Leading Creative People as Consulting Engineering Becomes Globalized

Abstract

Every 25 or 30 years there is a generational change in ownership and management of consulting engineering firms. A new post World War II generation of leaders are taking over firm management in the 1990s, with different values from their predecessors, and with younger staff who have significantly different values. Those values are also impacted by the ongong globalization of the marketplace, and hence the profession. Engineering has trailed other professions such as advertising, accounting, and law in coming face‐to‐face with the stresses of globalization. This paper cites examples of innovative firm management that has addressed and implemented new programs in their design technology and human resources management as they seek to attract and retain the brightest and best of the engineering profession. A conclusion is stated that more enlightened human resource management is not optional but mandatory for those firms who wish to succeed both technically and financially in the balance of the nineties.