Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (FABE)

Department of Engineering

ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

HARITH ALI HAMEED

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1. There was a study conducted that identified that major companies are less likely to include
engineers on their board of directors, preferring instead to recruit professionals from
finance, human resource, marketing and legal experts, arguing that Engineers don’t
become good managers. Discuss your opinion on this issue.

The role of engineers is to develop the sustainable, global challenges, and discard the
environmental issues including the rapid growth of population. People might be confused
to distinguish between scientists and engineers while both are part of natural science.
Engineers are existed to combine of both science and engineering to direct the scientific
research through the application on the society (Nesbit, et al. 2012). The future career of
engineers is most in the technical disciplinary. It is carried out by the engineering projects
and includes the use of mathematic, physics and science while other engineering positions
are focused on the communication, presentation, negotiation, report writing and finance.
The broad experiences after few years are gained will lead the position to be for
example a Training consultant. This position is required the personal development skills
due to working with high-profile engineering organisation to train the engineers. (Lawlor.
2016). The profession is leading to go through the difficulties of engineering judgements
that force you to figure out the creativity and innovation ways to solve the problems related
to the engineering field. In addition, the position as a Technical Manager is the position
required a leadership compare to Principal Engineer or Project Engineer. The management
skill is also needed due to it is more focused on managing a team and support the
professional engineers as well as the political issues to fight the corner for the engineering
department. Although the experience as an engineer is good enough, the role is still related
with an engineering field, therefore the major companies are less likely to involve the
engineers on their broad directors.
Furthermore, the professionals from finance, human resource, marketing and legal
experts are more likely to include on the board of directors due to this field of works are
driven the organisation (Wawryszuk-Misztal AND Wronska-bukalska. 2014). For
instance, from financier and marketing sides, the strategic goals are required to keep on
update based on the demands of the market. They need to design corporate strategies
through ensuring that all the decisions have been made are giving the profit to the
organisation. They also assist the realisation the organisation’s visions and missions. The
capital structure, profit, debt, sales, products, and assets of the organisation are under
managing of finance and marketing.
 Moreover, human resources and legal experts are also predominant on the board of
directors. Their professionalism is designed with the authority on the access and enhance
the overall status of the profession (O’riordan. 2017). The strategic business partner’s
operation in terms of operational and transactional administration are also under their
influence (Caldwell. 2011). Previous study in the UK conducted the interview on human
resources directors from 49 organisations that they have the responsible for business
performance based on their operational and strategic decision-making responsibilities
(Kelly and Gennard. 2007). The human resources and experts also have strategic in human
resources experiences and expertise that act as a fundamental compensation tends to be
true of organization law system. The priorities and the key responsibilities highlighted that
they are leading practices boards in deploying to support their organisastion with a legal
system. Hence, the experienced financier, marketer, HR and legal experts are able to jump
into the board of directors due to have the capital role in the organisation.
Apart from the information that I have given above, I am still in doubt that the engineers
are less likely include in the board of directors. My point of view is actually depend on the
type of organisations. The engineering organisations should likely have the engineers in
their board due to they have the details information of the assets that will lead the
organisation to get profit. The common stereotypes that the engineering graduates are
thinking if they have both technical and management skills, it gives them higher chance to
get a job. The survey from tech career recruitment website claimed that 32% of the 3,121
respondents seeing a Masters of Business Administration as an important for future tech
employees while more than 52% saw it as unnecessary (Barak. 2012).
The higher chance for engineers to be part of the directory board are by having enough
experience while having both technical and business degrees. The engineers should be in
the related position with their engineering degree and work until certain experience as they
rise through the ranks. It continues by broaden their skills set to contribute when they rise
to leadership level that might include governance, business strategies, decision-making,
financial, marketing, etc. Prof. Rex van Oist of the School of Electrical & Information
Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand said that after first degree graduated should
work related with their field to have the career-wise due after 5 years’s time due to the
relevant experience gives them in high demand and receive the big opportunity to expand
their career (Groenendaal. 2013). Their technical skills are an asset for them to understand
the products of organisation with broader management skills by doing MBA or similar
courses.
 In conclusion, the engineers are most likely to be part of directory boards if they have
enough technical skills with enough experiences and expand their leadership skills by
doing any leadership courses. Therefore, they will be a good leader which have good
understanding on both technical and management skills.

2. Hiring a staff is perhaps not as difficult as keeping them motivated. While good image of
an organisation may attract job applicants to get in, at the same time it is also crucial for
the staff to find appreciation and job satisfaction. Elaborate this statement and discuss
briefly about this issue.

