Abstract
Every year, more and more management positions are being filled by engineers and other technical personnel in spite of dual or parallel path systems for promotions in many companies. In spite of the centrality of engineers and management in industrial organizations and modern society, engineers are generally viewed to be unsuccessful in management roles due to the following shortcoming of skills: inadequate managerial education during engineering studies, administrative skills, interpersonal skills, personality and career orientation, management knowledge.
This research argues that there is a difference in leadership style between experienced and inexperienced engineers in South Africa. It was found that experienced engineers in Eskom are more transformational and more transactional compared to inexperienced post-graduated engineering students at the Rand Afrikaans University. To demonstrate this in the study, the researcher used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to identify leadership style. The argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of leadership style for experienced and inexperienced engineers.
The findings of this research indicate the theory that successful managers tend to grow into their jobs over an extended period (Bennett, 1996 and Sedge, 1985). The findings also support the arguments of O’Connor (1994) and Badaway (1995) that engineers have no typical career path to prepare them for the management role. It is therefore imperative that inexperienced engineers prepares themselves for management and obtain knowledge about management and development management skills during their formal studies.
Dr. L. Naude