Motivation and the role of empathy in engineering work

Abstract

Societal perceptions of engineering as a discipline now depict engineering as a profession that enables social, economic, and environmental problems to be addressed on a global scale. This expanded view of engineering has had myriad impacts on priorities for engineering education and practice. One such impact has been to foreground discussions about the role that empathy may play in engineering practice. This manuscript discusses the evolution of the concept of empathy in the engineering field, and the relevance of empathy to various generic engineering attributes, including leadership, problem-solving, and design thinking. The manuscript then discusses the idea that motivation plays a central role in improving and increasing empathy in engineering work.