George A. Geistauts

Engineering Ethics: A System Dynamics Approach

Abstract: Engineering practice takes place within the complex social, cultural, legal, economic, technological, and organizational system. Within this context, the engineer is expected not only to solve the technical design problem but also to satisfy broader norms and expectations, which may not be consistent with each other or with the highest standards of design. They also are not always explicitly expressed. These expectations may push the engineer toward unethical or even illegal behavior. The forces or factors in a particular instance include the values held by the engineering profession as a whole, the individual engineers value set, the values of the employing organization, and attendant socioeconomic pressures. Individual, professional, and organizational values are not static but rather evolving responses to both long-term and short-term environmental forces. Thus, engineering ethics, both on the individual and profession-as-a-whole scale, can usefully be understood and modeled as systems phenomena.

Role of technology in strategic management

Abstract The accelerating pace of technological change has made technology a major strategic factor for many organizations. Some firms respond defensively, seeing technology as a problem, while others through strategic use of technology gain permanent advantage. The engineering function typically contains the bulk of the firms technological expertise, yet engineers and engineering managers are seldom directly involved in strategic analysis. Strategy typically trickles down to engineering in the form of technological problems demanding solutions. This weak linkage between engineering activities and strategic thinking is far from optimal, and in the current turbulent technological environment it can even endanger the firms survival. The linkage can be strengthened, but it requires behavioral and managerial changes at the top of the firm and at the engineering level. First, both levels must understand the concepts of strategic management and commit to implementing them. Then the strategic nature of technology must be understood, including the limitations and potential traps of technology-based strategies. Finally, creative opportunities for considering technology strategically must be made available at the engineering level, and both design engineers and engineering managers must be rewarded for their strategic contributions.

Strategically focused engineering: Design and management

During the last ten years strategic analysis has become a major focus of management theory and practice. From this has emerged a general consensus on basic strategic principles and processes, which will play an ever larger role in engineering thought and practice. This article explores the interface between engineering and strategy. We outline the fundamental philosophy and basic method of strategic analysis and compare them to traditional engineering approaches. The addition of strategic criteria will often change the choice of a particular engineering solution. An engineering design may be technically correct but strategically wrong — as illustrated by the instant movie camera and the SST airliner. Also, failing to take advantage of engineering and technological possibilities may represent a major strategic error — e.g., NCR and the shift from mechanical to electronic registers. We conclude that tightening the linkage between engineering and strategy formulation will require changes in the thinking patterns of both engineers and the managements that employ them. Engineers and engineering managers will have to learn bow to shift back and forth between structured and unstructured problem solving, and managements will have to consciously increase the role of technologists in strategy formulation.

Construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline

The tangible components of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System are outlined and the Integrated Project Planning and Management Cycle is visualized from the General Organizational Matrix viewpoint: then the multiple command structures in one large-scale Arctic Energy Project are analyzed retrospectively to test some a priori expectations about project managment. A number of lessons emerge from actual experience that may aid in the management of future energy projects.

An integrated technology management model

It is proposed that an optimal approach to technology management must integrate the five major technology domains: product, process, materials, decision, and information. Implementation of the model in an organization will increase technology awareness throughout the enterprise, limiting technology dominance by a single functional area. Recognition of the validity of the model forces management to accept technology management as strategic in nature and therefore the responsibility of top management.<<ETX>>