A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY INTO ENGINEERS' MOTIVATION TO LEAD

摘要

The present paper describes a qualitative (phenomenological) study of six engineering managers who were, within the past two years, promoted into management roles at a medical device manufacturer in Southern California. The objective of this study was to understand their motivation to lead. Each engineer participated in an interview which was approximately 30 minutes long, semi-structured, and guided by an eleven-question interview guide based on the literature. The transcriptions of each interview were then analyzed using first and second cycle coding. In all, eight themes emerged to explain why these engineers accepted leadership roles: (a) some simply enjoy leading, (b) some felt a social obligation, (c) some were motivated by values higher than mere money, (d) some were motivated by a sense of benevolence, (e) some were motivated by observing other leaders in the organization, (f) some found additional motivation to lead as they experienced success as managers, (g) some were motivated by their engineering skills, and, most significantly, (h) some found motivation to lead in a desire to teach and mentor. The study contributes to the literature by identifying a previously unrecognized motivation to lead (motivation to teach and mentor). Because a qualitative design was used, this study demonstrates only that this motivation to lead was present in these six engineers; no claim regarding generalizability is made. Additionally, three tentative practical implications for training potential engineering managers are described. However, a follow-on quantitative study is required before generalizing these findings.