Importance Of Engineer-Management Relationship In An Organisation

Research on Industrial Employee Relationship

Discuss about the importance of the relation between the management and the employed engineers. 

Resources are the most essential assets of an organisation. The resources of an organisation are not just their raw material or produced goods or services but also consists of organisational information, human resources and others. The most essential of all the resources is human resources as the quality and productivity of the organisation depends on the former (Flamholtz 2012). Hence, it is mandatory for an organisation to maintain a sound relation with the same.

The deemed report is highlighting over the industrial employee relation. An organisation has various department with different employee possessing different skillset. Hence, to simplify the understanding the report has focused on the engineering employees only. To pursue the objective of the report an interview was conducted with an employee of the NOVA SYSTEM. The report also offers personal opinion of the author about the same and has concluded with the reflection over the lessons learnt.

Technological need of the organisation has increased to maintain the competitive advantage in the market and hence, to fulfil those needs the former must employee people with technological skillset (Li and Liu 2014). Engineers are the talked about employee and their role is not limited to only gaining competitive advantage. They are also required for the operations management as the most of the systems in an organisation are mechanical or IT related. So, it can be stated that if the management does not maintain an ethical and comfortable relation with the engineers their operations along with the sustainability will suffer. Hence, it is required for the organisation to keep a positive relation with them (Baines and Lightfoot 2013). To maintain the relation their needs should be met while accessing their potentiality to its full extent. To understand the relationship, the following interview was conducted and the questions of the interview are provided in the section below.

This section deals with the interview and factors associated with it. The topics preparation of the interview questions, interview questions, expected answers and others are discussed as follows:

The questions for the interview were prepared based on the research done by the author on the employed engineer and management relation. The researches included various journal article and real life interviews that are available over various social networks and video journals. Additionally, the author’s personal interaction with the known engineers also helped in devising the questions. However, “Strategies for Developing Interview Guides” was of most assistantship (Sociology.fas.harvard.edu 2018).

Interview with an Employee from NOVA SYSTEM

Four questions were asked to the interviewee to attain the objective of the report and those questions are as follows:

1. What is the attitude of the management towards the engineers?
2. How are the proposals received from the engineering project head treated by the management?
3. How do they feel when a manager who may be less qualified then them supervises over them?
4. What changes would you like to make if given a chance?

The expected answer for the first question was based on the reviews of the deemed organisation that are available on various online sites. Evaluating those sites, the author concluded that site management of the firm is excellent that includes their behaviour with the engineers. The reason for including engineers in the site management is because no site project can be completed without an engineer (Kim et al 2013).

The potential answer to the second question asked to the interviewee is answered that the proposal received from the engineering team are considered by the management team however, decision regarding the implementation of the project remains in flux. The reason for stating the same is that the engineers focuses on the technological advancement while the managers focuses on the economical benefits from the project (Singhapakdi et al. 2013).

Branham (2012) in his authored book has revealed the answer to the third question. Research from the book and assuming personally from the experience gained by interaction with different engineers the author can state that it does not feel good to take orders from the less qualified ones. The employees also consider leaving the job and starting their own venture instead of taking orders from a less qualified manager (George, Owoyemi and Adegboye 2014).

The expected answer to the final question can vary according to the experience of the engineer within the organisation. If the deemed interviewee is satisfied with the pay and management then they will take an approach towards increasing the employee’s calibre and if not, then changes in the management will be the answer (Siu 2018). Setting up new standards can also be expected as an answer to the deemed question.

