Engineering focuses on technological problem solving, while Management deals with organizational, planning and administrative competencies. The relationship between engineering and management is like that of a husband and wife. One complements the other and together they make organizations tick.
Or is it?
Like in the institution of marriage, where gender roles were well defined and almost in silos, organizations used to have the roles for engineering and management well defined and in silos. Today, things are different. Skills have become wider, especially with 97% of those admitted tp IIM's being engineers, engineers dominate by far the best positions in Management. Whether this is a good thing or not is a good subject for another debate, however, in the last few decades management is becoming more quantitative driven rather than ideas-driven, and this is a well-known fact.
Already for most, who has the control in this relationship must be clear by now! There are engineers and managers, and almost all the managers are also engineers! It is only a matter of time before the only white or blue shirts will be replaced by checks and other precise geometric patterns preferred by engineers!
Good Management programs now focus on quantitative courses from operations research to analytics and also have courses like innovation, project management, technology management, once exclusively taught in engineering programs. All engineers should be grateful to management guru Fredrick Taylor who introduced quantitative techniques in shop floor management that began what is now called scientific management.
Similarly, engineering programs have many courses once considered the preserve of Management including principles of management, technology management, Operations research, Production Planning and control, Supply chain management, Design Thinking, etc.
The silos are breaking down and today both the disciplines do not operate in watertight compartments. At an operational level also, there is a clear trend that most of the functions and roles span both engineering and management at once.
Consider any position in an organization; plant engineer, maintenance engineer, Quality Control Engineer, Production Engineer, and visualize their day at work. Management is all about improving effectiveness and efficiency. Are tools for this not essential to all the previously pure engineering jobs? In a competitive environment, management skills need to be omnipresent to derive business value. Similarly, most management functions need technology support as the Internet, enterprise software, AI, Machine Learning, etc. are changing even small businesses to a great extent. In this case, technology has become the enabler for efficiency and effectiveness.
The future really needs people who are adept with technology and management. What will educational programs look like in the future? Already for a few decades now, there are specialist MBA programs that span both both technology and management, what is the future curriculum for post graduate engineering programs? Will a combination of engineering and management emerge as a new undergraduate program? In what directon will employers, who now seek only job ready graduates, push curiculum development.
As a commerce graduate, to me it's clear engineering and quantitative analysis has taken over management
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