In Pursuit of Technological Excellence: Engineering Leadership, Technological Change, and Economic Development

by Ernst G. Frankel

Overview

This work examines the relationships among engineering leadership, technological change, and economic development. Specifically, it reviews the role and contribution of engineers—through their education and work—in the pursuit of excellence and effectiveness in our increasingly pervasive technological development. The relationship between the rate of technological development, technological diffusion, and success in its application, and the role or position of engineers in industry and government is interdependent. Frankel concludes that while the United States continues its dominance in basic scientific research and technology development, the growing lag in developing and applying technology in a timely and effective manner is largely a result of the lack of engineers in senior decisionmaking positions in industry and government.

This work will be of interest to practicing engineers, practicing managers, and scholars and students of economics and technology development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275944766
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/26/1993
Series:	Contr. in Econ. and Econ. Hist; 141
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

ERNST G. FRANKEL is Professor of Ocean Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He teaches both in the School of Engineering and at the Sloan School of Management and has wide industrial, public service, and academic experience. He is the author of seven books including, most recently, Management of Technology Change (1990).

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Issues and Problems of Engineering Leadership
Societal Effects of Engineering and Technology
Engineers and Leadership
Engineers as Decisionmakers
Managing and Organizing Engineers
Engineering and Technology Development
Engineering Education
Engineering as a Profession
Toward Technological Excellence
Model of the Engineer of the Future
Technological Excellence and Engineering Leadership
The Meaning of Technology and Engineering
Threats to U.S. Technological and Economic Leadership
The New Engineer
References
Appendix A: Safety and Engineers Risk Aversiveness
Appendix B: Code of Ethics for Engineers and the Role of Quality Management in Engineering
Appendix C: A Nation Neither Prepared nor Committed to the Training of Its Workers
Appendix D: On Contingent Fees and Self-Regulation
Appendix E: Engineer's Liability
Appendix F: Commercially Relevant R&D
Index