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The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management

Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.

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Other Authors: Sutherland, Margie
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Sutherland, Margie
author_browse Sutherland, Margie
author_facet Sutherland, Margie
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/23714
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:40:14.906Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/23714 The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management Sutherland, Margie ichelp@gibs.co.za Chetty, Darren UCTD Transition Management Technical Engineers Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. In the South African business environment, there is a lack of both engineers and managers. This creates a compounded problem whereby many engineers find themselves transitioning from a technical position to general management. This transition has prompted the need to investigate the competencies required for engineers to effectively transition into general management and the methodologies used to acquire general management competencies.The research was conducted in two phases. The first qualitative phase took the form of semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The results obtained from phase one was used together with the literature review to develop the constructs for phase two. Phase two consisted of two quantitative self-administered closedended questionnaires. A questionnaire was developed for engineering managers and a separate questionnaire was constructed for human resource managers. A total of 116 respondents from 31 different countries participated in the research.The results in terms of the competencies required to transition into general management showed that interpersonal skills are the most important, followed by leadership skills. Highly focused business skills are the least important competencies. The methodologies used the most depict that the majority of people acquired their general management competencies through trial and error / learning on the job, networking and short business learning courses. The findings have been used to develop a model that will help organisations and human resource practitioners to assist engineers in the transition process. Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) unrestricted 2013-09-06T15:47:16Z 2013-04-25 2013-09-06T15:47:16Z 2013-04-25 2012 2013-04-02 Dissertation Chetty, D 2012, The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management, MBA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23714 > F13/4/363/zw http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23714 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-04022013-170657/ © 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Transition
Management
Technical
Engineers
The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title_full The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title_fullStr The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title_full_unstemmed The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title_short The transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
title_sort transition of engineers from technical positions to general management
topic UCTD
Transition
Management
Technical
Engineers
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23714
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-04022013-170657/