The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.

com/researchregister

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1460-1060.htm

Status, role and satisfaction among development engineers

Barbara Bigliardi and Alberto Petroni
` Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Universita degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy, and

Development engineers

453

Alberto Ivo Dormio

` Dipartimento di Economia e Tecnologia, Universita di San Marino, Repubblica di San Marino
Abstract
Purpose To identify the problematic areas relating to the current managerial practices in motivating engineers and evaluating their relative contribution to the overall level of engineers satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Based on a conceptual model, an empirical study was conducted within 11 organizations operating in the food machinery industry in Italy. A survey was carried out on 376 development engineers staffed in these companies and a statistical analysis was conducted on the data collected in order to rene and operationalize the conceptual model proposed and to investigate the relative effects of the various factors considered. Findings From the statistical analysis it emerged that job satisfaction can be split into three dimensions and that it is impacted by ve factors related to managerial policies, perception of engineers status and job-related motivational mechanisms. Practical implications The analysis clearly suggests that engineers in industry are generally dissatised and largely demotivated. It also emphasizes the importance of sound managerial practices that enables the organization to establish appropriate reward systems, to understand engineers expectations as technical professionals and to provide them with task-related motivational tools fostering challenge and exibility. Originality/value It addresses an explanation of engineers satisfaction based on a theoretical framework, striving to identify key motivational stimuli effective with engineers. Keywords General management, Food manufacturing equipment, Human resource management, Job satisfaction Paper type Research paper

Introduction Engineering managers are increasingly facing problems in motivating engineers as a result of changes in economic, social and technological conditions. A vast body of research has demonstrated that engineers dissatisfaction is mounting in industry and, consequently, has focussed attention on the identication of more appropriate motivational systems (Amar, 2004; Debackere et al., 1997). It is thus not surprising to learn that at least half of the engineers that are trained for responsible positions in industry have no intention of remaining in such roles for more than four or ve years (Johnson and Sargeant, 1998). The lack of appropriate motivations has resulted in a higher rate of turnover among the engineers than among non-professionals. Several reasons have been put forward in literature. McGovern (1995) points out that employers are generally more concerned with having a steady turnover of staff, for which they saw a number of advantages, than with the development of policies

European Journal of Innovation Management Vol. 8 No. 4, 2005 pp. 453-470 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1460-1060 DOI 10.1108/14601060510627821

EJIM 8,4

454

which would enable them to retain scientists and engineers. These employers have, instead, developed a dual labour market approach that is contingent on the turnover of existing staff. This consisted of a general inclination to exploit the benets of the prevailing labour market conditions while simultaneously engaging in a policy that allowed them to selectively retain certain key human resources (Hiltrop, 1999). Another reason is to be traced back to the managerial failures to satisfy engineers orientations and expectations to be treated as professionals. Technical professionals need special treatment irrespective of traditional management and control approaches. Accordingly, various approaches to managing technical professionals have been proposed. The most famous (and perhaps the most controversial) is the so-called dual ladder system (Allen and Katz, 1986; Hesketh et al., 1992). As pinpointed by Allen and Katz (1992), the shortcomings of the dual ladder system can be traced back to: . the fact that technical and managerial careers have a different attractiveness for organization members; . the fact that even when technical positions are put on the same level as managerial positions in terms of prestige, salary and status, the former lacks the vital ingredient of power; and . the generalized practice whereby technical promotions sometimes tend to become a loyalty prize instead of true career advancement. A third rationale for engineers dissatisfaction is to be related to the misutilization of technical professionals whose skills and competences are reported to be widely underexploited (Badawy, 1978). These facts have caused considerable tensions and strains in the engineer-management relationship. This calls for changes in engineering management styles to maintain motivation and productivity (Day and Allen, 2004). The motivational methods, as ranked by Kuby (1993) in order of increasing probable success, are: . motivation by development; . motivation by objectives; . motivation by intrinsic-need satisfaction; and . motivation by management. There are differences in the most appropriate ways to satisfy engineers expectations. Thus, managers may nd that a combination of methods best suits their needs. In other words, management should develop different motivational patterns to t different employees requirements at different levels of the organization. The present study is aimed at investigating both positive and negative stimuli to maximize the motivation and potential satisfaction for typical engineers. By understanding the relative strength of various motives it is possible to identify key motivational stimuli effective with engineers (Appelbaum et al., 1998). More specically the purpose of this article is: . to systematically identify the problematic factors relating to the current managerial practices in motivating engineers; and

to evaluate their relative contribution to the overall level of engineers satisfaction.

