Management situations and the engineering mindset

This paper uses the method of assumptional analysis to understand the behavior patterns and the problem-solving strategies employed by the engineer/scientist. It is shown that the engineering mindset, although useful for the solution of the problem situations that generally arise in the engineering fields, has serious inadequacies, and is often counterproductive, in handling ill-structured management problems; hence, the often reported, less-than-adequate performance of engineers in management situations. This article moves from the analysis of engineering-problem situations to the basic assumptions underlying the engineer's world picture and thence to the engineer's strategies for problem solution. Comparisons with the nature of management situations, the manager's world picture, and his problem-handling activities are made. The analysis is, in the main part, paradigmatic. It is pointed out that the basic feature of all ill-structured problems is that they network across many and diverse knowledge bases. Further, this article argues that a new and different world view needs to be introduced into the training of future generations of engineers, for with the increased networking of society, not just management but also technological problem situations will move more and more towards the ill-structured end of the spectrum.     

The effect of immigration quotas on the average quality of migrating labor and income distribution

In this paper, the authors develop "a simple two-country, single-period model to study the effect of quota restrictions on the composition of migrating labor. [They] have divided the migrant population in two general categories called high skilled and low skilled and have shown that free migration of any category of labor occurs if and only if the country's share of world resources is different from its share of the world labor endowment in that category." Two possible outcomes, given differing labor endowments and income differentials, are considered. The potential effect of illegal immigration is also noted. The authors conclude that their model "is applicable not only to 'brain drain' problems, but also to guest worker programs and/or the mass migration of low skilled workers from poor countries to rich countries."