The Relevance of Analysis and Synthesis in Management and Engineering Education

Abstract

It is beyond argument that, today, our industrialized economies are characterized by sluggish economic performance and relatively low productivity growth rates. The statistical information and accompanying extensive literature that document this characterization have been widely disseminated. Yet, our managers and engineers are hard put to explain the cause of our troubles. Further, they have offered no generally accepted recommendations as to how these trends can be reversed. We have come to realize gradually the inadequacies of the analytical methods that have dominated Western scientific and educational philosophy for over a century. The closed (structured) problems of simplicity identified with the Machine Age demanded skills in analysis with little emphasis on synthesis. In both management and engineering we designed our educational system and methods to fill this need. Now, at the dawn of the Systems Age, managers and engineers are confronted with large-scale, long-term problems of organized complexity. The space shuttle is an example. It is an open (structured or partially structured) problem in which the management of technological change is central. In order to prepare them for other such problems, a case is made here for changing how managers and engineers are educated and trained. The analytical skills associated with reductionism and mechanism would be complemented by introducing and developing the intellectual foundation and tools needed for managers and engineers to use approaches to problem solving based on synthesis supported by analysis.