Development engineers

Finally, the paper discusses some implications and suggests guidelines to management for better motivation and utilization of engineering manpower. Conceptual model Based on the above discussion, a conceptual model, on which this research is based, has been formulated. The motivational factors relating to the managerial practices having an impact on engineers satisfaction are visualized in Figure 1 as comprising the managerial policies and supervisory practices, the appropriate managerial perception of engineers status and role within the organization, and the job-related motivational mechanisms. Management systems and supervisory practices do not generally reect an adequate understanding of engineers expectations and as such are perceived as a rst problem area. One example refers to the managerial practice of supervising engineers by administrative managers. Another source of problems relates to criteria used for promotion and career advancement. So far, particular attention has been given to the problem of potential mismatch between R&D staff career orientations and available career opportunities (McCormick, 1995). In the study by Hesketh et al. (1992), satisfaction was related to the perceived t between career path preferences and perceived career path opportunities among senior engineer managers and trainee engineers. Senior respondents actual career paths (managerial, technical, or those waiting for promotion into either path) were not well matched to their preferences, with those in paths that were less well matched being less satised. Another source of tension and potential conict between management and technical professionals is the managements perception of engineers, and more specically its failure to differentiate between knowledge and non-knowledge employees (Howard, 1983). Managerial practices relating to this aspect include the inappropriate use of traditional techniques of work organization and bureaucratic controls, and of authority

455

Figure 1. The conceptual research model

EJIM 8,4

456

systems. Thus, managements understated perception of engineers emerges from the failures to differentiating between engineers as knowledge employees and other non-knowledge employees. These practices are dysfunctional to lead to the erosion of the engineers sense of professionalism. Also, in this area the important theme of the engineers transition into management can be located (Roberts and Biddle, 1994). This transition is described as difcult both for those who make it and for those who do not (McGovern, 1995). The perceptions of engineers as managers derive from the way the company denes the profession by qualications required and the boundary established between them and other technical employees (Canainn, 1995). The dynamics of the transition into management has been approached under different perspectives. Howard (1983) has studied the basic characteristics that are required for a successful later transition of engineers into management. A primary characteristic are administrative skills, consisting especially of the dimensions of planning and organizing, and decision-making. Interpersonal skills are equally important; these include such things as face-to-face leadership, oral communications skills, and making a forceful and likeable personal impact. Intellectual ability is also critical, and research has shown that both verbal and quantitative skills relate to success. Finally, motivation for advancement is a strong determinant of later progress; those who want to succeed are much more likely to do so. In managerial skills, on the average, engineers come up a little short compared to other majors. Munson and Posner (1979) have investigated the differences in personal value orientations between engineers and management engineers. Personal values demonstrated signicant discriminative and predictive validity in distinguishing management engineers from non-management engineers. The results of the study suggest that information about personal values might play some role in organizational decisions regarding job placement, promotion, formation of special groups, and in the design of employee motivation and incentive programs. A third leverage to increase engineers motivational potential is through the task itself. The managerial failures with this respect are evident: there are, as stated above, clear indications that engineers are in general underemployed and misutilized. It would be expected that all these three areas have an impact on engineers satisfaction. Job satisfaction has many dimensions that can range from career satisfaction, to organizational commitment and job involvement (Orpen, 1997). All these three aspect will be investigated in more details later on. Based on this conceptual model, an empirical study was conducted within 11 organizations operating in the food machinery industry in order to: rene and operationalize the conceptual model, and investigate the relative effects of the various factors considered on job satisfaction of development engineers. The rationale behind the choice of this specic industry has to be traced back to three main aspects. First, the relative importance of these manufacturers for the regional economy of the Emilia-Romagna district, with a record of over 1,700 million US dollars for the Italian trade balance. The most important reason is, anyhow, the increasing managerial concern for the retention of engineers in technical engineering departments. This industry has in fact demonstrated high rates of turnover in the past as for development engineers and designers. Furthermore, the area investigated is particularly interesting since it has been prompting a continuous re-shaping of the

