Experiential-based learning in engineering project management within a global economy

Abstract

Introduction Over the past century, great technological advances have enabled high-speed communication and transportation across the globe. This technology trend combined with the needs of continuous expansion of market place has motivated major corporations not to restrict their business activities to within a single principality. Engineering design activities can take place across the globe, while projects themselves tend heavily towards larger and international scope, affecting greater numbers of diverse populations within numerous principalities. The social, cultural, political, and economical differences have inevitably raised tremendous challenges for coordinating widely spread, yet inter-connected collaboration project activities among the various stakeholders. This establishes the need for effective project management to ensure that the stakeholders, all with diverse backgrounds, cooperate to effectively progress to the project’s completion for the corporate sector, governmental organizations, and non-profit groups. Though extensive project management literature exists, little has been done on addressing the challenges faced by new managers in a global economy. In addition, in the current engineering curriculum, scant attention has ever been put on teaching such knowledge. This has left those inexperienced young engineers with frustration when beginning a prominent project management position. It is therefore crucial to develop innovative ways of acquiring such knowledge, and this thesis will address some of the major project management challenges in a global economy and share case studies on experiential-based learning. Thesis Statement This thesis seeks to discuss international engineering project management as a broad practice, and will include the author’s learnings in the specific areas