1961 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT 11

Social Change in Science and Engineering*HERBERT A. SHEPARDt

Summary-Scientists and technologists are in the midst of an present time makes this an ever more demanding task.enormous social experiment, involving the growth of many new First, one of the most striking changes taking place withinskill groups and the undertaking of very large and complex R and D and around the engineering profession is the growth ofprojects. The boundaries of the engineering profession and aphilosophy of organizing complex projects are discussed. Some neffects on engineering education are traced. Differences between ern proj ects requires a wide variety of skills. One needengineers and scientists are examined in the context of the "research not take such a flight of fancy as is involved in consider-and development explosion." Traditional functional differences are ing the preparations for moon colonization to realize thebeing erased, but some differences in personal and social charac- breadth and depth of knowledge required in many currentteristics are described.

proj ects. That systems engineering has become a disci-

WWHAT are the social implications otf technological pline in its own right is a tribute to the vast number ofhighly complex undertakings confronting us.change for the group most deeply involved in

bringing about technological change? What are BOUNDARIES OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSIONthe engineers bringing down upon their own heads? Al- Continuation of these trends would seem to requireternatively, to what, new heights are their actions raising professional adaptation onn three fronts at least. The firstthem? And what are the implications of these changes, for . .

the menwhomange engineering?concerns the definition of the boundaries of the engi-the men who manage engineering?I need scarcely re;mind a group of engineers that mo,st gineering profession, and the problem of maintaining

sociological knowledge is not timeless in the sense that unity within the profession as certain distinctions be-come more pronounced. I suppose the traditional mode.lan engineeringhandbook contains timeless knowledge of the typical engine!er is a man with a relatively broa,dand that with few exceptions it is scarcely possible to

fylao ponti for area of professional competence in a field of engineeringspecify, l a pknowledge which is continually growing at an assimilablemaking replicable and critical social experiments. How- rate. I should think it will be increasingly difficult to

ever, I am convinced that scientists and technologists- locate any typical engineers in the future. On the onenot sociologists-are presently in the midst of carrying hand, there are powerful forces in the direction of in-through an enormous social experiment, and as a sociolo- cgist I am honored to e asked for my observations on dcreasingly narrow fields of specialization, andaglso in the

some aspects of the experiment.direction of ever-broadening fields of engine!ering knowl-some taspcts of the experimentho,rrendousquestionsasedge. Mastery of a, particular narrow specialization isNot that Icn answer suh horrendousquestions a be.coming difficult enough to require a.ll olf a man's re-

those I have just raised. However, I should like to draw sources. On the one hand, then, we have the picture of ayour attention to two matters which are wrapped up in lthe social implications surrounding these questions for lbe technceians-who are relatively immobile in that theyengineers of technological change. The first has to do can do only one kind of thing, but they will have a, mo-with the ever-inereasciengisorganizationalcopleygrof The nopoly on the doing of that kind of thing because, it re:-wrork of engineers,, scientists an.d ancilla,ry grolups. The agetda ftann.O h te ad hr

quires a great deal of training. On the other hand, theresecond has to do with the reformulation of certa,in issuesa,nd distinctions traditionally made in scien.ce and engi-

is ai inrasn dean fo nier,wh aesc

thorough scientific education in matters relating to theirneering. engineering field that they are highly mobile with re-I shall not dwell on the matter of ever-increasing or- secteto fiecl t aspec and with respec tothe

ganizational complexity at length, because I am sure that spect rum ofengineerin andsiec Tese diffeit is continually before you and that your explorations ecwhole spectrum of engeneerong and science. These differ-of it are already thorough. One asspect of management's tual cpity, apt ed ucatlin d bfferences in intellec-responsibility which is deservedly receiving more andmo.re aeiic.u ences of interest, economic power, and social grouping.more attention is that for creating theconditionsunderThus, we might expect continuation of the trend, thatwhich groups with diverse skills, statuses, values a,nd those who a,re highly molbile in ma,ny fields of science en-aspirations are able to colla,borate in the alttainment of gneigbcm nleta nidsra,gvrmna

superordinate goa.ls. The conjunction of two trends at the an edctoa eiinmkn.Toewoaehglspecialized, on the other ha,nd, might be expected tow ex-

* Received by the PGEM, September, 1960. This paper was perience the economic ups and downs, and to engage inpresented at the 8th Annual Engineering Management Conf., the protective practices, which ha,ve be,en characteristicChicago, Ill., September 15-16, 1960.

t Dept. of Management, Case Inst. Tech., Cleveland, Ohio. of highly skilled groups in the past.