technical skills and competencies required to engineers. This is mainly driven by the technological evolution that the industry has undergone and which may be ascribed to the computer-induced change of the way industrial designers work, through the adoption of new techniques (CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping and machining tools). Research design and measures The rst stage was the operationalization of the attributes. As alluded to previously, a close review of the literature resulted in the identication of general themes. Additionally, and of more value in identifying specic elements relating to the managerial practices in the issues investigated, there was a trawl through a number of business and technical journals (over a ve-year period) chasing articles on engineers motivation and abstracting all references to the elements of the model of Figure 1. Interviews with six plant directors were also conducted to provide face validity and assure accuracy and completeness of data. The results of this process were edited for overlaps and repetitions to produce a nal list of 27 attributes, that is reported in the Appendix. Data collection Data for the study were obtained from 11 companies: ve large divisions of a worldwide engineering Group active in the design, production and marketing of machines and complete lines for the food and tobacco industry, and a host of smaller rms manufacturing bottling equipment and food processing machinery. A prole of the 11 organizations represented in the group of respondents is reported in Table I. The sample was randomly selected from professionals including development engineers, designers and implementers. The respondents came from a variety of organizational units: manufacturing departments, R&D and engineering groups. Questionnaires were distributed to each participant by organizations internal mail. Participation was voluntary and each participant was assured condentiality. A cover letter from the management of the respective organization was attached to the questionnaire. Through the procedure described above, 642 professionals were asked to participate in the study. Of these, 66 currently hold a managerial position and were thus excluded. A total of 376 of them returned a complete and usable questionnaire for a satisfactory response rate of 58 percent. The demographic characteristics of the sample are reported in Table II. Of respondents, 21 percent hold a functional technical position without project (either temporary or stable) responsibilities. The remaining respondents hold a position along the technical ladder and are steadily assigned to a project team. A total of 44 percent of the respondents describe their current job as pertaining mainly to strict product design activities (i.e. design and prototyping), 44 percent state that his/her job is related to engineering and implementation aspects, 10 percent mainly act as the interface between and in support of either manufacturing or commercial departments, while the remaining has been categorized as other. Performance measures Job satisfaction is very rarely assessed on a single item but on a number of measures. Therefore, in addition to the elements of the research framework mentioned above, the

Development engineers

457

458

EJIM 8,4

Firm 78.125 98.8 446

A1

A2 187.500 65.625 60 218.750 50 112.500 Over 350 15 56 8 59 97 75 80 30 75 80 70 75 95

A3

A4 A5 A6

A7

A8

A9

A10

A11

Table I. Prole of the sample rms Turnover (US$ million) Employees Percentage of export/turnover (%) Employees staffed in engineering/design departments 90 1,400 402 Up to 500 900 240 600 Over 1,500 45 185 15 250 76 N/A. 211 60 131 N/A 10 39 4

Product category

Rows distribution systems; electronic in-line feeders; electronic high speed horizontal pillow-pack machines; robotic handling and collating units; feeders for continuous and intermittent motion cart Turnkey plants for drink in any style container (glass, PET, cans) Machines for food processing, preserving, packaging and packing Machinery for weighing, packaging and packing Turnkey projects for industrial bakeries Rinsers; unscramblers; llers; complete traditional bottling lines; complete aseptic lling lines Carton llers; confectionery-packaging machines; horizontal pillow-pack wrappers Yeast-packaging lines; various wrappers and overwrappers; labeling machines Horizontal pouch machines and pouch-cartoning systems Automatic can pressure/leak-testing machines; high speed checkweighers or aerosol lines gassing room to ll inammable propellant gas Bagging machines for liquids, powders and granular products

respondents were asked to rate the level of agreement with 13 statements, on ve-point Likert scales. These 13 measures of job satisfaction can be shown to be captured by three underlying dimensions or factors (Table III) which simplies the interpretation of the results. To this purpose factor analysis provided a three-factor solution (principal component with varimax rotation) that was based on eigenvalues . 1 and accounted for 63.6 percent of the variance. The dimensions identied have labelled as: career satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. As far as career satisfaction is concerned, satisfaction with the promotion rate, pay level, status achieved and progress in achieving career goals were included into the measure. Career satisfaction was measured by a ve-item scale developed by Greenhaus et al. (1990) and reported in the Appendix. Responses to the items were averaged to create a career satisfaction score (a 0.93). Job involvement refers to the degree to which an employee identies with his/her present job and the extent to which the job situation is central to the employees self-identity (Igbaria et al., 1999). This construct was measured by items investigating

Development engineers

459

Gender Male (%) Female (%) Education Some graduate school (%) Graduate degree (%) Age (in years) Organizational tenure (in years)

