The Future of Engineering Work
Increasing Flexibility in Work Content, Environment and Processes
Hannele Lampela and Jorma Papinniemi
School of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology,
P.O. Box 20, 53851 Lappeeranta,Finland
Keywords: Engineering Work, Virtual Work, Future Workplace, Collaborative Learning.
Abstract: This article presents an exploratory study of the trends affecting engineering work in the future, and their
implications for managing engineering processes within companies. In many industries, the future
workplace will be significantly different from that of today, changing the content of the work, the working
environment and the way we work. In this study the effects of these workplace changes are discussed, based
on both literature and practical experiences, from an engineering point of view as an example of highly
knowledge-intensive work, and further research needs are identified.
1 INTRODUCTION
There are numerous drivers of change for
workplaces in different industries. Especially in
knowledge-intensive service businesses such as
engineering, the managers are striving for novel
ways of organizing work more effectively in
distributed, increasingly virtual organizations where
the technological tools are constantly evolving and
the tasks and the knowledge needed for achieving
them become scattered and fragmented. The
academic community has noted the changes of the
society and working environment quite broadly in
different fields of study, and the extant literature on
the future trends of working is substantial for
example in psychology, sociology and management
(see Khallash and Kruse, 2012 for a recent
overview). However, the practical implications of
these changes are still under debate, and studies
concentrating especially on knowledge intensive
working environments are still scarce.
The research question we aim to answer is what
implications for practice and further research needs
can be identified based on the trends affecting
engineering work in the future? As a method of
study, we use both literature research and interviews
of managers and engineering professionals as data
for identifying first the relevant workplace future
trends and second their implications for engineering
work.
The future trends of working and workplace have
been discussed by several authors in recent years,
both by academics and private consultants. In
addition, we have referenced articles and academic
dissertations on the future of engineering education
(Korhonen-Yrjänheikki, 2011; Sunthonkanokpong,
2011; Shuman et al., 2002; Rugarcia et al., 2000),
which closely relates to the way the engineering
work is considered to change (Zhou, 1998).
The aim of this paper is to identify working life
trends that are important especially for knowledge-
intensive engineering profession, and to present a
discussion on the implications of these trends. The
implications are analysed and classified into
categories of work content, work environment and
work processes. As a result, our study shows the
need for change in practical management and
organization of work in engineering organizations in
all of these three categories. The study also identifies
needs for future research, such as the social aspects
of collaboration and learning, in addition to
technical solutions, which are currently receiving
considerable attention in research.
This paper is organized as follows: after the
introduction, the second section of the paper gives
an overview of the identified future trends affecting
work and specifically engineering work based on
earlier literature. The third section briefly discusses
the research methods used for the empirical part of
the study, and the fourth section presents the results
of the interviews and summarizes the findings of the
601
Lampela H. and Papinniemi J..
The Future of Engineering Work - Increasing Flexibility in Work Content, Environment and Processes.
DOI: 10.5220/0004512006010607
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (FWP-2013), pages 601-607
ISBN: 978-989-8565-54-9
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
study. The paper ends with a summary of the
implications of these findings in section five offering
both practical recommendations for managers and
suggestions for future research topics.
2 TRENDS AFFECTING
ENGINEERING WORK
2.1 Changes in Working
The macro trends of the societal changes are
reflected on working life as well. The discussion on
the quality of working life has been rising in Japan,
Europe and the US since the 1980’s. In developed
economies, we are now moving from industrial era
to a knowledge-based economy (Korhonen-
Yrjänheikki, 2011), and this has several effects on
working.
Khallash and Kruse (2012) have studied the
future of work in terms of work-life balance, and
found that research on the future of work is often
lacking facts and proper analysis, and the results are
speculative and normative by nature, either too
optimistic or too pessimistic. They suggest that the
new technology and new decentralized organization
forms will allow for better work-life balance. The
attitudes towards work are changing, as well as the
definitions of what is considered working, where it
is executed and how (Khallash and Kruse, 2012).
As the view on work is changing, so is the
motivation for working. According to studies, future
knowledge workers will need to be more self-
motivated than today, and their own expertise and
possibilities of developing it further act as a source
for work motivation in a challenging environment
(Murtonen et al., 2008).
Knowledge-intensiveness is increasing in almost
all types of work, and this leads to the fragmentation
of tasks as the needed information is often scattered
in different places. The importance of knowledge
and information management as a task on personal,
organizational and inter-organizational levels
receives increasing attention. The importance of
knowledge acquisition and sharing in networks is
growing, and specialization of skills and knowledge
of employees is driven further.
