Can a Non-Engineer Manage an Engineer?

From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
We are having a discussion about one of our engineers and who he should report to?  The engineering manager says that all engineers should report to him, that a non-engineer doesn’t know how to manage an engineer.  Our plant manager says he needs the engineer on his team full time without going through the engineering manager to get things done.

Response:
First, let’s shift the question to get to the answer.  Every employee reports to lots of people.  Team members work on a project, contribute to a report, complete a routine task and then, work on another project.  In all of these activities, they report to many different people.  That’s normal.

But each employee can only have one manager.

The first question for every new hire into the company is, “who should this person report to?”  Wrong question.  This new employee will report to lots of people.  But each employee can only have one manager.

The central question is, “which manager will be accountable for this team member’s output?”  By definition, a manager is that person in the organization accountable for the output of other people.  Which manager will be accountable for this team member’s output?

Back to the engineer.  Which manager should be accountable for this engineer’s output?  Let’s ask some questions about the plant manager.

  • In the plant,does the plant manager know what tasks need to be completed, which will require engineering technical knowledge and skill?
  • For those tasks, does the plant manager know the reasonable amount of time it should take to complete those tasks?
  • In the plant, is the plant manager accountable for those delegated tasks being complete within the time frame?
  • Does the plant manager have enough engineering work to require a full time engineering role on his team?

If the answer is yes, then the plant manager should be held accountable for the output of this engineering resource.  And yes, non-engineers can be held accountable for the output of engineers.

One thought on “Can a Non-Engineer Manage an Engineer?

  1. Richard

    Hmm. This is an actual scenario:
    Regional director says he wants non engineer supervisors partly because:
    A/ he can’t enough engineers to want to be supervisors
    C/ because he’s an ex ex salesman and he likes people who’re like him.

    So, a non engineer gets the job. He goes into a meeting with the client. Just about every question he says he’ll have to get back to them.
    He has to refer to an engineer to get the answer.
    He can’t challenge the engineers if he thinks they’re taking the mickey (which they are) because he doesn’t know the way they work.
    It gets so bad the engineers now have 4 on site to do a job (because of an interpretation of an RA and method statement) that really only takes two to do.
    Worse than that, the client is now bypassing the supervisors and going straight to the engineers for answers.
    All that because the reg director won’t pay more than what the engineers earn as engineers.
    Which is another problem entirely. Recruitment of engineers.

    Reply

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