96 4 59 18 34.6 11.5 Table II. Demographic characteristics of the sample

SD 10.7 SD 6.65

Factors Career satisfaction a 0.93c

% of variancea 40.6

Factor components Success achieved in career Progress in achieving career goals Satisfaction with rate of promotion Satisfaction with the pay level Satisfaction with the status achieved Personal goals achieved through the job Overlapping between personal life interests and job interests Sense of professional pride Willingness to put an effort beyond that required Loyalty to organization Overlapping between the organizations and personal values Pride to belong to the organisation Agreement with the organisations practices and policies

Loadb 0.90 0.86 0.84 0.63 0.63 0.80 0.77 0.68 0.75 0.61 0.60 0.41 0.41

Job involvement a 0.80 Organizational commitment a 0.70

14.7

8.3

Notes: a Variance explained for each factor. Total variance explained: 63.6 percent, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin 0.854; b Loading of variable on each factor; c Reliability coefcient for each factor

Table III. Performance factors

EJIM 8,4

460

the personal goals achieved through the job, the level of overlapping between personal life interests and job interests and the sense of professional pride. Frone et al. (1995) measurement was used to assess job involvement. The scale (Appendix) consists of ve statements, each of which is followed by a ve-point disagree/agree response scale. Responses to the items were averaged to produce a total job involvement score (a 0.80). Finally, organizational commitment can be dened as the employees identication with a particular organization and his/her desire to maintain membership in the organization. Aspects such as the willingness to put an effort beyond that required, loyalty to the organization, the level of overlapping between the organizations and the respondents values, the pride to belong to the organization and the agreement with the organizations practices and policies were included. These ve items, reported in the Appendix, were averaged to obtain an overall index of organizational commitment (a 0.70). Results After identifying the performance factors and their relative importance in the organizations considered, the second aim of the research was to conceptualize and identify the underlying elements that critically impact on satisfaction. Factor analysis was used to accomplish this (principal components with varimax rotation with a number of factors based on eigenvalues . 1). Factor analysis produced ve factors that accounted for the 66.3 percent of the variance (Table IV). These factors have been labelled as (in decreasing order of importance): (1) Inadequate reward system; (2) Inadequate understanding of engineers expectations; (3) Failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers; (4) Lack of task-intrinsic motivation; and (5) Inadequate managerial competence and knowledge. The factor solution is considered to be robust since the factors are easily interpretable from their components and Cronbach alphas conrmed their reliability (all factors have alphas $ 0.50). As for the research model of Figure 1, the ve factors have been grouped into three meta-factors, that are purely nominal in that they logically aggregate conceptually complementary factors. In other words, the three meta-factors are only labels of similar factors and do not represent constructs or variables resulting from the statistical analysis. As an example, we logically combined the two factors Inadequate reward system and Inadequate understanding of engineers expectations since they could be considered as two facets of a unique organizational attribute labelled as Managerial policies and supervisory criteria. Similarly, the third factor (Failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers) was coupled to Inadequate managerial competence and knowledge for the sake of brevity and sound reasoning into the meta-factor labelled as Perception of engineers status and role. This features in fact, refers to the way management understands the differences in work orientations, need systems and career objectives of different groups of workers, and to the training of engineers for careers in management. Finally, Lack of task-intrinsic motivation is

Factors Inadequate reward system a 0.81

% of variance 23.4

Factor components Mismatch between opportunities granted to managerial and technical roles Excessive association of incentives to hierarchical advancement Excessively structured and formalised reward systems are not effective Mechanisms are excessively focused on rewarding compliance rather than achievement Low emphasis on status rewards Superior authority by non-professionals Vague criteria for promotion and advancement Vague criteria for productivity evaluation Vague denition of job description Low effort to develop subordinates skills and potential Vague criteria for effectiveness evaluation Bureaucratic controls Authority systems Excessive focus on organisational efciency Low salary differential Low challenge Low ingenuity Low creativity Low exibility Low discretion Low professional achievement Underemployment of individual skills Low perceived tting of individual contribution into the global picture Inequality of technical to managerial competency Lack of managerial training for technical professionals Lack of identication of the managerial potential in technical professionals Automatic advancement to managerial position

Load 0.91 0.85 0.80 0.73 0.68 0.91 0.81 0.76 0.67 0.58 0.55 0.80 0.74 0.67 0.61 0.75 0.75 0.70 0.65 0.63 0.53 0.53 0.50 0.80 0.71 0.68 0.68