There is a broad consensus among organizational
researchers that the organizational form of the future
is increasingly virtual and project-based, and
physical structures lose their meaning. In large
organizations this means also global distribution of
locations, but due to the advances in mobile or
ubique information and communication technologies
(ICT), work can be done anyplace and anytime
(Khallash and Kruse, 2012). Despite the freedom
and flexibility, this creates also challenges to work-
life balance, as the expectations of being available
also change.
Open and networked operating environment
changes the processes and tools of collaboration.
The social networks within own organization and
also on personal level are rising in importance as
hierarchical organization structures are evolving to
better respond to this development. Decentralization
of organizations is also reflected on technical
solutions, particularly ICT. The rapid changes of
available technology require flexibility in the ICT
architectures of organizations, but also in the
policies of how the tools are used. One recent
example is the adoption of social media tools, which
has had profound effects on collaboration practices.
2.2 Changes in Engineering Work
2.2.1 Engineering Discipline Definitions
Engineering work has its special role in the society,
as according to the Engineers’ Council for
Professional Development (ECPD) the aim of
engineers is to serve public safety, health, and
wellbeing (Zhou,1998; Heikkerö, 2009). The special
features of engineering science are defined as
follows: it includes human-made objects of study
that are defined in functional terms and evaluated
with category-specific value statements, engineering
design is part of technological sciences rather than
natural sciences, idealizations are less far-reaching
than in natural sciences, and exact mathematical
solution is not needed if a sufficiently close
approximation can be reached (Hansson, 2007).
Concerning engineering work, Zhou (1998) has
found three types of definitions, focusing either on
general features (all-inclusive definition), or on the
inputs and outputs of the work, or on functional
descriptions of the work. None of these definition
types actually tells about how the engineering work
is executed, and Zhou concludes that there is no
consensus of the definition except that the design
activities seem to form the core of engineering work
(Zhou, 1998).
Engineering organizations are often among the
first ones to adapt to the changes in the business
environment, as due to the close connection of
business and engineering, the changes in the
environment are soon reflected in the engineering
field:
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“Because of the practical nature of the engineering
discipline, the engineering profession reflects more
than most professions
the immediate environment
within which it operates.”
(Korhonen-Yrjänheikki, 2011; c.f. Allenby et al.
2009).
2.2.2 Changes in Society and Business
Environment Affecting Engineering
The increasing knowledge-intensiveness and
complexity, increasing virtuality of organizations,
technological development and convergence, and
increasing openness and networked structures are all
reflected in working. The above-mentioned five
trends are chosen based on Korhonen-Yrjänheikki
(2011), for basis of our discussion because of their
direct link to the future of engineering, and because
they are agreed upon by several authors.
Rugarcia et al. (2000) have recognized
challenging factors for future engineers, that are
very similar to the trends presented by Korhonen-
Yrjänheikki (2011): proliferating of information,
multidisciplinarity of technological development,
globalized markets, participatory corporate
structures and rapid change. In addition to these,
they discuss two factors, endangered environment
and emerging social responsibility, which are not
included in our study.
As discussed earlier in section 2.1, the increasing
knowledge-intensiveness of the society is shown in
the fragmentation of tasks and scattered information.
This is true also in engineering, where for example
design information management and product
lifecycle information management have had several
new concepts and tools developed recently to
organize the vast amount of data and to guarantee
global open access to corporate design and product
information. By developing the processes of reusing
the design information and knowledge, engineering
companies seek to diminish the time spent on
looking for existing information, which is currently
time-consuming (Silventoinen et al., 2012).
New organizational forms, increasing virtuality
of the working environment as well as the global
value networks of engineering companies are
changing engineering work by offering possibilities
for independence and freedom to choose the place
and the time for working. This can have profound
effects on the organization of science and
technology work globally, since western
industrialized countries are facing less students
interested in the field and the supply of engineers is
growing in developing economies in Asia. (Lewin
and Zhong, 2013).
The increasing openness of the organizations
also changes engineering tasks by requiring more
information sharing and collaboration with
stakeholders than before, and the open innovation
paradigm (Chesbrough, 2003) is changing the
traditional view of design and development work.
Understanding of value networks and interpersonal
and cultural skills become critical in the new
operating environment (Korhonen-Yrjänheikki,
2011).
The rapid development of technology and
convergence of different fields of technology present
opportunities for solving new types of problems and
achieving complex system changes. This will
require the engineers to find novel ways of
combining interdisciplinary knowledge (Allenby et
al., 2009; Rugarcia et al., 2000). The technological
change will reflect also on the tools of the engineers;
the working environment will be increasingly virtual
and ICT-driven with tools for specialized purposes
available. Especially the shared virtual working
spaces and simulation tools will increase their
importance in the engineering work.
