Abstract :
A feature of industry in recent years has been the growing emphasis placed on management as such, leading to a closer examination of management and more self-examination by managers about their own duties and performance. Recent advances in technology, while putting a premium on scientific knowledge, have at the same time enhanced the importance of manag?rial skills. In the electrical industry?particularly in the supply and heavy manufacturing industries?an engineering training has always been an accepted path to the ranks of management. However, management calls for qualities and knowledge which are not necessarily related to technical competence. They can be developed by practice and training. But if advantage is to be taken of these it is important that the engineer should be keenly aware of the content of a manager´s work, and that he should appreciate that it presents a challenge different from that of scientific knowledge and no less worthy of his attention. The article printed below is the first of a series of six on industrial management that will be appearing in the Journal this year. They will treat the subject in a way that we hope will be helpful and interesting to the professional engineer who finds himself at a manager´s desk after years in the development laboratory, the assembly shop or the contracts office. They are concerned with general principles more than with specialized techniques of management. But, of course, no one should expect that he can teach himself much about management by reading even the best textbook on industrial administration. Practice is essential. Thus, the articles, which will be written from different standpoints and a wide variety of experience, can be no more than signposts. Nevertheless they will represent a consensus of views upon the responsibilities of a manager and the attitude in which these responsibilities should be approached. The series has been arranged with the help of the Administrative Staff College, Henley- . Most of the authors, who are serving in managerial, positions in various industries, have taken courses at the college; its work, as many members will recollect, was described in an article by a chartered electrical engineer in the November 1956 Journal. The first article is introductory and demonstrates the balance required between the technical content of a manager´s job and the social skills and wider knowledge that he needs. The author was formerly Assistant to the Chairman of J. Bolding and Sons and is now Group Personnel Officer of Guest Keen and Nettlefolds.
