2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Characterization of Leadership Skills in Students: A Case Study in a Chilean Engineering School

Presented at Engineering Leadership Development Division (LEAD) Technical Session: Engineering Leadership Competencies and Skills

Leadership in engineering entails an integration of diverse skills. Engineering leaders employ a full spectrum of abilities and knowledge to develop innovations while seeking to understand, embrace, and address the current and future impact of their work. These leaders must actively foster committed and productive relationships with various stakeholders, including themselves and their teams, users of their technologies, and those affected by their engineering efforts. Developing leadership skills is essential for engineers, enabling them to work effectively in teams, make informed decisions, communicate effectively, solve problems, manage projects, and drive innovation. These skills are crucial for professional success and for the positive impact of engineering on society. Leadership is widely recognized as a key component of business success, with 89% of business leaders considering it fundamental. The engineering student graduation profile emphasizes the need to develop leadership skills, setting the expectation that students acquire these competencies. This study aims to characterize leadership profiles and skills among senior engineering students at a prominent university in Chile. Specifically, it seeks to assess students' self-perception of their leadership skills. The sample comprises 140 students from various engineering disciplines within this school, with the highest enrollment nationally. To achieve these objectives, a quantitative study was conducted by adapting and administering the Developmental Leadership Questionnaire by Larsson to the context of engineering students in Chile. This questionnaire is based on four leadership styles: developmental leadership, conventional positive leadership, conventional negative leadership, and laissez-faire leadership. The results of this study enable the characterization of prevailing leadership profiles among the sampled engineering students. Additionally, significant differences in leadership skills were identified between students who have completed their professional practice and those who have not. These differences also exist based on the ongoing engineering program. The study underscores the importance of equipping engineering students with leadership skills. The results and conclusions from this study provide valuable guidelines for implementing actions that ensure future engineering graduates meet the labor market's expectations for leadership competencies.

Authors

Vicente Valenzuela-Riquelme Universidad Andres Bello, Chile [biography]

Industrial Civil Engineering, dedicated to data analytics, I have experience in teamwork and leadership. My solid training in information technologies has allowed me to acquire advanced skills in the use of different software. I find myself working closely with databases. I have solid critical thinking and analytical skills, which allows me to interpret large amounts of information and detect opportunities for improvement in business processes.
Thanks to my leadership skills and my commitment to excellence, I have achieved outstanding results in projects and work teams. I am an enthusiastic collaborator and committed to continuous improvement, which has allowed me to successfully adapt to new environments and face challenges effectively.
Prof. Maria Elena Truyol http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-4967 Universidad Andres Bello, Chile [biography]

María Elena Truyol, Ph.D., is full professor and researcher of the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB). She graduated as physics teacher (for middle and high school), physics (M.Sc.) and Ph.D. in Physics at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. In 2013 she obtained a three-year postdoctoral position at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her focus is set on educational research, physics education, problem-solving, design of instructional material, teacher training and gender studies. She teaches undergraduate courses related to environmental management, energy and fundamentals of industrial processes at the School of Engineering, UNAB. She currently is coordinating the Educational and Academic Innovation Unit at the School of Engineering (UNAB) that is engaged with the continuing teacher training in active learning methodologies at the three campuses of the School of Engineering (Santiago, Viña del Mar and Concepción, Chile). She authored several manuscripts in the science education area, joined several research projects, participated in international conferences with oral presentations and key note lectures and serves as referee for journals, funding institutions and associations.
Camila Zapata-Casabon Universidad Andres Bello, Chile [biography]

Master in Marketing and Market Research from the University of Barcelona, Spain. Industrial Civil Engineer from the Universidad del Bío-Bío. She has three diplomas in the areas of coaching, digital marketing and equality and empowerment of women. Her professional experience is linked to higher education as a project engineer and university management in the public and private area. Teacher at different universities in matters of entrepreneurship, business plans and marketing. She currently works as a teacher and academic secretary at the Faculty of Engineering of the Andrés Bello University. The areas of research interest are the impact, relationship and integration of the gender perspective within communications and marketing in the various areas of development, digital marketing and content marketing.

Download paper (1.95 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session