Hiring a staff might be relatively easy but hiring a qualified and enthusiastic staff is a
challenge for many companies. Describe and write the perfect job posting is not the most
effective method to get the qualified staff. Promoting the organisation’s image while
showing the attractive activities throughout the communities and social media are the good
ways to increase the reputation of the organisation. The more people know about the
organisation, the easier to get more job applicants in order to get the qualified staff. In
addition, mostly qualified staffs are looking to expand their career through reputable
organisation.
In order to retain the good staffs, it is really important to consider the ways to keep
them because they are also an asset for the organisation. The organisation will be growing
on their hands due to the work will be done on the skilled staffs. The problem that many
organisations face now are to keep them with their good performance and their motivation.
The strong of an organisation founds those are crucial things to maintain in order to meet
their mission and vision. In addition, the awareness to increase the motivation affects the
productivity of the staff.
The previous studies have been found the relationship between the performance and
motivation. Many researchers have tried to bring the ideas to formulate motivation which
greatly influence organisational behavior (Shonubi, et al. 2014; Shazadi et al. 2014). It
encourages people to work better for the overall benefit of the organisation which based
on their unfulfilled needs. Unmotivated staffs may probably contribute a little effort in
their jobs although they have necessary skills. They will also try to stay away from
workplace and produce low quality of work. When the staff are well-motivated, they will
help the organisation to grow and even will survive in a fast changing workplace. In
 addition, motivation has the role to enhance and intensify the desire of every staff to work
effectively and efficiently.
There are several factors that are needed to consider in order to enhance the motivation
of the staffs. The psychological and appreciation are classified as intrinsic ways of making
staff motivated. Rafique emphasized that rewards play important role in staff motivation
(Rafique, et al. 2014). Appreciation makes the staff to enjoy their work more by giving
simple compliments, awarded certificate or even bonus.
To conclude, the genuine rewards will help strengthen the relationship of the staff with
their job and at the same time they feel are supported and heard which will lead to the job
satisfaction. When the staffs are working with their heart because they feel that their
existence are appreciated. In addition, when the works are accomplished and well-
performed increase the level of responsibility and give the sense of freedom that will lead
to job satisfaction.

3. Imagine you are a Finance manager of a company. You have been the finance director of
a clothing retailer for ten years. The boss is trying to sell the company and has told you
that it is not necessary to alter the accounts in the year end accounts. You are sure that your
boss wants the financial statements to carry an inflated stock valuation because he has
found an interested buyer. The boss has indicated to you that, if the deal is closed, all
employees will stay employed and you will receive a pay increment. Express your opinion
on this?

I think it's the classic “Pump and dump" form of securities fraud that involves artificially
inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in
order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operators of the
scheme "dump" sells their overvalued shares, the price falls and investors will lose their
money.
On the other hand, the company have employees that could have the responsibilities to
their families whom a boss promised the security of their jobs. However, a boss who wants
to sell it most probably after getting his money, he will be out of game and there is not
guaranteed that a new boss will keep the previous employees. In addition, after finding the
fraud the finance manager could apply the strategic marketing to stabilise the situation.
The fraud action is unfair act in order to gain benefit intentionally which is wrongfully
present the reality (Vlad, et al. 2011).
 Moreover, in the societies, the manager or just an ordinary employee whose do not
follow the owner’s instructions will get the consequences to get fired from their position.
Therefore, the manager should explain the consequences on the boss’s action and let the
boss decide what he should do in this such as situation.
From finance ethics perspectives, the financier should not accept this action due this is
fraudulent act and external auditor can easily find it out by checking the account of the
company. The manager or employee must ensure that the company document are
completed accurately, truthfully, in a timely manner and properly authorised. There is no
employee may take any action to defraud, influence, manipulate or mislead any other
officer for the purpose of rendering the books, records or financial statements of the
company (Tassadaq and Malik. 2015). Thus, this will impact the company itself, CEO and
the finance manager as bad as facing a lawsuit case. It also can lead the company to the
bankruptcy later for the new buyer due to this issue.
If I was as a finance manager, I would explain to the boss all the consequences. Let say
if they present fair and truth information of the financial statements according truth, they
will still can save the company by finding a potential buyer. It might be the boss will se;;
the company to lesser profit compare to alter the financial statements. It will at least to
save the company from bankruptcy due to long term effects if the act of fraudulent was
identified by the auditor. Thus, it will secure job opportunities for a long term for others.

References

Nesbit, S. E., Sianchuk, R., Aleksejuniene, J., & Kindiak, R. (2012). Influencing Student
Beliefs about the Role of the Civil Engineer in Society. International Journal for the
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(2), n2.

Lawlor, R. 2016. Engineering in Society. Beyond the technical what every engineering student
should know. Second Edition. Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved on 24th Oct 2018.
https://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/engineering-in-society
Wawryszuk-Misztal, A., & Wrońska-Bukalska, E. (2014). Duties of financial director from
board’s perspective. In Proceedings of the Management Knowledge and Learning
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Caldwell, R. (2011). HR directors in UK boardrooms: a search for strategic influence or

symbolic capital?. Employee Relations, 33(1), 40-63.
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https://www.ipa.ie/_fileUpload/Documents/THE_PRACTICE_OF_HRM.pdf

Kelly, J. and Gennard, J. (2007), “Business strategic decision-making: the role and Influence
of directors”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 99-117.

Sylie Barak. 2012. Do engineers need an MBA? EDN network. Retrieved on 24th Oct 2018.
https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/academic-antics/4396336/Do-engineers-need-
an-MBA-

Hans van de Groenendaal. Panel discussion: MEng or MBA or …EngineerIT. Retrieved on

24th Oct 2018
http://www.ee.co.za/wp-
content/uploads/legacy/EngineerIT_2013/EngIT_Aug%20%202013__PanelDisc.pdf

Shonubi, A. S., Abdullah, N., Hashim, R & Hamid, N. B. 2016. The psychological impact
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Shahzadi, I., Javed, A., Pirzada, S. S., Nasreen, S., & Khanam, F. (2014). Impact of employee
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Rafique, A., Tayyab, M. S. B., Kamran, M., & Ahmed, N. M. (2014). A Study of the Factors
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Vlad, M., Tulvinschi, M., & Chiriţă, I. (2011). The consequences of fraudulent financial
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Tassadaq, F., & Malik, Q. A. (2015). Creative Accounting & Financial Reporting: Model
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