12 iRE MRANSACT7ONS ON' ENTGINEERING MANAGEM71EN1I MlarchPHILOSOPHY OF ORGANIZA1TION more urgently required in die. world in which engineers

If we add to these trenrds within engineering that of do thleir work.increasing tlhe nulnl)er and varietv of ancillary groups The second matter to which I wish to draw your at-and that of the increasing complexity, size and scope of tention-namely, the refornulation of certain traditionalprojects, a change of emll)hasis in mlanagemzent. philosophy distinctions in science and engineering-is such a puzzlingand in organization for work may be needed. Most large one to ie that I introduce it with a metaphor.Organizations have found it necessary to invest a great During the past 20 years or so, one of the prettiest

part of their resources in control, evaluative and policing flowers in engineering's garden, has been showing a tre-functions. However, in the design anid development of Inendous capacity for ecological dominance and threatenscomplex systems, imianagement control systeems can be to overrun the whole farm. Indeed, the spread of thisnot only exorbitantlv expensive, but also self-defeating. hybrid-or is it a mutation?-is changing the whole char-Time, planning, e.nerg,y and other resourees might be bet- acter of agricult.ure and the farmer. Before digging imyter expended on establishing andsmaintaining the con- rural metaplhor so far into the ground that it is perima-(itions under wnicilthe componet groups and persons nently plowed under, I should make it clear that I amcan work together on mutulally-agreed-upon goals, ab- referring to the research and development explosion andsorbing most of the disciplinarv, control and evaluative its impact on the institutions of science and engineering.functions into the work processes theselves, or what It has long been possible to say that engineering is

are usually known as the lowe level isof organization. In science-based; engineering and applied science have forother words, vital skills of thie mDnanager of the future a long time been nearly synonymous and are oftenmnay includec knowing how to develol) procedures wllerebv lumped together as "technology;" and scientific dis-appropriate performance standar(is, eomlnunication lRlles, coveries lhave often provided the basis for new fields ofappoprateperformance standardis commnnunication ruLles,enierg.Trewsatmwlenhedfrncbeobjectives, and svstems of justice and reward can be ar- engneering There was a tme when the difference be-rived at and mrlaintainedl by thle comllponent parts of his tween science and engineering could be put in a nutshellorganzization. In part, t.his is simply an extension of pres- by saying that scientists are interested in how much isent trends towards delegation anl decentralization. In known about something, engineers in how to make some-part, it is a revision of present philosophy, a revision thing work better But organized research and develop-which sees consensus rather than authority as the cement ment is something scientists, applied scientists and en-

of organization. gineers do together under conditions of close andimmiiiediate interdependence, and the occupational (lis-tinctions are becoming exceedingly fuzzy.

EFFECTS ON EDUCATION TIhe blurring of old distinctions is proceeding rapidly.Third, these trendls are already forcing extensive One of the mos.t striking of recent changes in technological

changes in engineering curricula, and the invention of education is the scientization of engineering curricula.new curricula. Tndoubtedly they will also force continued Equipmnent courses and the learning of formulas areexamination of profesional qualificat.ions, as the border- giving way to courses in theory and method. The teachl-line between a technician and an engineer continues to ing of approaches is being substituted for the teachingshift its position, or as five-year programis or new types of techniques. Mechanical drawing is going out andof degrees respond to growing knowledge and needs. miiathenmatics is comning in. The moldern engineer is gettingMoreover, if engineers are to work in organizations of a scientific education.ever-increasing complexity, then, like organization man- In industrial and governmental laboratories terms likeagers, they will require greater organizational skill as "research engineer" have been current for somwe time.managers of their own interpersonal and intergroup re- Even the horrifying neolog "scieneer" can be found inlationships. Changes in organization philosophy and man- some of the management literature on research and de-agerial procedure cannot easily proceed unless members velopment. As the engineers have been moving towardsof the organization are trained or retrained to respond science, research and development laboratories have beenrationally to conditions of interdependence. My reference recruiting pure scientists whose research interests coin-is not to teaching engineers to be "operators" or to "get cide with the product interests of the laboratories. Thealong with others." But an engineer does need to recog- objectives of research and development laboratories havenize, for exaiple, that conflict between his own group led engineers and scientists into each other's traditionaland another group with which it is interdependent in the domains to such an extent that the traffic across bounda-attainmnent of some presumably shared goal, cannot as a ries is as great as the traffic within. Eiduson in a recentrule be productivrely resolvred by ignoring it, by appealing study concludes that "The individual is having a harderto authority, b)y investing more reources in the battle, and harder time finding a place for himself in science."'or by turning the other cheek. It usually re.quires jointdiagnosis, and some agreed upon revision in the termsof the relationshlip. This is a part of professional edu- 1 B. T. Eiduson, "The Changing Self Images of Research Sci-

,. ~entists," presented at meetings of the American Psychologicalcatilon that has been very largely neglected, and is evrer Assn., Cincinnati, Ohio; September, 1959.

