MANAGEMENT
Professional Schizophrenia? NSPE booklet looks at engineers' industrial relations problems, offers solution Tt>|-ODERN
INDUSTRY'S
growing
com-
·*•*-•- plexity creates many industrial relations problems for engineers, most of whom are "employees" in the legal sense. Hoping to solve their problems, some engineers have taken advantage of this "employee" status to join some kind of bargaining group. Many others feel such action is incompatible with true professional status. T h e conflict is a. challenging one, a form of professional schizophrenia, believes the National Society of Professional Engineers. N S P E s recently published "A Professional Look at the Engineer in I n d u s try" examines the problem historically and in detail, and offers a solution. T h e Wagner Act, says NSPE, provided basically for two groups: workers and bosses. There was no middle ground. Congress, probably without intent, overlooked an important point. Congress was not alone. Said Westinghouse president G. A. Price to a 1949 congressional hearing: " I n t h e early days of the Wagner Act, neither the National Labor Relations Board nor, I am sorry to say, our company, gave adequate consideration to t h e fact that the problems and interests of professional employees a r e quite different from those of other salaried employees." Right t o Bargain. Taft-Hartley gave the right to bargain as a distinct professional group to those engineers w h o s o chose. But, says NSPE, this right cannot be considered permanent. Taft-Hartley was attacked in 1949 and again i n 1953; such attacks can be expected t o continue. They must b e met firmly if professionals are not t o fall once more into t h e legal purview of organized labor. Furthermore, engineering union memberships are drifting toward higher ratios of technicians t o true professionals. Should this continue, NSPE thinks it likely that some unions now backing Taft-Hartley's professional provisions will turn u p one day o n t h e other side of the fence. Collective bargaining by professionals dates from 1919, says NSPE, when the American Association of Engineers claims to have directed the first such campaign. Perhaps t h e biggest d e velopment since was t h e 1952 birth of the Engineers and Scientists of America. ESA is a national federation of professional unions w h o represent some 16,000 dues-paying members i n all. It is dedicated, N S P E believes, t o 1452
unionization of the engineering profession. ESA's advent has brought t h e entire controversy to a brisk boil. Bargaining
vs.
Professionalism.
ESA holds that collective bargaining and professionalism are not necessarily incompatible. Respected authorities in t h e engineering profession agree, according to NSPE. Many others, however, feel that any bargaining group must inevitably adopt typical trade union tactics and at the expense of true professional status. NSPE strongly opposes bargaining groups. But it notes that their behavior is t h e real test, and that w e do not yet have enough such behavior in the record t o allow final judgment. NSPE believes that in the ethical sense engineering unions must stand or fall by Number 8 of the generally accepted Canons of Ethics: "The engineer will act in professional matters for each client or employee as a faithful agent or trustee." Some believe, says NSPE, that shades of gray lie between the black and t h e white. O u t of this belief have grown "nonbargaining" groups whose chief aim is to improve communication both among professional employees and between employees and employers. These groups fill a n incongruous position today because their status under Taft-Hartley is not clear. Are they or are they not "labor organizations?" Until t h e law is clarified NSPE believes nonbargaining groups will b e unable either to prove or disprove their value. NSPE feels that strong bonds still exist between engineers whom collective bargaining would force into opposite camps, and that it is not too late to find an answer consistent with high professional standards. NSPE points out that in t h e field of professional development lie areas that are not management's responsibility. It points out further that dissatisfied engineering employees should look first within themselves. With such views in mind, NSPE offers a program designed to solve t h e engineer's industrial relations problems without resort to collective bargaining. This program recommends action to both employee and employer on many aspects of professional status, professional employment conditions, and economic position. Fundamental to NSPE's solution is active, enlightened cooperation by the engineering em-
ployee, the professional society, and management. T h e booklet is available f o r $3.00 from NSPE, 1121 15th St, N. AV., Washington 5 , D . C.
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is being offered by American Management Association. The service is not designed for supervisors but £or company personnel responsible for any phase of supervisory development. A subscription brings H2 m o n t h l y issues of Supervisory Development Today, 12 of Supervisory De-vebjDmenu Sourcebook, two semiannual researcbt reports, and a year end index: to b o t h t h e Bulletin a n d the Sourcebook. Information is available from AU A, 3 3 0 West 42nd St., N e w York 36. • Smith, Kline & Ffënch
Laboratories
receives the Howard C F o r d A^ward for 1955 for sales management excellence. SKF was selected because of "its outstanding sales and public relations performance" which raised consolidated net sales from the 1953 total o f almost $53 million to over $€55 rnilliom in 1954. The award also recognizes SICF's ''pioneering use of closecH-circuit color television for postgraduate medical training and for the firm's network television series, T h e March, of Medicine.*"* Award is presented "fcy Sales Managers: Association of PhilaclelpbLia in honor oft a past secretary of tine association. • Capable management
decisions att
Marathon Corp.—especially for product: diversification—a vigorous research and! development programn, a n d sound andi conservative fiscal [policies have notonly removed the company from many/ of t h e financial and cyclical i l l s of the? paper industry, but underlie its beings cited as an "excellent management,"" says American Institute of M a n a g e ment. According t o AJEM's m a n a g e ment audit, the company scored 8870* points on a scale wfëih a top o f 10,000,. making maximum scores in thxee of 10* categories: economic; fonction, serviceto stockowners, and aresearch- a n d devel- opment. • N o technical problem of a small I manufacturer is too insignificant for in- dependent laboratories' attention, a c cording to a recen* management aid! published by the Small Business A d ministration. They can help solve production problems, develop n e w processes and products, or institute quality controls. The booklLet-How Independent Laboratories H
