An Analysis Of Literature Of The Development Of Leadership Skills In Engineering And Related Doctoral Programs

It has been stated that engineering Ph.D. graduates do not have the leadership skills needed to organize, manage and establish effective research groups or to appreciate the applied problems, knowledge and culture of other fields 1 . The objective of this study is to investigate and document the instructional strategies to both develop and assess leadership skills of engineering doctoral students. A literature review was conducted that examined approximately forty papers on this subject. This paper presents a critical analysis of the literature on this subject, and suggests directions for future research. Introduction The objective of this paper is to investigate the instructional strategies for developing and assessing leadership skills of engineering doctoral students. Within six years of obtaining a Ph.D., 80% of graduates will not hold tenure track positions in academia. Many of these graduates take positions in the for-profit business sector (industry) according to NSF Science and Engineering Indicators 2 . Currently, industry states that Ph.D.s do not have the leadership skills to organize, manage and establish effective teams of researchers that outperform their competition while appreciating the applied problems, knowledge and culture of other fields 1, 3 . Leadership skills, like many other skills, are gained through training and mentoring 4 . Several different instructional strategies have been developed to integrate the technical knowledge and leadership skills that industry desires in its Ph.D.s. This paper is a critical analysis of various instructional strategies and will address the following questions: ≠ How are leadership skills defined? ≠ What are the different instructional strategies for developing leadership and what are their strengths and weaknesses? ≠ How are leadership skills measured or assessed? ≠ What direction should be pursued in future research? Methodology A literature search and review was performed to address the research questions. The literature search was conducted using Web of Science, ERIC and Business Source Premier databases. Numerous search strings were entered to find relevant papers. For instance, the search string: TS=((scien* or chemi* or physics or engineer* or math* or industr*) and (grad* or graduate or master or doctoral or phd or ph.d. or doctor*) and (leadership) and (teach* or learn* or skill*)) was used in a Web of Science search that provided the authors with 140 relevant papers. A large collection of papers was examined in order to develop working definitions of leadership skills. These definitions were derived primarily from a series of articles discussing industrial employers’ desired knowledge, assets and skills of employees, e.g. Sekhon 5 and Sodhi 6 . After leadership was defined, additional literature was reviewed to determine current instructional and assessment strategies for developing leadership skills among engineering students, particularly engineering graduate students. P ge 15138.2 Definition of Leadership The definition of engineering leadership is changing with the increased difficultly and complexity of today’s problems 7 . Through this literature review, three interrelated leadership themes defining the skills and characteristic of effective leadership emerged: interpersonal leadership, visionary leadership, and lifelong learning leadership. Leaders must have interpersonal leadership skills because they work with others in a team setting. Visionary leadership skills are needed to create a change in the status quo. Lifelong learning leadership skills are needed to enable leaders and team members the ability to change direction with the market. Without these skills and characteristics a leader is merely a figurehead and often unsuccessful 3 . Interpersonal leadership skills include team building, motivating others and creating a professionally stimulating workplace. A leader needs the skills to build a strong, cohesive, and successful team by being able to resolve conflicts and incorporate the professional interests of team members into projects 7-12 . Motivating skills of leaders include the incorporation of team members’ professional interests, developing team members’ leadership skills and giving team members a stake in the problem 7, 9-11, 13-15 . A professionally stimulating workplace can be developed by the leader through brainstorming and modeling creative problem solving 7, 9, 15 . Studies have shown that a leader who possesses these interpersonal leadership skills has more successful projects than leaders without these skills 3 . A leader creates a vision, or change in the status quo. Depth and breadth of knowledge, along with problem solving skills, allow a leader to determine where a change is needed and communicate it to team members and other stakeholders. The leader and his or her team formulate a strategic plan to implement a vision, create metrics and enable the team to self-assess their progress 1, 7, 8, 11, 15-17 . During the implementation a leader deals with technological, economic, political and regulatory risks. He or she needs self-confidence and self-efficacy gained through a depth and breadth of knowledge in addition to past experiences 7 . Leadership requires lifelong learning because the implementation of a vision often requires knowledge or skills that the team, including the leader, may not possess 7, 13, 18 . The leader’s job is to identify the skills that are lacking and find a way to acquire them. In academia a researcher needs to generate proposals for research; in industry a researcher needs to generate a business plan for product development. When a person possesses lifelong learning skills he or she is able to gain the knowledge and skills to generate the proposals or a business plan. In an environment where life-long learning is valued, individual team members develop a breadth and depth of knowledge and grow in their leadership skills, also adding to a professionally stimulating work environment 13, 19 . The three themes of leadership skills discussed above are not all inclusive. Project management skills, such as managing material resources and delegating tasks, often appeared in the literature 7, 8 . Project management skills are important for leading teams effectively. However, they can be acquired through degree and certificate programs 16, 20 . Lifelong learning leadership skills allow for the growth and development of additional skills as the market requires. If Page 15138.3 interpersonal, visionary and lifelong learning leadership skills are fully developed, it is a fair assessment that project management skills can be learned and retained by leaders. Instructional Strategies to Develop Leadership Skills Throughout the world many different programs exist to develop the leadership skills of students enrolled in engineering doctoral programs. Three different instructional strategies that enhance students’ leadership skills and technical knowledge are: 1) academic research training, 2) academic and industry partnerships in research, and 3) learner centered courses. Other instructional strategies, such as degree or certificate programs in leadership do exist, but they do not show evidence of strengthening students’ technical knowledge. This paper focuses on programs whose goal is both to educate doctoral students with technical knowledge and enhance their leadership abilities. Academic Research Training Programs. Engineering doctoral education in the United States is based largely on an apprenticeship model. The degree includes of technical courses, a research based dissertation, and comprehensive exams. Students are assigned or choose a supervisor who is an acknowledged expert in the field of research 21, 22 . The supervisor guides each student individually through their research with various levels of support and indicates when a student is ready to publically defend his or her thesis 21 . Because of the nature of individualized instruction, some supervisors attempt to develop their students’ leadership skills while others may not. However, it is hard to judge if this instructional strategy is effective in developing students’ leadership skills because it is not well addressed in literature. Industry and Academic Partnerships. Leadership skills can be taught through industry and academic partnerships where students perform their doctoral research in industry with guidance from an industrial and academic supervisor 23 . Such programs exist in the United States, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom (U.K.) 21, 23-28 . More literature is available on the programs in the U.K., thus is the focus of this section. Universities in the U.K. have been partnering with industry for approximately twenty years with support from U.K.’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (the U.K.’s equivalent to the National Science Foundation). In addition to technical coursework, students take courses in strategic management, finance and human resource management. Students completing the program earn a research based engineering doctorate 25 . Students in the United Kingdom’s program transition through four roles: consultant, researcher, innovator and entrepreneur. Initially a student is a consultant and determines the vision of the company through a series of audits. He or she will then transition to the role of researcher, which is similar to a traditional Ph.D. student. After a student’s research is complete, he or she takes on an innovator role where the information learned as an auditor and researcher is developed and optimized. Finally, the student takes the entrepreneur role where he or she builds a business case to establish a new technology. Thus students take an idea from conception to market. Throughout the four roles, students are developing their leadership skills. Visionary leadership skills, specifically communication skills, were developed through the series of audits. Students performed a gap