The answers to the questions offered by the interviewee has been answered in the deemed section:

1. To the question about the attitude of management towards the engineers the interviewee answered that the management team are taught to deal with the employees so, they behave accordingly. Further he added that their concern is to use the human resources to their full extent and to achieve so they felicitate at times while shows strictness when necessary. On, further enquiry he added that at starting it seemed a bit tough to blend in with them however an experience of 25 years in the firm taught him enough methods to tackle the situation.
2. When asked about the response of the proposal he put forth to the management he replied that there are some difficulties but most of the proposal gets passed. He further elaborated the difficulties associated by adding that the biggest difficulty is the technical barrier. The management are not so much fluent with the adaptation of technology for operational purpose instead for them the budget of the project is a concern. Hence, to convince them the project has to be explained in terms of the financial value it will bring to the organisation. Further, the increase in the productivity that the deemed technology will bring also has to be elaborated to them which is tough for a technological employee. He also added that to achieve approval a lot of homework has to be done as a management person and not as a technological person.
3. The third question was a “tricky one” as quoted by the interviewee. He answered that it does feels uncomforting at times however, after experience and promotion engineers do mould up with the situation. He kept the answer short and denied to add any extra content to the topic.
4. The answer to the question about what changes he would make if given an answer was that there is a lot of changes he would make if given an opportunity. The first change that he would make is to bring is build a management system that will bridge the communication gap between the management and the engineers. To do so he will conduct management training sessions for the engineers and technological sessions for the management team. Then, he would also adopt Google’s management system which focuses on little things like how to conduct meeting or having communication or defining goals and others. He also mentioned certain other minor changes like the work hours and activity sessions.

The answers from the interviewee were surprisingly contradictory too the expected answers however some similarities where also determined in the same. To put forth a reflection on the comparative analysis between the two answers Kolb’s learning cycle has been adopted. It is four step method that reviews, analyses, recommends, implements and repeats the process for the subject (Kolb and Kolb 2012).

Experience:  In this step the answers (both the expected and interviewee’s answers) are collected.

Observation:  The deemed step compares the answers to determine the similarities and differences in the both the answers.

Comparative Analysis of the Answers

Abstract: After the comparison between the two answers in this step a mutual conclusion is derived.

Experimentation: This steps is the practical implementation of the conclusion derived from the interview and the research on the engineer industrial relation.

The experience step of the model has been done above so the following sections will be done taking consideration from the second step to pursue the objective. The implementation of the Kolb’s learning cycle assisted the author to compare the answers and the result is shown in the following table:

	Comp arison of answers to question 1:	Comparison of answers to question 2:	Comparison of answers to question 3:	Comparison of answers to question 4:
Similarity	Both the answers suggests that the management of NOVA SYSTEM is good.	The answers from both the research and interview suggests the same result.	The outcomes of both the answers are almost same.	Change in the strategy of the organisation is common in both the answers.
Variation	However, the answers contradicted when the interviewee suggested that sometimes the decisions of the management is not appreciated by the engineers.	No, major difference between the answers has been analysed.	However, the answer from the interview adds that after experience and promotion the engineers adjust with taking orders from the less qualified seniors.	Though, the interviewee was more focused on the organisation’s management and progress rather than the pay scale.

 Table 1: Comparison between the Established Answers

(Source: Created by Author)

The abstract of the discussion can be emphasized to state that engineer management relationship is a topic where the organisations should focus appropriately. The discussion can also be summarized to state that engineers do face problems in taking orders from the seniors who they consider to be less qualified then them. However, they cope with the situation with experience and time.

The learning from the evaluation will be implemented by the author in the real-world situations. The author will keep in mind the importance of the communication between the management and the technological department. It will also be kept in mind that the actions taken by the management may seem harsh but they are for the benefit of the organisation. 

Conclusion:

The report highlights the importance of the engineer management relationship in an organisation. To derive on this conclusion researches where conducted on different articles, sites and journals along with an interview of an engineer from the NOVA SYSTEMS. The findings from both the research and interview cites almost similar outcomes with partial difference. The similarities shows the importance of the communication between the management and the employed engineers. Problems that the engineers face while working under the management has also been discussed in the report. The minor difference between the answers to the question on which the research and the interview were done adds up additional factors that build up the relation between the two subjects of the paper. Hence, the report can be emphasized to state the importance of the relationship and recommends trainings should be conducted to bridge the communication gap between the subjects.

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