Transferprojekt Öffentlichkeits- und Marketingstrategie demographischer Wandel

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Transferprojekt „Öffentlichkeits- und Marketingstrategie demographischer Wandel“ Dieses Dokument ist auf der Homepage des Projektes unter www.demotrans.de verfügbar.

Titel:

An Approach to Overcome the Shortage of Engineers and Innovators

Autor:

Klaus-Dieter Fröhner, Bakri O. Hamad

Institution:

TU Hamburg Harburg, Arbeitsbereich Arbeitswissenschaft

Umfang:

4 Seiten

Das Projekt wird vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) im Rahmen des Programms "Innovative Arbeitsgestaltung – Zukunft der Arbeit" gefördert. Förderkennzeichen: 01HH9901/0

An Approach to Overcome the Shortage of Engineers and Innovators1 Klaus-Dieter Fröhner, Bakri O. Hamad Institute of Ergonomics, Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg, Eissendorferstr. 40, 21073 Hamburg, Germany, (e-mail: [email protected])

Key words: labor market, innovators/engineers, self-organization Introduction The early retirement of workers, the decline rate of birth and the aging generation are causing rise to social security costs and this by itself is causing concern to policy-makers. Some European countries have taken measures to tackle this problem. Figure 1 summarizes some of the adjustments which were taken by some countries to ease the problem. In special segments of the labor market we are facing even more severe problems. Three striking facts should draw a vital discussion these days in Germany because of the shortage of innovators and younger engineers, aging of the Baby-Boom Generation and barriers to employment of older engineers. Country Germany Portugal Belgium Finland France Austria Ireland

Adjustments Appeal has been made to employ older people Target education and training for older people Recruitment: no maximum age limit Employment contract act, no age bias when recruiting Incentives for employers to employ people 50 or over Reducing the working time for people older that 50 years Employment Equality act 1998; equal employment chances regardless of age

Figure 1: Examples of adjustments in selected countries within the European Union In Germany, the labor market was, as in many of the European countries, characterized by the fact that older employees gave up their workplace early for younger ones. Some studies showed that the drop rate of employees in companies of mechanical and electrical/electronic industries was 12% in the years between 1982 and 1998, 6% was the drop in the last three years between 1995 to 1998. But there was an increase of engineers of 54% for the same period from 1982 to 1998, 11% was the increase in the last three years from 1995 to 1998. The alarming fact is that the trend of demand on engineers is increasing and 59% of the 1

This study is part of a research project concerning the demographic change and the future of labor, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FKZ 01 HH 9901/0)

surveyed firms (N=550) stated that in year 2002 their demand on engineers might even go higher (VDMA). On one hand the intake of older engineers is hindered although the market cannot serve the demand for younger engineers. On the other hand unemployment of older engineers has increased from 13.000 in 1993 to 42.000 in 1998 (VDI 2000). Access towards the approach of integration For an industrialized country with an export-oriented mechanical and electrical/electronic industry abandoned of engineers is of interest. But employees nowadays try to quit working life early because, as stated by (Nørregaard, 1998) „Most important is the fact that people expect to be able to choose their individual age of retirement. ... The main reason is because they want to do something else but work in their life. The third age has become a life phase in its own right - not some kind of residual to the real life“. This means older employees will only stay active in work-life when work-organization, colleagues and managers are appealing and attractive for them to stay longer. This is even more severe because the outlet of engineers from the German Universities is offering less than what the demand requires. The reasons for this low supply rate lies on the fact that engineer intake by the universities in electronic, computer science, mechanical engineering and applied science between 1990 and 1995/96 is less by 30% to 50% from the normal rate (Brand 4/2000). Companies, ignoring the fact that the German education system is offering low rate of graduate engineers and the German universities are utilizing only two third of their intake capacity, are demanding high numbers of engineers. This were the reasons for a field study which was carried out in 1998 (Fröhner, Nawroth) in Germany and is followed by a follow-up study three years later. The survey was conducted in 30 firms, that managed very well to get along with the age-problem of innovators, the followup survey is taking place in 10 companies to check the validity of the results and to examine any changes that took place. Figure 2 shows some of the outcome of the first study regarding the opinion of older against younger and vice versa as well as self-evaluation statements. Opinion of Older Younger (n=20) see older as: • less willing to change, • more self-confident and • more experienced Older (n=20) see themselves as: ♦ very experienced, ♦ task oriented but also ♦ of limited physical capability

