Management Theory and Technology Reality

Abstract

The omnipresence of technology will continue to challenge industrial and societal development into the next century. In the conviction that a technical university must take responsibility not only for technology research but also for its management, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology has, since the 1980s, been extending its activities to take this challenge into account. As a first step in this process, the discipline of Technology Management, directed towards graduate students, has been established within the Department of Industrial and Production Management. Its research focuses on the development of concepts and methods for integrating technology issues into modern concepts of general management. Working closely with industry, its research programme aims to close the existing gap between ‘technology reality’ and current concepts of company management, which still lack an adequate technology orientation. A second step focuses on management executive development in the ‘Leadership competences programme’. The third step consists of coordinating all Technology Management activities of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology under the umbrella of the newly-created Centre for Technology and Management.