Development engineers

461

Inadequate understanding of expectations a 0.73

15.9

Failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers a 0.65 Lack of task-intrinsic motivation a 0.59

11.5

8.6

Inadequate managerial competence and knowledge a 0.50

6.9

Table IV. Factor components and loadings

a standalone concept that can be referred to a generic Job-related motivational mechanisms organizational attribute. It deploys work design based on challenge, professional achievement, ingenuity, imagination and exibility. The next step was to investigate the linkages between the ve factors and the three dimensions of performance. Multiple regression analysis was conducted with the latter ones as independent variables. As for the dependent variables, since the objective was to link managerial failures to dissatisfaction, the value complementing to ve of the scores given to each of the performance items (since all judgements were on ve-point

EJIM 8,4

Likert scales) were used. Table V reports the results. All equations are highly signicant. As a further check, correlation analysis was also conducted and produced similar results. These results are discussed in the following. The impact of an inadequate reward system on dis/satisfaction Inadequacy of the reward system is strongly associated to career dissatisfaction (with the highest regression coefcients of the whole data group), and to a lower extent to organizational commitment. No signicant statistical correlation was established between this factor and job involvement. There are a number of problematic areas relating to the adoption of the wrong reward system. One of these is that the rewards for the technical and the managerial career have never been equally attractive. Despite strong recognition of the importance of technical excellence in organizations, the managerial career path is perceived as providing the major opportunity for promotion (Goldberg and Shenav, 1984). These ndings conrm the results of prior studies (Amar, 2004; King, 1997) that pinpointed the need to improve the mix of managerial and technical skills in organizations via better job evaluation systems, the use of skills and abilities, job design, and incentive payment for keeping up technical skills. A second important point is that tension between managers and technical professionals is caused by the excessive use of incentives that are almost totally associated with hierarchical advancement. Third, development engineers seem to rely upon their supervisors for recognition rather than upon the organization itself, with very poor trust in the structural solutions designed to offer opportunities for professional and nancial advancement. Fourth, current reward systems for engineers are also inadequate due to they are generally tend to privilege achievement rather than compliance with the management wishes. Last, the analysis has conrmed that engineers do partially complain for the lack of emphasis on status rewards. The work role considered appropriate to an occupational

462

Dependent variables/independent variables Inadequate reward system Inadequate understanding of expectations Failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers Lack of task-intrinsic motivation Inadequate managerial competence and knowledge No. of factors in equation Adjusted R 2 F-value (equation) * * * Table V. Regression coefcients

Organizational commitment 0.11 *a 0.12 * 0.14 * * 0.11 * * 0.19 * 5/5 0.33 8.3

Career satisfaction 0.30 * 0.26 * * 0.21 * 3/5 0.48 19.9

Job involvement 0.11 * 0.25 * * 0.23 * 3/5 0.35 13.1

Notes: a Regression coefcients (standardized betas); * signicance at the 0.1 level; * * signicance at the 0.01 level; * * *Signicant at 0.001 for all three equations

group is determined by its status in the organization. Status depends on how group members are perceived. Hence, being staffed in technical development departments is probably not so prestigious as working in manufacturing and/or commercial departments. The impact of an inadequate understanding of engineers expectations on dis/satisfaction Inadequacy in understanding engineers expectations is strongly associated to career dissatisfaction (with the second highest regression coefcients), and to a lower extent to organizational commitment. In this case too, no signicant statistical correlation was established between this factor and job involvement. One can, thus, afrm that management systems do not reect a sound understanding of engineers expectations as professionals. Superior authority exercised by a non-knowledge worker is likely to cause resentment, as it breaches engineers professional pride. A second problematic area relates to the criteria used for promotion and career advancement that tend to be too general and vague. Standards of job description and advancement are generally put forward by management in a fuzzy and unclear fashion. Thus, if an employees development is raised by management to a critical criterion of performance evaluation and effectiveness assessment, engineers concern and dissatisfaction increase. Tension also stems from the fact that rms still put emphasis on measuring engineers productivity in a traditional way. One major complain is for the low effort made by engineering managers to look for new techniques and modied measures in order to appropriately associate creativity to the traditional measures of productivity. Demotivation may largely hinge upon perceiving the difculty to measure individuals achievement. In this sense, turning to the analysis and development of the individual skills and competencies is much more felt as equitable and appropriate. This calls for a shift from productivity evaluation to effectiveness appraisal. But again, the research has conrmed that low effort is spent by managers to communicate unequivocally what criteria would be used. The impact of the failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers on dis/satisfaction The failure to differentiate between professionals and other workers is associated with all three measures of dissatisfaction. One of the major tensions in the engineer-management relationship arises from the use of outdated and old-fashion management practices, originally conceived mainly for shop-oor workers. Examples of these practices include excessively bureaucratic controls and authority systems and disproportionate focus on organizational efciency. In addition a small salary differential between knowledge and non-knowledge employees (especially those skilled workers that are not perceived as professionals by the engineer) lends further support to the inadequacy of management methods (Smith and Rupp, 2003). The importance of salary-related incentives for engineers is in that money represents the tangible evidence of how they rate in the organization. Engineers are particularly sensitive to what they perceive as unfair and tend to reject rewards based on any other basis but recognizable professional achievement. Thus, a small salary

