The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management

Abstract

In the South African business environment, there is a lack of both engineers and managers. This creates a compounded problem whereby many engineers find themselves transitioning from a technical position to general management. This transition has prompted the need to investigate the competencies required for engineers to effectively transition into general management and the methodologies used to acquire general management competencies.The research was conducted in two phases. The first qualitative phase took the form of semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The results obtained from phase one was used together with the literature review to develop the constructs for phase two. Phase two consisted of two quantitative self-administered closedended questionnaires. A questionnaire was developed for engineering managers and a separate questionnaire was constructed for human resource managers. A total of 116 respondents from 31 different countries participated in the research.The results in terms of the competencies required to transition into general management showed that interpersonal skills are the most important, followed by leadership skills. Highly focused business skills are the least important competencies. The methodologies used the most depict that the majority of people acquired their general management competencies through trial and error / learning on the job, networking and short business learning courses. The findings have been used to develop a model that will help organisations and human resource practitioners to assist engineers in the transition process.