[clue-talk] Management and Positions of Power: Fewer IT professional and Engineers?

[Nate Duehr]

rex evans wrote:
> The recent SNAFU in electronic voting
> made me wonder if (and how) ITpros and
> Engineers had been involved, Especailly
> In Management.

Don't you know those problems weren't management's fault?  :-)

(If you want to talk about systemic problems, let's talk about people in 
charge not taking responsibility for anything they're in charge of. 
Here the Mayor of Denver is screaming that someone's head will roll... 
well, he's the Mayor -- should HIS head roll?  Same with all the other 
politico's that whined about it.  Responsibility for success rolls 
uphill and failure rolls downhill today, more than ever.)

> Let me go to the more general question that I
> would like to ask.
> Is there a Trend toward fewer IT professionals 
> and Engineers in management?
> 
> In the 1960's top corporate managers of 
> companies like AT&T were degreed engineers.

 From my experience, most of the upper management at AT&T are still 
degreed engineers.  Usually with MBA's too.  I work with one regularly. 
  He's smart.  Understands Linux, and business.  Sharp dude.  As a 
vendor, I respect his opinions and observations highly, and he obviously 
does some serious ass-kicking politically too -- he's received more than 
one promotion since I met him.

> My view:
> This has changed at the top, and trickled down
> to the point that now, many first line managers
> do not have very much technical training or
> experience.

But my initial tongue-in-cheek reaction was:

Engineers in upper management were ousted when they wanted to see things 
like balance sheets (that balanced and showed a profit) and various 
other things that went against the "me me me" attitude of their peers.

:-)

Actually a lot of first line managers were promoted from within at a lot 
of companies.  Good techs don't always make good managers.  And some do. 
  It's a gamble.  Companies that are good at testing and training and 
understanding what they need from every position in their organization 
are also good at finding the right people for those slots.

> I know this may sound like a woe-is-us invitation,
> but on the flip side, are we so PC that we cannot
> talk about systemic problems that affect us?
> 
> I am going from a few data points here, and
> asking if any of you see this trend? Yes/No

I don't know.  Haven't ever seen the inside of a corporate boardroom 
with any real live CxO's in it in a long time, they're all in another 
state at this mythical place they call, "Headquarters".  I hear it's 
somewhere on Tahiti and the corporate jet takes them there for "off-site 
meetings" on the golf course.

LOL!

Nate