One more time: How to motivate your engineers

As a result of changes in economic, social, and technological conditions, engineering managers are increasingly facing problems in motivating engineers. This, coupled with engineers' orientations and expectations to be treated as “professionals,” has caused considerable tensions and strains in the engineer-management relationship. This calls for changes in engineering management styles to maintain motivation and productivity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the above issues. The paper identifies a new profile for engineers' job expectations and motivational styles derived from the author's research studies and experience in this area. It further discusses some of the myths and misconceptions in current practices for motivating engineers. Finally, it offers some guidelines to management for better motivation and utilization of engineering manpower.