Combining management and engineering for uncertain times

The IEEE Engineering Management Society recently celebrated its fiftieth Birthday. The roots of the society began with Professor Al Rubenstein at MIT in 1950 and then spread to Northwestern University. However, engineering management began much earlier. In 1911, Frederick Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management. The studies conducted before and soon after the book's publication established Taylor as the father of modern management with engineers as its leaders. However, during the 1980's and 1990's, mergers and acquisitions led by managers with finance and accounting backgrounds took center stage. This often resulted in bankruptcy and falling stock prices since there was really no competitive advantage created from many of these mergers and acquisitions. Today, business leaders are again emerging from an engineering background due to the complexity of today's technology and products. It is much easier to teach an engineering major some business that to teach business majors the basics of engineering. Most engineers make good managers of large projects since they have been brought up using the total system viewpoint. This paper will review the history of management and how it has been related to engineering. Understanding the basics of management is a crucial skill for engineers today. It can also he their source of competitive advantage in today's work place.