Organizational environment, changing economic conditions, and the effective supervision of technical personnel: A management challenge |
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| Authors: | James Hoyt Edwin A Gerloff |
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| Institution: | a Troy State University, Troy, AL USA;b The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX USA |
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| Abstract: | Industry's share of R&D funding is increasing while, at the same time, the half-life of technology is decreasing. This condition increases the pressure on technical managers to produce research that is creative and innovative but, at the same time, sensitive to the “bottom line.” Six conditions within the context of the organization play an important role in the management of technical employees: 1) Uncertainty in the work place increases the need for a supportive organizational climate and high information sharing, 2) Compensation appears to produce both functional and dysfunctional consequences for motivation, 3) Engineering personalities have a tendency to favor autonomous, challenging, and meaningful assignments, 4) Organizational structures influence the engineer's ability to process information, 5) The structure of the engineering task has been shown to affect job satisfaction, and 6) Career choices become an important consideration for mature engineers. Each of these issues, if not properly managed, can lead to stress, burnout and eventual employee turnover. Most important however, is the fact that if they are not managed properly, creative output from R&D organizations declines at a time when industry is assuming a greater share of the funding. When creativity declines, a reduction in the number of innovative solutions for products and processes is certain to follow. This condition can lead to serious problems when markets are changing dynamically. This paper reviews research findings related to each of the preceding issues and, discusses the role that each of them plays in the management of engineers and technical personnel. At the end of each discussion we provide some propositions worthy of further research. |
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