Management and the Control of Technical Labour

This paper addresses the issues involved in the management of professional employees through an examination of the management of professional engineers in a sample of electronics companies. It is argued that a measure of evaluation and control is secured through the development of organisational positions which combine elements of both technical and managerial work and through the operation of personalised systems of reward. The potentially demotivating effects of hierarchical structures of control are moderated by forms of work organisation which blur the distinction between employees and management, and by the development of managerial philosophies which stress a commonality of identity uniting those at different levels of the organisational hierarchy. The development of such philosophies is related to the nature of professional organisation within engineering and to the male-dominated nature of the work environment. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the applicability of this analysis to the study of the management of professional employees more generally.