2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

“We Did It!” Proud Moments as a Catalyst for Engineers’ Situated Leadership Learning

Presented at Engineering Leadership Development Division Technical Session

Submission type: Research paper
ASEE LEAD Strategic priority: Explore
Engineers’ day-to-day responsibilities include supervision, influence, and management, yet much of this important engineering leadership (EL) work occurs on the periphery of their professional attention. Our study aims to make this largely implicit process explicit, and thus teachable, by pairing memorable career events with leadership learning processes. More specifically, we use Lave and Wenger’s situated learning theory to investigate how career-embedded proud moments contribute to engineers’ leadership development. Our team identified four types of proud moments along with corresponding leadership lessons in the career history narratives of 29 senior engineers. This four-part proud moment typology—professional dexterity, mobilizing teams, realizing values, and driving excellence—differed in terms of primary objective (achieving goals vs driving change), and level of analysis (self vs system), but in all cases participants found ways to institutionalize an important part of themselves in their respective workplace contexts. This finding suggests that engineers’ proud moments are not only personally affirming stories, but also institutionally validated leadership narratives. By making four types of EL development catalysts explicit, we provide engineering educators with authentic, industry- embedded leadership development narratives to support their programming. This project is significant to the ASEE LEAD division because it provides us with a way of scaffolding EL development for all our students, even those who may resist the notion of engineering as a leadership profession.

Authors

Dr. Cindy Rottmann http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3291-095X University of Toronto [biography]

Cindy Rottmann is the Associate Director of Research at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering and Assistant Professor of Engineering Leadership at the Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice at the University of Toronto. Her research addresses the intersection of leadership, EDI, and engineers' professional practice.
Dr. Emily Moore P.Eng. University of Toronto [biography]

Emily Moore is the Director of the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (Troost ILead) at the University of Toronto. Emily spent 20 years as a professional engineer, first as an R&D engineer in a Fortune 500 company, and then leading innovation and technology development efforts in a major engineering firm.
Dr. Doug Reeve University of Toronto [biography]

Dr. Reeve was the founding Director (Emeritus) of the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) (2010-2018) at the University of Toronto. He is also Professor Emeritus in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry
Dr. Andrea Chan University of Toronto [biography]

Andrea Chan is a Senior Research Associate at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering | University of Toronto
Mr. Milan Maljkovic University of Toronto [biography]

Milan Maljkovic is the Assistant Director, Community of Practice at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto. Milan has several years of experience in the power systems sector. Now, at Troost ILead, he enga
Ms. Emily Macdonald-Roach [biography]

Emily Macdonald-Roach is an MASc student in Engineering Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering identity formation, engineering culture, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in engineering career paths.

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