1961 Shephard: Social Change in Science and Engineering 13She believes this is a result of the emphasis on smooth Science and Technology has commented: "It is essentialworking relationships in laboratories, but in the present to be aware of the distinction between scienceecontext it can be taken to reflect the blurring of tradi- and technology . . . and again ". . unfortunately ittional distinctions caused by this new organizational is the technological spectaculars which tend to be usedform, the research and development laboratory. . as the sole naeasure of scientific as well as tech-Most of the recent organizational studies of research nological prowess. . ."3 Dr. Kistiakowsky undoubtedly

and development laboratories, and studies of attitudes, speaks for a large body of professional opinion in suchaptitudes and creativity, have lumped engineers and sci- statements. It is widely believed that if the public is toentists together. This grouping is based on either assum- give adequate support to science, it must understanding, as some executives do, that R and D professional the value of science as distinct from technology.workers are all alike, or on being unable to find any Before going on to investigate other grounds for main-

significantdifferencebetwentereponsstaining an institutional distinction between science, andsagnsficant difference between the responalsetting. engineering, or science and technology, that widespre-adTeunandconfutistsintisingpof lganguagewithstthngro belief may be questioned. As the public becomes moreThe f g aaware of science and technology, it would appear thatof research and development organizations is not limited what is developing is an image of the pair as a unity,

to peculiar inventions like "s.cieneer." The word "re- not as distinct institutions. And it is quite possible thatsearch" is used with so many connotations and denota- out of this image, science is gaining the support it hastions that it has lost any essential definition it may once lacked in the past. From being a vague institution filledhave had. In one location, it is used to, refer to product with suspect shadows a few decades ago, science throughimprovement activities; in another, it is reserved for fun- the public recognition afforded it by technologicaldamental investigations into the properties of matter. achievement is seen as a critically important part ofAnd the various adjectives used with research-basic, American culture for purposes of national defense, eco-pure, exploratory, backround, fundamental, applied, nomic progress and public health.product, process-have added to the confusion insteiad True, certain ironies are associated with this image.of clarifying the situation. Worse yet, peculiar semantic Public relations and advertising related to consumerproblems are raised by such phrases as "fundamental products have identified almost all novelty and pseudo-investigations into the properties of matter." It would novelty as scientific achievements. It is possible thatnot be surprising to find an aeronautical engineer in the scientists engaged in adding to knowledge which may orlaboratory of an aircraft company and a pure sclentist may not turn out to be useful outside the world of sciencein a university laboratory performing identical experi- acquire the resources they need by being awarded aments to investigate turbulence phenomena. There would fraction of a budget, all of which is publicly believed toprobably be a difference in the reasons they find it per- be allocated to science, but most of which is allocatedsonally and socially acceptable to give for performing to technology.the experiment. Must we conclude that within the scien- I have the impression-probably erroneously-that alltific and engineering vocabulary, the term "fundamental" of this matters somewhat less to members of engineeringrefers only to such properties of the experimenter as associations than to mermbers of scientific associations.motivation and membership, and has nothing to do with I should like to retain this illusion a little longer, becausethe experiment itself? it is useful to the next stage of my argument, in whichA numrber of twin terms have grown upin the lan- engineering and science are viewed as social move-guage, like research and development, science and tech- ments.4 A social movement typically proceeds throughnology, scientific and technical, which seem rarely to be three phases-a phase of agitation, a phase of politicalused separately anymore. Isn't it somewhat inefficient to behavior, and a mature or administrative phase. Agita-have to use such elaborate phrases whenever one wishes tion and political behavior may seem strong terms to useto refer to activities that have so much unity? The well- in connection with organized groups whose interest is intrained researchl engineer and the well-trained research the material rather than the social or political universe,scientist appear to have more in common than either does but recall that many engineers a few generations backwith those who do the routine work of engineering and were social idealists. The main point is that it has beenscience. But the professional societies continue to cut the a long time since strange social inventions like "Tech-pie the way it was cut in the 19th century. Is this a case nocracy" have interested many engineers. We have be-of cultural lag: a situation in which customs are retained come thoroughly accustomed to engineers holding highlyafter their original instrumental value has been replacedby a purelly ceremonial significance?

