Engineers, Management and Trust

Abstract

This paper argues that the characteristic lack of engineering representation in British senior management is partly a consequence of the prevailing conception of what management is actually about. As compared to certain other capitalist economies, British conditions have favoured such management activities as the search for longterm finance and strategic marketing over product and process improvement. This system of priorities, massively perpetuated in management writings and education, is now embedded in the British definition of what management is. Aspirants to senior positions, which necessarily involve considerable decision-making discretion, need to demonstrate their `trustworthiness' in such terms. Insofar as the managerial credentials of professional engineering rest upon its position of authority within productive labour, they are out of key with the conception of management dominant in Britain. For many years the profession has tried to overcome this by adding `managerial' subjects to engineering education. However, so long as management is conceived of as a distinct field of study in its own right, such a strategy can do no more than place engineers in the position of comparative amateurs competing with full-time `specialists'.