This ethnographic study of engineers in action introduces an interpretive a
pproach to the recent debate about the factors shaping the organisation of
engineering labour within the firm. The study compares the consciousness of
kind and of difference developed by R&D and sales engineers (also known as
customer engineers) working for an engineering boutique. Two case stories
and other field data exemplify that the R&D and the customer engineers not
only developed distinct interpretive frameworks, they also enacted them in
the course of daily interaction either to protect or to alter an existing j
urisdictional map between the two engineering specialities. Discussion sugg
ests that the organisation of engineering labour is partly shaped by the in
terrelation of interpretive frameworks developed by engineering sub-groups.
The possible technisation of salts work in micro-electronics is also discu
ssed.