Chief Learning Officer - February 2008 - (Page 46)

human capital Engineering and Technical Leadership Development: Challenges in a Rapidly Changing Global Market Carl S. Vieth and Thomas W. Smith A great deal of attention has been focused on the engineering and technical talent pool. Depending on the source and how the supply and demand of the talent is measured, we are either facing a severe deficiency or no shortage at all. No matter which side you’re on, there is one critical factor often missing from the discussion — the increasing need for engineering and technical leaders. Myriad factors are affecting the growing shortage of qualified engineering and technical managers, including workforce demographics, globalization of the engineering enterprise, the acceleration of technology and organizational and business demands. Engineering managers tend to be five years older than the average. Looking forward, the replacement rate for engineering managers will increase from an annual rate of 6.2 percent in 2003 to near 20 percent in 2014, which means there will be about 15,000 engineering managerial vacancies annually by 2014. Compounding these demographics is the changing nature of the work. Engineering managers are challenged by significant organizational changes. Engineering or engineeringrelated occupations represent more than a third of the 40 professions identified by BLS as highly susceptible to outsourcing. This means that leading a corporate engineering enterprise will require management skills that extend well beyond an organization’s boundaries. Similarly, the rapid rate of technological change requires engineering managers to have an ever-increasing breadth of technical compeFebruary 2008 tency. As organizations compete in the “knowledge economy,” the role of the technical leader will have increasing importance to an organization’s vitality. The engineering enterprise also has changed significantly in recent years. Engineering leaders must lead organizations that are geographically distributed around the world. Engineering activities are performed in cross-functional teams rather than as individual projects. Matrix corporate structures require technical leaders to include professionals from varying disciplines on engineering teams, as well as assigning their engineers to teams where duties are not traditional engineering. Engineers and technical professionals demand their leaders demonstrate a high level of technical competency — “street cred” is crucial to success. Finally, organizations continually strive to be “lean,” which often translates to having fewer resources and putting a greater focus on day-today productivity. Today’s engineering organization provides tremendous technical leadership challenges, yet it is more dependent than ever on its leadership for success. I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 46 Carl S. Vieth and Thomas W. Smith are professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Engineering. They can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. The State of Technical Leadership Technical leadership is defined differently depending on the role of engineering within an http://www.clomedia.com

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Chief Learning Officer - February 2008 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Home Depot: Building Better Associates CLO Profile Environment Realizing the Vision of “One Philips” Tactics Sun Microsystems’ Next-Generation Worker Video Game Recruiting Tool Productivity The Regence Group: Blended Measurement Human Capital NASA: A Case Study in Technical Leadership Development Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - February 2008

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