Engineering Leadership Styles Used in Industry Today

NOTE: This is a student paper from a graduate engineering leadership course Defining engineering leadership has been a challenge since the inception of the topic. Nevertheless, developing engineering leaders is important for companies in the engineering industry to maintain competitiveness and promote future innovations. This study will evaluate feedback from interviews of engineers and accountants regarding leadership styles in order to promote a better understanding of engineering leadership styles in practice today and help focus leadership styles critical for engineers. This research will identify variations or similarities of leadership styles in the technical field of engineering versus a less technical discipline such as accounting, showing how these styles overlap or differ. The resulting data can provide insight into current engineering practices and how leadership is approached in different industries and disciplines. Differences in the data will help academia and the engineering industry recognize the need for specific engineering leadership education in regards to leadership styles. In order to add to the body of knowledge and address the challenge of defining engineering leadership, the study intends to conduct interviews with engineers and accountants. These interviews will collect qualitative information, consisting of accounts of observed leadership behaviors practiced and/or experienced by the interviewees in the workplace. The data will be analyzed through a computer program, such as Dedoose, to ensure consistent analysis of data. A constant comparative method will be used to analyze the data from each interview. Key phrases and characteristics that correspond to the various leadership styles will be identified and categorized. Once the leadership styles represented by each interview are categorized, the most common styles for the engineering and accounting disciplines will be determined. Comparisons will be made regarding commonalities and differences both within and between the two groups. Interviews of these individuals will be conducted between October 16th and October 25th, depending on availability of the interviewees and researchers. This timeframe will ensure sufficient time to transcribe each interview before October 29th, when data analysis will begin. Three researchers will conduct the interviews, complete the corresponding transcriptions, and compare findings for triangulation analysis. Results are anticipated in November after data collection and analysis are conducted. From those results, conclusions will be drawn that will hopefully lend a better understanding of engineering leadership styles in industry today.