Opinion of Younger Older (n=20) see younger as • willing to risk taking • quicker in action • more easily to commit mistakes Younger (n=20) see themselves as: ♦ no special outstanding ♦ risk takers, but also ♦ vulnerable for back and arm pain at an early age

Figure 2: How younger and older innovators and engineers evaluate themselvesand each other

It is obvious that the subjective judgments of self-evaluation and extern-evaluation of the older innovators is depicting that the older employees are more job-oriented and selfconfident, but less ready to change compared to the younger group. On the other hand younger innovators are ready to take challenges, but are more vulnerable to stress and strain. The empirical studies showed that the situation differs very much from company to another and hence a continuous adjustments of work organization and field of activities need to be adapted regularly. In addition to this findings, it is worth mentioning that, in general, the tendency of younger innovators is to be involved more in key (modern) technologies of electronic and computer fields, where as the tendency of older innovators is to be more engaged in applied technologies where they have acquired a very solid background over the years. In the same study a focus was made on the field of activities in which innovators are involved. Figure 3 below reflects the differences between younger and older innovators regarding the job they exercise. As the figure shows, there are some major differences between the two groups. The younger innovators are more oriented towards doing analyzing, testing, planning, measuring and administering tasks. Where as the older innovators are more oriented towards practicing research, information searching, organizing and leading jobs, this means that they exercise jobs that transform the strategies of the companies into products, where as the younger colleagues rely on the adaption of the strategic set-up (Fröhner, Nawroth 2000). Research Designing Testing Measuring Analyzing Planning Information searching Organizing Leading Administering 0

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% of interviewee more than 39 years

less than 39 years

Figure 3: Field of activities of innovators (n=37) Basic Elements of a Tool for self-organization Innovators as a group normally reflect their way in doing their job and they are usually independent from others when tackling their jobs (Fröhner, Lorani 1996). Beside this fact the innovators are practicing their job more or less by their own judgment. This has to do with their very high standard of specialization which is very often culminating in patents. This facts necessitate designing a self-organizing tool to help the innovators and to support managers to

project a company organization that really suits the needs of older and younger innovators. Based on the information gained in this regard a tool which fulfills the requirements that satisfy the wide range of information, a direct related subject-oriented and problem-oriented tool is being developed. The information pool from the case and the follow up studies will be presented in a CD-ROM. This CD-ROM media will contain all the information necessary for self-evaluation mechanisms and will work as a self-support tool for the users to be self-organized. More information will be available about the detail results, the strengths and weaknesses of younger and older engineers and innovators in changing technology will be reflected. ♦ Basic knowledge about younger innovators and ♦ Basic knowledge about older innovators ♦ Case studies of 30 selected firms ♦ Follow-up studies in 10 firms ♦ Questionnaires as self-prove mechanisms ♦ International comparison of business organization CD-ROM-Information-Pool

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Keywords and synonyms Markedness of employees Markedness of companies Longitudinal and cross-sectional observations Structural-oriented-access Problem-oriented-access Identification of problems Identification with problems CD-ROM-Solution-Tool

Figure 4: Basic elements of CD-ROM pool and tool to be self-organized Literature VDMA. Wie viele und welche Ingenieure benötigt der Maschinenbau in Zukunft? Frankfurt: Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V. (VDMA); 1998. VDI. Ingenieurbedarf. Eine Studie des VDI. Düsseldorf: Verein Deutscher Ingenieure; 2000. Nørregaard, C. Elderly employee or young pensioner? The conflict between a national strategy to raise the retirement age and the individual need for a life strategy. Elsinore: Second International ICOH Conference on Aging and Work; 1998. Brand, Hans H. Greencard-eine Lösung? Forschung & Lehre 2000; 7 (4): 175-177. Fröhner, K.-D.; Nawroth, K. Im Zentrum der betrieblichen Innovation: Jüngere und ältere Innovierer in Produktentwicklung und Konstruktion. In Köchling, A, Astor, M, Fröhner, K-D. et al. editors. Innovation und Leistung mit älterwerdenden Belegschaften. München: Rainer Hampp Verlag; 2000, 221-264. Fröhner, K.-D.; Lorani, A. Personenbezogene Bestimmungsgrößen in der Produktentwicklung. VDI-Z 1996; 138 (5): 30-33.