Development engineers

463

EJIM 8,4

differential with other non-knowledge workers causes a breach of the engineers sense of self-esteem and professional pride. The impact of lack of task-intrinsic motivation on dis/satisfaction Failure to provide task-related motivational potential is strongly related to job involvement, only weakly associated with organizational commitment and has no impact on career dis/satisfaction. Updating motivation is primarily intrinsic, but it is constrained (encouraged and/or inhibited) by situational and job-related factors. The task itself is in fact the primary source of motivation, since it provides the necessary excitement to the individual. Engineering managers can leverage the engineers motivational potential by providing adequate elements of challenge, ingenuity, creativity, exibility and professional achievement. The research has also lent further support to the fact that one of the largest managerial failing is the improper utilization of engineers. There is also evidence of the vast underemployment of engineers in terms of management assignments requiring fewer qualications than those available. Another important point is that disillusionment arises when engineers perceive their contribution to the overall company activities as highly parcelled. The impact of an inadequate managerial competence and knowledge on dis/satisfaction These points relate to the dissatisfaction for many engineers who demand that managers be as competent in their eld as the professionals are in technical aspects. In fact, one of the leading factor in motivating engineers is the engineering manager, simply because he or she is the linking pin between management, on the one hand, and engineers on the other hand. However, because of their inadequate preparation for careers in management, many competent engineers may become incompetent managers. This problem is accrued by the fact that, as seen above, technical professionals seem to resent being supervised by someone who has not a technical background. However, there is large evidence suggesting that engineers are generally ill-equipped for managerial careers. This factor has a strong inuence on job involvement and has also a valuable impact on organizational commitment. No statistically signicant correlation with career satisfaction has been established. As for the managerial failures, current practices of promoting technologists to managerial positions are poor and inadequate and cause a drop in the engineers sense of professionalism. In particular, the aspects that deserve deeper attention are those of the lack of managerial training for technical professionals, the poor effort spent in identifying the managerial potential in engineers and the failure of excessively structured and automatic mechanisms to have the right people at the right place. In short, these failures call for a deeper exploration and understanding of the theme of engineers transition into management. Managerial implications Management systems and supervisory practices Knowledge workers are a special kind of asset because they gain in value with time, especially when improvements and developments are made. Company policy and reward system must, thus, reinforce and support these learning behaviours and professional enrichment programs.

464

As far as the company policy is concerned, the future of the knowledge organization is dependent on establishing sound recruiting, career planning and placement policies. In particular, there is a need for improved management understanding of the concept of career planning for professional enrichment and growth of engineers. Research on career planning shows that diversity is a critical ingredient in ensuring a benecial and fullling career, especially for older professionals. However, most companies do not provide the necessary chances and incentive for diversity. In short, there is strong evidence suggesting that pushing technical personnel in their late thirties and early forties into new elds will enlarge their interests on and off the job, and will have a signicant impact on motivation and satisfaction. From the standpoint of nourishing engineers vitality and motivation, several strategies can be pursued. These include continuing education, retraining, sabbatical leaves, rotation programs, job transfers, and redesign (Cheng and Ho, 2001). For the effective implementation of these strategies, however, management must show its total commitment to continued learning throughout life as a compelling instrument. Incidentally, It is noteworthy here that these mechanisms are particularly important for motivation and technical vitality of older engineers, as they can become bored with the same work after some years. Placement is another key area because placement of knowledge workers is the route to their productivity. Not only do opportunities have to be provided to people capable of coping with them and of transforming them into results, but technical professionals must also be placed where their skills can be productive. Designing appropriate placement policies for engineers is thus a vital concern for personnel managers. Reward systems emphasizing such factors as status, advancement to managerial positions, and authority and inuence within the company structure are those most appropriate for engineers. The engineers status, inuence, satisfaction, and productivity are in turn greatly favoured by opportunities for participation and involvement in managerial and technical decision-making. A special theme is then that related to salary. In view of the importance to engineers of salary and economic incentives, as discussed above, a sound scheme is a necessity. Salary ranges for various engineering classications should be specically made clear, with recognition for personal development efforts. Managements perception of engineers status and role expectations Technical professionals are more productive when they feel they are a nontrivial part of the company and that the organization cares about them as individuals. As discussed above a major antecedent of disillusionment and disappointment for engineers is that current management practices and policies do not contemplate adequate understanding of their needs and expectations as professionals. Responsibility, achievement, and contribution are very important elements of motivational mechanisms for engineers. Engineering managers, should, therefore, put more emphasis on these elements driving their attention toward maximising the engineers contribution. This fact has obviously great implications for evaluation criteria that should be more based on judging engineers strictly on the basis of compliance, competence and quality of work. These criteria should include not only performance goals (cost, product features, and efciency), but also personal and subordinates development efforts. This would encourage managers to help

