Abstract
The rate of techno-globalization remains one of the aspects forcing organizations to evaluate their leadership competencies. Organizations now seek leaders who are excellent in the art of leadership and also have the technical acumen to lead the organization in the age of technology. This is even more so in developing countries such as South Africa where technology will play a major role in improving the economic outlook. This global shift has seen the emergence and rise to prominence of degrees such as engineering management and technology management to equip generally technical people with management skills. Engineering management is a discipline that includes the efficient allocation and management of organizational resources to ensure organizational efficiency and competitiveness. It aims to equip engineers with management and leadership skills to act in a leadership role. Engineering managers equipped with adequate leadership competencies assist organizations to greatly increase performance. This study focus area is in the science and art of leadership for engineering managers.
In general, the career path of engineers may lead to management activities as a leader of a unit or project. The promotion of an engineer to a management role is primarily driven by their technical performance. This is even truer in the age where technology has become so pervasive and central to organizational competitiveness. However, many engineers struggle to transition to the new role of management due to their penchant need for logical thinking and high dependency on evidence. This study focused on the leadership competencies engineering managers must harness and their importance as perceived by those involved within the engineering related industries. Research has shown that lack of leadership competencies appear to be one common cause of failure when it comes to engineers transitioning into leadership roles.
Even though there is a vast literature on the leadership competencies engineers must acquire to be effective leaders, empirical evidence on specific leadership competencies is very limited. This study investigated the 18 specific leadership competencies grouped into three categories; individual (i.e. innate), engineer (i.e...
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)