THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AN ENGINEER

In the light of the ‘Continual Improvement’ in every aspect of life, it is essential for an engineer to set his mind for adopting ‘Continuous Change’.

 This creates a need to understand the psychology of an engineer at work. This need surfaces when the

‘Actual response’ given by an engineer does not match with the ‘Expected response’.

 What are these expectations?

In the construction industry, the job expects two basic skills from the civil engineer, first the ‘managerial skills’& second (but simultaneously) the ‘Applied Civil Engineering skills’.

Civil engineers learn the ‘Theory’ of the technology, in the formal college education. But they are not taught much about Application & Implementation of the theory on the job, in an organized manner.

When the Civil Engineers actually start working on construction site, they are expected to Organize & Manage the work, which they are not taught for, during formal Education.

Therefore it becomes their top priority to achieve control over Manageability but in the process, they go on loosing their control over Civil Engineering practices.

Most of the civil engineers feel that ‘Civil engineering’ & ‘Manageability’ are two forces acting in

opposite direction.

The initial Model about working on a product, in a Civil Engineer’s subconscious mind, is as follows:

Product

Manageability                                                                                                                   Civil engineering

(MODEL No. 1)

Organized Civil Engineer

Well-managed & civil engineered product

Whereas the job expects an engineer, the process and the product in the following model from an engineer Managerial skills

Civil Engineering

The figures are self-explanatory.

(MODEL No. 2)

In the first model, it is seen that, a civil engineer has No place in the total process, whereas in the second model, a civil engineer has a prominent role to play to achieve the results.

We, as editors of the book, are more concerned for a civil engineer who particularly remains stuck to the first model, as perceived by him. The very purpose of this book is to lighten such an Engineer’s mind towards the second model. A civil engineer, who understands and implements the second model & rejects the first , becomes a successful ‘Engineer- manager’.

 The model explained above, is a very simplified one. As the complexity of a project goes on increasing, the model also becomes complex. It seems apparently, that the expectations also go on increasing as per the complexity of the project and the need of the time.

A COMPLEX MODEL

Expected abilities

• Planning the .

Experienced organized Civil Engineer

A well engineered Superior product with reduced non-conformities.

• Organizing the
• Co-ordination.
• Drawing
• Quantity
• Controlling the

An engineer perceives that, the management is expecting too much from him.

Is it a fact?

The model, if observed carefully, shows that the expectations are not increasing, but the scope of managerial and engineering skills has increased.

Therefore an engineer requires Analytical mind to understand the revised situation. If this basic ability of analysis is lacking, then the civil engineer is thrown out of the total model and returns to the model one, in which he had not kept any place for himself in the beginning. Therefore he mentally returns to the level of college education.

At this juncture of time, if his ‘Ego’ is balanced, the engineer accepts the fact, and starts anew from the scratch by a Self-learning process. If his ‘Ego’ is not balanced, then the engineer never understands the reality and keeps on swinging between ‘success’ and ‘failure’.This is a general observation of the psychology of an engineer.

To avoid such embarrassing situation, an engineer shall develop the ‘Analytical’ abilities. This will help an engineer to learn to Manage the work in an organized manner, simultaneously to learn the importance of working in a ‘Team’. The importance of choosing a proper skill or a proper quality to suit the need of the situation can be learnt by observing the behaviour of the collegues, analytically.

This process of self-learning leads to introspection and a mind, striving for ‘continual improvement.’ Once, this type of mindset is developed; it will help the engineer to derive new methods, new procedures to suit the changing specifications and changing life style.

 SUCH AN ENGINEER, INTELLECTUALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY WELL EQUIPPED, FACES THE PROBLEMS IN ANY SITUATION TO DELIVER THE BEST PRODUCT. THIS POSITIVE ATTITUDE ALSO HELPS IN HANDLING THE PROBLEMS IN THE PERSONAL LIFE.