When Does Leadership Become Engineering Leadership

Abstract

The increasing complexity of our world as aresult of globalization has called for a greater emphasison leadership in many sectors of society. This includesengineering, both in terms of education and practice. Areview of literature reveals that engineering concepts ofleadership do not always align with concepts of otherdisciplines, suggesting the existence of a kind of“engineering leadership”.To identify what this form of leadership might be,four concepts, closely related to leadership are extractedfrom the leadership literature: problem, skills, authorityand values. As these are carried over from engineering toleadership, a certain kind of leadership results.Of these four concepts, “values” was exploredfurther through the engineering values of dependency,efficiency and inevitability. These values affect one’sconcept of leadership: inevitability, for instance, maycause some leaders to uncritically accept certain aspectsof the social system. In this way, we can define“engineering leadership” as leadership which embodiesor expresses engineering values.