As the complexity of the society is increasing,
researchers are calling for a system focus and
system-level understanding from engineers. In the
future, engineering problems are undefined, appear
within non-standardized social and technical
processes, and require ability to define problems
rather than solve them, collaborative learning,
networking and creative learning. (Allenby et al.,
2009; Sunthonkanokpong, 2011).
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Empirical Research Process
After the identification of trends, based on a
literature overview presented in the previous section,
we combined the results with empirical data from
qualitative managerial interviews on the topic of
collaborative and virtual team engineering work and
learning, and its challenges and possibilities. The
interviews have taken place in three Finnish
multinational leading-edge high-technology
corporations operating in business to business
machinery and heavy industry equipment, ICT, and
industrial equipment and services fields during
2008-2011. The companies were chosen based on
previous or ongoing research project contacts and
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on their known interest in virtual working and new
working practices.
Data from altogether 9 individual interviews has
been used in this study. This resulted in repetition of
similar themes in the answers, which is a sign of
qualitative data saturation (Easterby-Smith et al.,
2008). The interviewees generally represented
middle management or product development
management of the company, had long experience
on virtual working and team leadership, and were
aged between 30-60 years with 15-35 years of work
experience. The working titles ranged from sourcing
manager, supply manager, sales manager to R&D
manager, program manager, development manager
and general operations manager.
The interviewees were either asked personally to
participate, or received a voluntary invitation email
from their manager asking for their interest to
participate in the study. All the interviews were
individual, face-to face meetings where the
researcher used a semi-structured interview guide,
allowing the interviewees to answer the chosen
topics freely. The interviews took on average 60 to
90 minutes each, and the sessions were recorded and
transcribed afterwards.
3.2 Data Analysis
The interview material was analyzed using a
heuristic and inductive qualitative content analysis
approach (Elo and Kyngäs, 2008), searching for
interviewee answers regarding all the future-related
change aspects of engineering work mentioned by
the interviewees. The analysis was conducted by the
same researcher as the original interviews. Based on
the interviews, the classification of themes was
made into three categories: the content, environment
and processes of working. The data was organized in
tables according to these themes and some
illustrating quotations were found. The results of the
analysis are presented in the next section.
4 FINDINGS
4.1 Interview Results
4.1.1 Content of Work
The interviewees had noted several changes related
to the working life trends regarding the content of
engineering work (what is done). The respondents
experienced that the typical tasks during the working
day of an engineer are changing, for example there
is more information exchange and a need to stay
constantly available. Also part of them said that a
definition of what is considered working is under
discussion in organizations, when they are laying the
cornerstones on policies of distant working or virtual
working.
The respondents utilize more open networks also
outside their own organization as a source of
information, and have more frequent customer
contacts than before, as a result of closer integration
of technical departments to sales support or business
development. All this requires more communication
skills than before, which was expressed by an
interviewee:
“In global operations you cannot highlight this
enough, communication skills and interaction
competences in general.”
They send short messages via SMS or chat to
find out things fast, and considered information
overflow and managing it a core challenge in their
job. The majority of them regarded the development
of their personal expertise (often specialized
technical area) as a very important part of their
tasks, and part of them had also noted the change
from problem-solvers to problem definers, which
was expressed for example as an unclear
specification of what needs to be done.
4.1.2 Working Environment
According to the interviews, the changes in the
working environment (where the work is done) are
considerable. The increasing virtuality in working
manifests as freedom of choosing the workplace and
as new efficient tools and less hierarchy, but also as
technical problems and unclear decision-making
roles. Distance working, shared virtual working
environments and virtual meetings that are spreading
fast as the technology has matured also mean
thorough changes in the thinking and attitudes
within the organization as well as in the physical
office environment. One respondent described his
attitude towards new virtual tools as follows:
“I wish the tools were as easy and fast to learn as
possible, so that we could just get on with them and
could create the feeling of being present.”
The effects of the increasing possibilities of
virtual working in the organizations are manifold: on
one hand, as the engineer does not necessarily have
a shared physical working space with others and
both the time and place of working can be flexible,
this can be an advantage for work-life balance, but
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on the other hand, loosing the feeling of belonging
to an organization can become a challenge. As an
example, one respondent said she had a feeling of
“falling between teams”, and another respondent
continued on internal communication:
“When I need to get information, I always have to
pull it. If you are around, the information is typically
pushed. You get an email from somebody, someone
comes to tell you something…. and [if] you are not
around, so he will say ok, he will be informed
later… but in the end of the day you are not
informed at all.”
4.1.3 Work Processes
The interview answers regarding the changes in
engineering work practices and processes (how the
work is executed) show firstly the versatile
collaboration needs to persons and groups from
different backgrounds, not only technical specialists.