Development engineers

465

EJIM 8,4

466

subordinates develop their skills and potential, and thus enhance subordinates satisfaction and motivation. Management methods and practices has also shown a signicant need to be designed for better understanding the differences in work orientations and expectations between engineers, as knowledge workers, and other technical skilled workers. For instance, engineers should be granted the chance to analyze, evaluate, and critic their own performance. Perhaps the most important principle is to enable the knowledge workers to do what they are being paid for. Not to be able to do what one is being paid for infallibly quenches whatever motivation there is. Another mechanism that has considerable effect on engineers motivation is the powerful communication content of incentives. In general terms, the message embodied into an incentive will prevail any time formal verbal communications and the implications of an incentive are conicting. That is, concrete management initiatives are more powerful than words. Open communications, integrity, and positive reinforcement of company and professional values are certainly key elements of an effective motivation. Another major source of conict is represented by the low degree of managerial competence of engineering managers with a technical background. This suggests at least three possible remedies. A rst principle of general validity is that the malpractice of promoting the most technically competent to an administrative position simply for their technical abilities should be abandoned. Engineering managers should be technically competent to obtain the respect of their subordinates, aspiring to supervisory assignments, and be trained to smooth the transition from technical competence to management capability. Second, more effective selection procedures must be identied and used to identify those promising candidates who are likely to have the right individual prole (orientation to manage, power and interpersonal empathy) for a managerial position. In addition to proper identication of managerial potential and sound selection, a change in the current educational continuing system of industrial engineers is called for. The present system fails to develop engineers managerial skills (as decision-makers). There are evidences of in-house programs being undertaken by several companies worldwide, offering training and coaching activities to bridge the gap from engineering to management. Job-related motivational mechanisms One important principle is here that engineering managers should keep in mind that the design of the task environment has huge impacts on learning, growth and motivation. Employees can nd creative solutions only when they truly enjoy their work. Managers can also t the job to the employees motivational needs by modifying the work situation or organization or by changing their own leadership styles. More than mere positive thinking or generalized condence in the employee, expectations should be goals tailored to the individuals capabilities. A powerful motivational mechanism is, thus, through job redesign. Work satisfaction is gradually changing its meaning. The signicance of meaningful work for engineers is changing due to modications in cultural and social values. Meaningful work is not only puzzling out a technical challenge. Accordingly, jobs need to be redesigned in order to include ingredients of challenge, achievement, and conveying the feeling that the job would

