Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Development Minor on Graduates

John D. Stevens; Dena Lang; Meg Handley; John Jongho Park; Paul Mittan

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Designing and Evaluating Engineering Leadership Programs
Tagged Division: Engineering Leadership Development
Page Count: 20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37107
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37107
Download Count: 268

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Dr. Lang is the Associate Director of the Engineering Leadership Research Program at Penn State University. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University, an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in Kinesiology with a focus on Biomechanics from Penn State University. Dr. Lang's previous professional experiences and research interests range from mechanical engineering facilities design to research that applied engineering and molecular biology approaches to the study of the skeletal response to mechanical loading. As a Mechanical Engineer, she worked on facility design projects involving mechanical systems that included heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and energy conservation systems, as well as R&D of air conditioning equipment for Navy ships. Additional research interests have included the investigation of relationships among components of the indoor environment, occupants, and energy usage. Specifically, the effects of the indoor environment on occupant health and well-being and in parallel, how socially-mediated energy-saving strategies can increase awareness of energy use and/or increase energy saving behaviors. Dr. Lang's current research interests focus on identifying, assessing, and developing key skills, knowledge, attitudes, and other intrinsic and extrinsic factors required for engineers to effectively lead others, particularly other engineers and across cultures.

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Meg Handley Pennsylvania State University

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Meg Handley is currently the Associate Director for Engineering Leadership Outreach at Penn State University. Previously, Meg served as the Director of the Career & Corporate Connection's office at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. Meg completed her PhD in Workforce Education at Penn State, where she focused on interpersonal behaviors and their impact on engineering leadership potential.

Meg is a board certified coach with experience in developing students' leadership and professional competencies through teaching and one-on-one coaching. She is most interested in developing student knowledge of leadership to impact their successful transition to the workplace.

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John Jongho Park

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Dr. Park is an assistant research professor in the Engineering Leadership Program at Penn State University. There is four interrelated areas of inquiry characterize Dr. Park’s scholarship: psychological attributes, professional identity development, group processes, and engineering leadership development. Particularly, he examines how possible future-self influences engineering students’ learning, academic motivation, and career trajectory. The major population he primarily focuses on is STEM undergraduate and graduate students. He has received extensive qualitative and quantitative methodological training in the area of educational psychology. He acquired a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Resources Management and a Masters of Educational Technology from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master’s of Program Evaluation and a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the Penn State University, he worked as a research fellow and program evaluator at University of Michigan. Also he taught an “individual learning skills” as an assistant instructor in the University of Texas at Austin for five years.

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Paul Mittan Penn State Engineering Leadership Development

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Abstract

Leadership development programs aim to meet the professional development needs of our graduates while aligning program curriculum to the needs of our graduates’ employers. This paper reports results from a survey of alumni from an undergraduate engineering leadership development (ELD) program as well as undergraduate engineering students not in the leadership program that served as controls. The overarching goal of the study was to assess the degree to which the program is meeting its leadership development goals, which include ensuring that the program targets the skills needed in today’s workplace. Graduates of the ELD program (n=147) and graduates not in the program (n = 133) were surveyed and compared to better understand the impact of the ELD program on the development of skills needed for today’s engineering work. Alumni from both groups were asked to rate their agreement with how well their undergraduate experience (and ELD minor specifically) prepared them for their professional career with respect to a number of leadership competencies: 1) leading team (lead meetings, identify personality preferences and adjust environment/style) 2) think strategically by applying mission, vision, and values statements to a team or organization 3) work effectively in teams 4) apply project management processes to projects 5) give and receive feedback 6) self-reflection on leadership skills and how to improve 7) recognize ethical issues & practice ethical decision making 8) develop a culture that promotes creativity and innovation 9) cross cultural/ global competencies (appreciation of other cultures, understanding bias, working in a culturally diverse team) 10) emotional intelligence (regulate emotions and manage conflict) 11) communicate effectively (oral and written, adapt to audience) 12) understand basic business concepts (finance, accounting, marketing, supply chain/operations) 13) confidence in taking initiative with new responsibilities within the organization. Ratings were made using a Likert scale: Extremely well, Fairly well, Moderate, Poorly, Not at all) for each skill separately. Both groups also rated the importance of each skill to their professional work. Differences in alumni’s’ evaluation of their undergraduate program’s preparation for their professional career and importance of leadership skills were evaluated between engineering leadership development minor (ELDM) alumni compared to non-ELDM College of Engineering (CoE) controls. Out of the 13 competencies listed above compared across the ELDM and the CoE Control groups, ELD minor participants consistently rated the ELD minor significantly higher than CoE Control ratings of their undergraduate program at preparing/enhancing their ability for their professional career regarding all the leadership competencies/learning outcomes.

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Stevens, J. D., & Lang, D., & Handley, M., & Park, J. J., & Mittan, P. (2021, July), Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Development Minor on Graduates Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37107

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Leadership development programs aim to meet the professional development needs of our graduates while aligning program curriculum to the needs of our graduates’ employers.  This paper reports results from a survey of alumni from an undergraduate engineering leadership development (ELD) program as well as undergraduate engineering students not in the leadership program that served as controls.  The overarching goal of the study was to assess the degree to which the program is meeting its leadership development goals, which include ensuring that the program targets the skills needed in today’s workplace. Graduates of the ELD program (n=147) and graduates not in the program (n = 133) were surveyed and compared to better understand the impact of the ELD program on the development of skills needed for today’s engineering work.  Alumni from both groups were asked to rate their agreement with how well their undergraduate experience (and ELD minor specifically) prepared them for their professional career with respect to a number of leadership competencies: 1) leading team (lead meetings, identify personality preferences and adjust environment/style) 2) think strategically by applying mission, vision, and values statements to a team or organization 3) work effectively in teams 4) apply project management processes to projects 5) give and receive feedback 6) self-reflection on leadership skills and how to improve 7) recognize ethical issues &amp;amp; practice ethical decision making 8) develop a culture that promotes creativity and innovation 9) cross cultural/ global competencies (appreciation of other cultures, understanding bias, working in a culturally diverse team) 10) emotional intelligence (regulate emotions and manage conflict) 11) communicate effectively (oral and written, adapt to audience) 12) understand basic business concepts (finance, accounting, marketing, supply chain/operations) 13) confidence in taking initiative with new responsibilities within the organization. Ratings were made using a Likert scale: Extremely well, Fairly well, Moderate, Poorly, Not at all) for each skill separately. Both groups also rated the importance of each skill to their professional work. Differences in alumni’s’ evaluation of their undergraduate program’s preparation for their professional career and importance of leadership skills were evaluated between engineering leadership development minor (ELDM) alumni compared to non-ELDM College of Engineering (CoE) controls. Out of the 13 competencies listed above compared across the ELDM and the CoE Control groups, ELD minor participants consistently rated the ELD minor significantly higher than CoE Control ratings of their undergraduate program at preparing/enhancing their ability for their professional career regarding all the leadership competencies/learning outcomes. 
AU  - John D. Stevens
AU  - Dena Lang
AU  - Meg Handley
AU  - John Jongho Park
AU  - Paul Mittan
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Undergraduate Engineering Leadership Development Minor on Graduates
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37107
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37107
ER  -