Management Skills for Engineers - With International Students

DESCRIPTION
Skills and competences are practical capacities that generate an added value. In that sense, engineers must be competent in two distinct areas: processes and projects. Both of them are deployed with a clear focus on stakeholder satisfaction. Customers, workers, suppliers,
shareholders and citizens demand organisations that are structured by improvement teams and individuals with a high performance-based culture. This course is based in management practice and three stages. Firstly, a systematic description of the main management competencies used in public and private companies. Secondly, a review of the most relevant role models and best-in-class companies in this matter, using competence templates and schemes. Thirdly, some exercises and practice using media presentations and dynamic tools. Our main goal is to determine and develop the skills necessary for a real deployment in industrial and service companies. After that, we must perform practical mechanisms to reinforce these skills through the study of the best-in-class companies methods and the use of practical templates and schemes based of the sound approach of a practical competence map.

OBJECTIVES
On completing this subject the student is expected to be competent in:
* Creating and developing a chain value for industrial and service companies.
* Using schemes to identify practical skills giving examples of how we could use them in a real organization.
* Assessing real cases to determine strengths and weaknesses in practical situations.

CONTENTS
*CHAPTER 1: Introduction. Basic concepts about competencies and skills. Best -in-class companies in competencies and skills performance. Job competency models.

* CHAPTER 2: 1º Competence: Developing Value chains. Skills related: Leadership, Process management, Teamworking, Customer orientation.

* CHAPTER 3: 2º Competence: Allocating Resources. Skills related: Assets deployment, Results orientation, Stakeholders needs and expectations, Performance.

* CHAPTER 4: 3º Competence: Integrating People. Skills related: Motivation, Recognition, Communication, Self-Assessment.

* CHAPTER 5: 4º Competence: Building an Entrepreneurial orientation. Skills related: Projects management, Creativity and Innovation, Decisions taking, Negotiation.

METHODOLOGY
Activities inside the classroom:
* Classes for contextualizing the processes and projects environment in real cases.
* Exposition classes in which the specific competences and skills are described, together with a first assessment of the advantages and limitations of each and every one of them.
* Role-play activities promoting the participation of the students competing through teams.
* Analysis and problem-solving, case studies, taking advantage of best -in-class companies.
* Classes for contextualizing and review of techniques related to developing practical skills.
Activities outside the classroom:
* Development of group notes taken in during the lessons, extracting different complementary conclusions from the ones taken in the classroom.
* Personal study of the material compiled during the activities carried out in class and solution of the different work proposed.
* Fulfillment of the different tasks proposed (exercises, problems, cases and questions) that will be submitted by reports, assessed by the professor, and returned back to the student.

ASSESSMENT
* Final Examination : (weight in the final score) : 30%
* Assessment of the team outcomes : 40%
* Continuous Evaluation, through...
o Activities (questions, solution to exercises) done individually: 10%
o Papers on activities done by the group:10%
o Evaluation of fulfillment of proposed projects: 10%

READINGS
* The previously mentioned material is the following:
o Syllabus
o Slides classified by chapter
o Documents and Examples that complement the basic material
o Bibliographic references with contents related to the material studied :
* The Structuring of Organisations, Henry Minzberg , McGill University.
* The Value-Added Employee, Edward J.Cripe and Richard S. Mansfield, Cashman Dudley.
* Bringing out the best in people, Aubrey C.Daniels, McGraw-Hill, Inc.