make a positive contribution to the overall company mission. In short, the concept of job enrichment is quite relevant here and should be used by engineering managers to enhance the motivational potential and productivity of engineers. Conclusions Motivating technical employees who are typically bright and independent-minded can appear uniquely difcult to those attempting to lead them without understanding their needs. Both classical and modern theories of worker motivation assert that motivation stems from the nature of the work and not its peripheral benets, and, consequently, managers should recognize and maximize motivational circumstances. Managers cannot directly control the staffs motivation, but they can indirectly inuence factors related to its absence or presence. Trust, communication, and listening are essential in managing engineers and can provide the climate for motivated staff. Creating the right internal environment and using it to motivate individual workers is the key to achieving organizational excellence and making a quality product. Managers can optimize engineers energy by adapting the environment to the job at hand. Steps can be taken to help managers create a work environment that fosters individual motivation. These steps include a set of coordinated actions that leverage on different elements. First, better monitoring and receptivity of new ideas, less concern with personal tness for an organizational pattern, and a reasonable degree of freedom and autonomy are some positive ingredients of a creative organizational climate. Second, more decentralized and less formal structures providing opportunities for communication, interaction, and participation are to be implemented. The system of two-career ladders one for managers and the other for top-level specialists or professionals has worked satisfactorily up to a certain level. However, there are indications that there will be a change in the natural career progression in the near future. The rising educational level of the workforce, the onset of lean, knowledge-driven companies that are competence-based, and doubts about the effectiveness of the classical manager are responsible for this. Third, technical employees such as engineers desire opportunities to work with freedom within specied responsibilities and to be recognized for their achievements.
References Allen, T.J. and Katz, R. (1986), The dual ladder: motivational solution or managerial delusion?, R&D Management, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 185-97. Allen, T.J. and Katz, R. (1992), Age, education and technical ladder, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 237-45. Amar, A.D. (2004), Motivating knowledge workers to innovate: a model integrating motivation dynamics and antecedents, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 89-101. Appelbaum, S.H., St-Pierre, N. and Glavas, W. (1998), Strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity, Management Decision, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 289-301. Badawy, M.K. (1978), One more time: how to motivate your engineers, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 37-42. Canainn, A.O. (1995), Herr Ingenieur or the grease-monkey? How the managerial prospects of engineers are perceived, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 74-92.

Development engineers

467

EJIM 8,4

468

Cheng, E.W.L. and Ho, D.C.K. (2001), The inuence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer, Career Development International, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 20-8. Day, R. and Allen, T.D. (2004), The relationship between career motivation and self-efcacy with protege career success, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 64 No. 2, pp. 72-91. Debackere, K., Buyens, D. and Vandenbossche, T. (1997), Strategic career development for R&D professionals: lessons from eld research, Technovation, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 53-62. Frone, M.R., Russell, M. and Cooper, M.L. (1995), Job stressors, job involvement and employee health: a test of identity theory, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 68 No. 1, pp. 1-11. Goldberg, A.I. and Shenav, Y.A. (1984), R&D career paths: their relation to work goals and productivity, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 111-17. Greenhaus, J.H., Parasuraman, S. and Wormley, W.M. (1990), Race effects on organizational experience, job performance evaluation, and career outcomes, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 64-96. Hesketh, B., Gardner, D. and Lissner, D. (1992), Technical and managerial career paths: an unresolved dilemma, International Journal of Career Management, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 9-16. Hiltrop, J.M. (1999), The quest for the best: human resource practices to attract and retain talent, European Management Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 422-30. Howard, A. (1983), Can engineers succeed in general management? Enhancing engineering careers by fullling individual and organizational goals, IEEE, New York, NY, pp. 76-80. Igbaria, M., Kassicieh, S.K. and Silver, M. (1999), Career orientations and career success among research, and development and engineering professionals, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 29-54. Johnson, D. and Sargeant, A. (1998), Motives for transition: an exploratory study of engineering managers, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 41-53. King, A. (1997), The crescendo effect in career motivation, Career Development International, Vol. 2 No. 6, pp. 293-301. Kuby, T.E. (1993), Motivate your engineers, Chemical Engineering, Vol. 100 No. 5, pp. 137-8. McCormick, K. (1995), Career paths, technological obsolescence and skill formation: R&D staff in Britain and Japan, R&D Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 197-211. McGovern, P. (1995), To retain or not to retain? Multinational rms and technical labour, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 7-23. Munson, J.M. and Posner, B.Z. (1979), The values of engineers and managing engineers, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 94-100. Orpen, C. (1997), The effects of formal mentoring on employee work motivation, organizational commitment and job performance, The Learning Organization: An International Journal, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 53-60. Roberts, K. and Biddle, J. (1994), The transition into management by scientists and engineers: a misallocation or efcient use of human resources?, Human Resource Management, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 561-79. Smith, A.D. and Rupp, W.T. (2003), Knowledge workers: exploring the link among performance rating, pay and motivational aspects, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 107-24.

Further reading Allen, T.J. and Katz, R. (1995), The project-oriented engineer: a dilemma for human resource management, R&D Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 129-40.

Appendix. Sample of survey items Please see Figure A1.

Development engineers

469

Figure A1.

EJIM 8,4

470

Figure A1.