Search

With the current shortage of employees entering the microelectronics workforce, the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is faced with the growing challenge of where to obtain qualified workers. The challenge for engineering educators is how best to educate and train a workforce for the DIB's specific technical and professional skill requirements to meet the growing demand for technicians and engineers in microelectronics. As workforce development programs grow and expand in the engineering education space, there is a need to ensure that students are developing both technical and professional skills. The purpose of this Work in Progress Paper is to describe the initial development of a certification framework for students in a microelectronics engineering program. The primary goals of developing the framework are that it be straightforward to use by faculty and students at any university and easily transferable to other domains. The research questions for this paper are: (1) what are the high-level technical and professional knowledge, skills, and abilities that students in a microelectronics workforce development program need to be certified? (2) What are the overall framework components for certification, and what is the supporting literature? (3) What is a current example of the framework applied to professional skills for undergraduate students, and what are the next steps for technical skills? This paper includes detailed examples of the framework and supporting literature for professional skills (i.e., teamwork, lifelong learning), and how technical skills (i.e., circuits, quantum mechanics, quantum computing) are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a national shortage of skilled technicians and engineers in the microelectronics industry, developing talent to fill roles in the workforce is critical for the U.S. national security and economy. Given this, a public-private-academic ecosystem was formed with the goal of further developing the U.S. microelectronics workforce. This Work in Progress Paper describes one of seven findings of a workforce needs assessment study completed by this group. Communication was a key finding of this assessment and was a link between the technical and professional skills identified. This finding guided the research questions for this paper: (1) What value do hiring professionals and supervisors in microelectronics engineering place on communication when hiring entry-level microelectronics technicians and engineers? (2) How do microelectronics industry professionals describe desired communication skills? Looking specifically at communication, the following sub theme was identified. Within microelectronics, effective communication among individuals and within interdisciplinary teams is necessary as it allows technical information to be quickly "distilled" and understood by management and other nontechnical stakeholders. However, participants shared that individuals often lack sufficient oral and written communication skills that allow them to quickly and succinctly articulate the "so what" to non-technical stakeholders. This paper includes detailed examples of how microelectronics professionals describe and value communication skills and identifies ways that focusing on communication as a professional skill improves student development, the associated student outcomes, and career readiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations worldwide have witnessed an unprecedented need for organizational change that rapidly transformed the work environment and operational procedures. This study focuses on leaders' experiences during COVID-19 as an opportunity for complexity leadership scholars to apply new ways of thinking to leadership practices. This study attends to the concepts of leading with empathy and fostering organizational environments where individuals feel a sense of belonging. This is important because the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the need for organizations to create a supportive environment for employees. Specifically, this study focuses on how individuals' leadership experiences during a time of complexity (i.e., COVID-19) serves to examine and shift leadership paradigms in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Allan, Gordon, and Iverson's (2006) work on the discursive framing of leadership in academic media and Fairhurst's (2007) discursive leadership, this paper examines the d/Discourses of leaders involved in establishing an academic leadership development center. Discourse analysis was used to analyze interviews of sixteen individuals involved in the creation of this center. Five dominant Discourses emerged: autonomy, relatedness, self-awareness, communication as a skill, and the leader as a visionary. These both echo and differ from the findings of Allan and colleagues (2006). The implications of these Discourses are discussed as are notable discursive absences. The research offers alternative perspectives on the discursive construction of academic leadership specifically and leadership more generally. Directions for future research are offered. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we applied Jablin?s (1985, 1987, 2001) factors influencing vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) and organizational anticipatory socialization (OAS) and applied them to the context of potential successors? socialization into working in their family?s business as a career choice. Semi-structured interviews with 31 post-first generation successors found that the successors were simultaneously influenced by a multitude of factors with the most salient among them being a combination of one?s family, part-time employment in the business, and realistic job and organizational expectations. There was a strong overlap of VAS and OAS factors in the work socialization of young successors leading to their eventual decision to choose a career in their family business. Directions for future research are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]