ENGINEERS, MANAGEMENT AND WORK ORGANIZATION - A COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERS WORK ROLES IN BRITISH AND JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRMS

Many commentators have attributed the poor performance of British manu facturing to the 'under-representation' of engineers in management, an d have proposed policies for bringing more engineers into management s o as to develop a technologically oriented management culture. This pa per argues that the under-representation of engineers in management is a symptom not the root cause of the problem, which lies in the split between technical and managerial expertise at the enterprise level. Ba sed on a comparative analysis of engineers' work roles and the relatio nship between technical and managerial functions in British and Japane se electronics firms, the paper argues that the mechanistically struct ured organization systems in the British firms generate a vertical pol arization between technical and managerial roles, inhibit knowledge sh aring and lead to the press under-utilization of engineers in product development. A technologically oriented management cannot simply be ac hieved by getting more engineers into management. It requires, instead , organizational restructuring and changes in work practices to enable a better integration between technical and managerial expertise.