Thesis (Ph.D. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2007.

With a considerable number of built environment projects not being completed successfully, this study was undertaken to investigate how effectively consulting engineering firms are applying project management principles in the way they manage projects. This was achieved by measuring the project management maturity levels of consulting engineering firms. Maturity levels were measured for each of the ten knowledge areas of the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge to determine areas where consulting engineering firms perform below expectation and as a result determine probable causes of project failures. The maturity of the firm was then calculated as the average of the maturity for the knowledge areas. The study found that consulting engineering firms have higher levels of project management maturity than the average for the construction and civil engineering sector. Apart from risk and procurement management, all the other knowledge areas have higher maturity levels than the corresponding construction and civil engineering knowledge areas. Although the overall maturity results indicate that the larger firms are more mature in their project management practices than the smaller firms, the individual knowledge areas are inconsistent. The study reveals that consulting engineering firms are weakest in the risk management, human resources and stakeholder management knowledge areas. There is limited literature available on the status of project management, project management methodologies, and performance of consulting projects in the engineering environment (Labuschagne & Steyn, 2010:70). There is need for future studies to establish a methodology developed specifically for the Consulting Engineering Firms in line with what Labuschagne & Steyn (2010) started and a Project Management Maturity Model specific to the Consulting Engineering Industry.

This study explores what motivates engineers in their early-mid career to change careers. It first establishes the definition of a career change from the perspective of those who have changed careers, and then examines what drives, influences and facilitates a career change, as well as how a career change is enacted physically and emotionally. This has been looked at through the contemporary lens of the ‘intelligent career framework’. This research adopted a qualitative, abductive approach following an initial inductive small-scale exploratory study. The fieldwork consisted of a pilot and main study using semi-structured interviews. For the main study, 22 interviews were conducted within one organisation in order to elicit the subjective experiences of engineers who had undertaken a career change. The findings show how the driving factors relate predominantly to knowing-why and knowing-where. The influencing and facilitating factors vary by individual, and relate to knowing-what, knowing-how knowing-when and knowing-whom. Six clusters of interacting factors were observed with knowing-why, knowing-how and knowing-when at the core. Whilst the process of career change was complex and long, differing pathways through which individuals changed careers were evident, as well as emotions that needed to be managed. This study contributes to knowledge in the area of contemporary career theory by exploring career change through a new lens: the intelligent career framework. It demonstrates how individuals use their ‘career capital’ to effect a career change and the ways in which the six knowings interact to bring about a career change. It extends the understanding of the process of career change and discovers some of the organisational factors that influence or facilitate individuals making a career change. All of these contributions address identifiable gaps in the literature.

The study investigated the concept of the psychological contract and its influence on engineers’ worker engagement. The underlying rationale for this study was to address the shortage of engineers and specialised artisans (that is, the shortage of skilled people in two of the professions where such a shortage poses a threat to the economic growth of South Africa) by determining the worker engagement of engineers. The study also attempted to identify the true drivers of engagement for engineers which can then be used as a baseline for further development of business specific strategies. The sample was engineering personnel in the South African project engineering sector, and a combination of two existing questionnaires, the Psychological Contract Inventory (PCI) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), was used to gather the data. It was concluded that generally engineers are loyal to the task at hand and not necessarily to the organisation that employs them. They are engaged in their work, but also indicate that they constantly seek to improve their education and experience to make future employment at other companies probable. A somewhat contradictory finding is that they claim to be satisfied with the employment offered to them, as well as the benefits they receive. To ensure the retention of skilled employees, the study proposes that employers of engineers diversify from time to time, or introduce some variation. Even internal shuffling can be used to continually challenge the engineers. It is further recommended that companies should ensure that there are clear career paths for engineering employees, combining secure employment with stable and realistic benefits. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

A positive relationship between economic growth and entrepreneurship has been established as derived from the body of knowledge in the domain of entrepreneurship. In acknowledgement of this relationship, governments have embarked on schemes and policies that encourage entrepreneurship in their economic development policies. The individual entrepreneur is a key player in new entrepreneurial venture process. The entire society is responsible for shaping an environment within which a behaviour pattern that promotes or hinders entrepreneurship is developed. The study mainly focused on understanding the behavioural phenomenon which is termed entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of engineers within the South African context. The assumed EO of entrepreneurial engineers was expected to be higher than that of non-entrepreneurial engineers. Cronbach Alpha’s tests found the prestructured EO scale to be reliable. T-test results for mean difference confirmed that entrepreneurs have a higher EO on the overal EO construct as well as on the autonomy, proactiveness and risk taking dimemensions.Factor analysis results supported the view that the EO construct is unidimensional. Situational factors that shaped the social environment alluded to above were studied as a secondary objective. Chi-square tests did not confirm the expectation that entrepreneurial engineers would be exposed to situational factors that promote entrepreneurship than their non-entrepreneurial counter parts. Lack of entrepreneurial education and finance have been identified as the key factors that hamper entrepreneurship. Recommendations are included in this report.Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1979. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Mark Ernest Beckham. / M.S.

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering / The rapid advances in technology and the greater complexity of projects generate an ever-changing environment within which the civil engineering consulting firms have to survive and grow. This changing environment increases the necessity both for greater specialisation_ (differentiation) and for. tighter co-ordination (integration). Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2019

Most models for the spread of an invasive species into a new environment are based on Fisher's reaction-diffusion equation. They assume that habitat quality is independent of the presence or absence of the invading population. Ecosystem engineers are species that modify their environment to make it (more) suitable for them. A potentially more appropriate modeling approach for such an invasive species is to adapt the well-known Stefan problem of melting ice. Ahead of the front, the habitat is unsuitable for the species (the ice); behind the front, the habitat is suitable (the open water). The engineering action of the population moves the boundary ahead (the melting). This approach leads to a free boundary problem. In this thesis, we mathematically analyze a novel free-boundary model for the spread of ecosystem engineers that was recently derived from an individual random walk model. The Stefan condition for the moving boundary is replaced by a biologically derived two-sided condition that models the movement behavior of individuals at the boundary as well as the process by which the population moves the boundary to expand their territory. We first consider the model with logistic growth and study its well-posedness. We assign a convex functional to this problem so that the evolution system governed by this convex potential is exactly the system of evolution equations describing the above model. We then apply variational and fixed-point methods to deal with this free boundary problem and prove the existence of local in-time solutions. We next study traveling wave solutions of the model with the strong Allee growth function. We use phase plane analysis to find traveling wave solutions of different types and their corresponding existence range of speed for the model with an imposed speed of the moving boundary. We then find the speeds in those ranges at which the corresponding traveling wave follows the speed of the free boundary.

This dissertation explores a history of prosperity in Egypt from the vantage point of engineering works. It examines an Ottoman-Egyptian conception and organisation of prosperity and shows how it was unmade by practices of profit-making implemented by British civil engineers and colonial officials. The dissertation explores the case of one engineering project, namely the Egyptian railways, which were built over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In disputes over routes, connections, construction methods, costs and accounts, Ottoman-Egyptian engineers and officials attempted to organise the country's possibilities through “entanglements” with agrarian forms of life and particular configurations of debt, money and commodities. Ending with the decades of the Anglo-French financial control and British occupation of Egypt, the dissertation shows how “interest” and “development” emerged to reflect the priorities of European bondholders to whom the railways were pledged. In considering “interest” and “development,” the dissertation provides a colonial history of two of the most persistent economic categories.

No description available.