Abstract
I am very conscious of the honour and responsibility involved in presenting the Graham Clark Lecture, particularly as I am the first engineer to do so. These feelings are enhanced because I had the privilege of knowing Graham Clark personally, and because I greatly admired his humanism and breadth of vision. I share his belief that it is not less important to study people, and to organize them effectively for co-operative endeavour, than it is to study the material factors which affect the life of mankind and in which engineering science plays such a vital part. It is on the subject of the interrelation of the technical and human problems of modern life that I wish to talk today.
Like my precursors, I have elected to deal with a very wide theme but, I fear, without their clarity of mind or of expression. Before talking about engineers in particular, I should like to say something about the problems we face, about management in general, and about the form of education and training conducive to a high level of managerial ability. If I oversimplify, state what is obvious, or lose my way in attempting to follow byways of thought, I can only ask for your indulgence. My hope is that I may, in some respects at least, provoke controversy, for any constructive conflict of ideas may help us on the road of progress.
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