It might be well to examine the other side of the 2 G. B. Kistiakowsky, "Science and Technology," presented ascoin. Many believe that the institutional distinction is 3G. B. 'Kistiako°wsky, "Sc;ience amnbd F2orei9g5nAffairs," presentedvitally important. Two quote one dis:tinguished gentleman as an address, New York, N. Y.; January 29, 1960.On this subj ect, the Special Assistant to the President for G Uyehki, CaasmeInst. Tec.aSsclevesland,d Ohio. y olaue rf

14 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON ENGINEERING MANAGEM1ENNT Marchrespected positions in thie power structure of our society, separate institution, equal in prestige to the Scientificboth governmental and industrial. Public respect and Officers.5 In Britain, scientists for many years have hadsupport of engineers and engineering has been stabilized the same degree of at-homeness in industrial and govrern-a.t a high level. Many present-day top executives were mental power structures as have engineers in this coun-trained as engineers. Engineering as a social movement try. And for inany years, the engineering profession inhas been for some tinme in the matiure or administrative England has lacked the public recognition, definition, andphase, commanding high prestige, well integrated with organization that it has here.the other major institutions of society. There are other ways of understanding the differencesThe same can scarcely be said of science. Although such between science and engineering. For example, there are

terms as agitation or political behavior may again seem moral issues that engineers appear to have been able totoo strong, they fit rather better to science than to en- settle more easily than have scientists: witness the Bulle-gineering. Integration with our society's major institu- tin of Atomic Scientists which was born out of the deeptions has not been achieved to the same degree. Scientists concern scientists felt over their role in the developmentdo not so often become executives, and there is always a of the A-bomb. And there is the desire on the part ofquestion to b-e resolved with respect to business judgment many scientists to be left alone to do their work, noton the one hand, and of loss of respectability as a sci- to be involved in the furor of the rest of the world,entist on the other. The business career is not a "normal" whereas not many engineers appear to share this desire.career for a scientist, as it is for an engineer. Again, while My purpose in raising these questions about differ-it does not, appear to stir engineers to find persons in high ences between science and engineering has not been togovernmental positions who are engineers, this is a suggest a imerger. It is rather to call attention to the factburning question with scientists. There is, I believe, a that, through such organizational inventions as researchtendency towards internationalisn among scientists that and deve.lopment laboratories, science and technologyis less prominent among engineers, in the special sense together have become the prime movers of social, eco-that scientsists may sometimes feel that the enormous nomic and political change in the country. Theirs is t.hemachinery of international law and diplomiacy stand in enormous social experiment to which I referred at thethe way of solving problems which scientists themselves beginning of this paper.could readily solve on the model of IGY. Engineers In the 1930's social and economic change were broughtlhave so thioroughly accepted bureaucratic and hierarchic about through governmental action of a direct type.notions of organization that they are the authors of or- America lost some of the classical characteristics of aganization research and theory; whereas scientists are capitalist civilization, and thereby retained some others.quite likely to feel that at least science cannot be "man- Since World War II, it has been moving even moreaged." rapidly in the direction of some new type of civilization,

I have no wish to (lefend the framework of social and this time organized science and technology are themov-ements as a valuable tool for understanding differ- engines of change. The present tremendously compli-ences between the institutions of science and engineering. cated relations between government, industry, militaryHowever, it gains some interest in the light of a. reverse and education are far removed fromn our classical pie-twist in the relations between the two institutions in ture of ourselves as a nation. Science and technology haveEngland. The British governmental bureaucracy has a become cent.ral to our society, and future events in sciencebranch called the Scientific Civil Service which is pres- and technology cannot help becoming its major politicalently regarded as having pres.tige approximately equal and economic detriments. To what extent the institutionsto the famous Administrative branch. Within the Scien- of science and engineering need to take these considera-tific Civil Serv,ice there is a subordinate group, once called tions into account, I cannot say. They may at least beAssistants or Observers, which has recently become a more important than distinctions between the institu-branch within a branch-the Experimental Officers. The tions. But perhaps these problems should be left for poli-Experimental Officers now consist of several gra-des. and ticians, economists, and sociologists.are called upon to do, in addition to other things, a greatdeal of work which we would regard as engineering. They

H. A. Shepard, "Sociological aspects of a scientific researchhave been seeking recognition for their integrity as a laboratory in Great Britain," to be published in Discovery.