Kurtz- “The use of people and other

Page 3
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

resources to accomplish objectives”. Mary Parker Follet- “the art of getting things done
through people”. Frederick Taylor defines Management as the art of knowing what you want
to do in the best and cheapest way.

Technical Skills: A persons’ knowledge and ability to make effective use of any process or
technique constitutes his technical skills. For eg: Engineer, accountant, data entry operator,
lawyer, doctor, etc.

Human Skills: An individuals’ ability to cooperate with other members of the organization
and work effectively in teams. For eg: Interpersonal relationships, solving people’s problem
and acceptance of other employees.

Conceptual Skills: The ability of an individual to analyze complex situations and to rationally
process and interpret available information. For eg: Idea generation and analytical process of
information.

Benchmarking: The search for the best practices among competitors and non-competitors
that lead to their superior performance. By analyzing and copying these practices, firms can
improve their performance.

Motivation: Is the process by which a person’s efforts are energized, directed, and sustained
towards attaining a goal. Energy: a measure of intensity or drive. Direction: toward
organizational goals Persistence: exerting effort to achieve goals. Motivation works best when
individual needs are compatible with organizational goals.

Goal-Setting Theory: Proposes that setting goals that are accepted, specific, and
challenging yet achievable will result in higher performance than having no or easy goals.

Marketing: Marketing is the delivery of customer satisfaction at a profit.

The Goal of Marketing: To attract new customers by promising superior value, and to keep
current customers by delivering satisfaction.

Exchange: The act of obtaining a desired object from someone by offering something in
return.

Transaction: A trade between two parties that involves at least two things of value, agreed-
upon conditions time of the agreement, and place of agreement.

Relationship marketing: The process of creating, maintaining, and enhancing strong,

value-laden relationships with customers and other stakeholders.

Page 4
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

Marketing Management: The analysis, planning, implementation, and control of programs

designed to create, build, and maintain beneficial exchanges with target buyers for the
purpose of achieving organizational objectives.

Succession Planning can be defined as a purposeful and systematic effort made by an

organization to ensure leadership continuity, retain and develop knowledge and intellectual
capital for the future, and encourage individual employee growth and development.

Job Analysis: According to Michael L. Jucius, “Job analysis refers to the process of studying
the operations, duties and organizational aspects of jobs in order to derive specifications or
as they called by some, job descriptions.” According to De Cenzo and P. Robbins, “A job
analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job. It is a basic technical
procedure, one that is used to define the duties, responsibilities, and accountabilities of a
job.”

Page 5
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

PRETEST

Direction: Before you proceed any further, consider answering the pre-assessment below.
This may determine whether you already have prior knowledge of the terms, skills, and
understandings in Engineering Management.

1. What is engineering management?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.

2. What are the similarities and differences between engineering and management?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.

3. What are the skills and knowledge required for engineering management?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________.

4. What are the career paths available to engineering managers?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________.

5. What are the challenges facing engineering managers in the 21st century?

__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________.

Page 6