Secondly, adopting new (software) tools and
learning to use them effectively also changes the
work processes considerably. In a virtual setting, for
example the meeting practices and expectations of
the preparations or the outcomes are different than in
a traditional face-to-face situation. As one
interviewee said:
“The meeting mechanisms and communication have
changed, now we guide the meetings through action
points and make sure in the end of the meeting that
everybody has understood what needs to be done
and who does it”.
Access to shared databases within own organization
or even with partners means new precautions to
protect information as well as to share it.
Considering the networking and open access to
information, some respondents said that sometimes
their own personal networks as well as formal
organizational networks are used when finding a
solution to a specialized technical problem.
4.2 Summary of Findings
The findings of the study from the literature and
from the interviews are combined and summarized
in the Table 1 below. It shows the significant
working life trends for engineering work identified
in the study and the implications of these trends for
practical engineering work classified into the
categories of work content, environment and
processes, although in practice some trends and
implications are partly intertwined and overlapping.
Table 1: Future trends and their implications for
engineering work.
Trends affecting
engineering work
Implications for
engineering work
Knowledge intensity Content: fragmenting tasks,
scattered information, special-
ization and self-motivation
Environment: access to
information anywhere
Processes: efficient tools for
design and product
information management,
information reuse
New forms of
organizations,
increasing virtuality
Content: changing definition of
work, changing attitudes
Environment: virtual tools and
location independence,
mobility
Processes: less hierarchies,
new collaboration practices,
social media
Open and networked
environment
Content: versatile information
sharing and collaboration in
networks
Environment: Using own
personal networks in addition
to official networks
Processes:understanding value
networks, interpersonal and
cultural skills
Technological
development and
convergence
Content: new possibilities
through combining
technologies, opportunity for
complex system changes
Environment:decentralization
of ICT, availability of virtual
and simulation tools and
dynamic changes of tools
Processes: new ways of
combining interdisciplinary
knowledge needed
Complexity Content:problems undefined,
work is more problem
definition than problem
solving
Environment: non-
standardized social and
technical processes
Processes: need for system
understanding and support for
collaborative learning
5 CONCLUSIONS
5.1 Contribution of the Study
This study has added the current knowledge on the
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future trends of working especially focusing on
identifying the trends relevant to knowledge-
intensive engineering work. The literature findings
are strengthened by empirical data from managerial
and specialist interviews, offering a practical
confirmation to the issues found. Also, the study
contributes to the discussion on the implications of
these trends, classifying the implications into three
main categories of the work content, work
environment and work processes. The
recommendations for practice and the future
research topics are presented next.
5.2 Recommendations for Practice
The practical implications of the trends changing
engineering work are vast for managers in
organizations. They need to rethink the organization
of work in all three aspects, what needs to be done,
where it is done and how it can be done most
effectively. Flexibility in all these aspects needs to
be enabled if talented workforce is to be retained,
and in a specialist organization such as engineering,
designing and implementing these changes towards
more flexible working cannot be left only as the
management’s responsibility.
The changes in business environment reflect
directly to engineering work because of the practical
nature of the field. Growing complexities of the
business environment require new ways of
collaborative problem-solving, which leads to the
need for collaborative learning and global learning
environments also in the workplace. Creating an
environment (physical and virtual) that enables both
flexibility and freedom for the individuals and
creative collaborative working and knowledge
sharing at the same time is a paradox that needs to
be solved in engineering organizations. The social
aspects of work are emphasized in the future, and
organizations have to find new ways to support
building trust and team identity, and commitment to
common goals in a distributed, often virtual setting.
On an individual level, the managers in
specialist organizations have to enable the
continuous development of the specialists’
knowledge, which is an important factor for work
motivation. The motivation is based on own
expertise and on the significance of the tasks, so
these aspects need to be highlighted in the
organization. The managers also have to accept a
higher level of organization-independence of the
employees, as the commitment to work is built
increasingly on own expertise and the task and
project at hand, not necessarily on the organization.
This also signals a change in the so-called
psychological agreement between the company and
the employee.
5.3 Future Research Needs
Engineering work has been studied in this paper as
an example of knowledge-intensive specialist
profession. Thus, it can be useful for researching
other similar fields as well. This study has provided
the starting point for multidisciplinary research on
the future of working in knowledge-intensive
environments. Specifically, more needs to be known
on the following topics:
The social aspects of collaboration in
engineering and collaborative learning
New factors of work motivation and
commitment, work-life balance
Possibilities of new technologies such as
social media tools to support collaborative
thinking and learning, and generating creative
solutions
As a conclusion of the research needs, several
technologies that enable the trends and changing
working practices already exist, but more research
needs to be done on the social aspects, attitudes and
thinking patterns of people. In the future, research
will be focused in concurrent design of company’s
needs and worker’s needs in virtual engineering
workplace, to ensure both the quality of working life
and sustainable competitiveness of companies.
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