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INTRODUCTION 14 tions. Corporate structures, and the practice of modern scientific business management, have relegated many of these engineers to the role of workerâ much like the production workers whose role in the workplace they initially envisioned, established, organized, and managed. This is not to say that the engineer does not still perform those functions; in many ways that is the essence of the engineer's role with respect to people, machines, and systems. But the context has changed enormously. There is much more pluralism in the activities of engineers and engineering; the engineer is no longer the individualistic "heroic" figure of American legend. His role (and thus his image) changes as the "product" demanded of him by society changes over time. Whether what is expected of the engineer is invention and development, or efficient production of goods, or improvement of the social milieu, the profession as well as the individual engineer must respond and serve those needs. Significance of Societal Perceptions We may well ask whether it is actually important how society views engineers and the practice of engineering. How are engineers and their profession affected by these perceptions, and, conversely, how is society itself affected by its view of engineers and engineering? If there is little effect in either case, then the issue becomes an academic one, of little relevance to a study of the status and future of engineering education and employment, of which this report is a part. The answer is that these are important issues. Perhaps the simplest way to formulate their importance is to point out that the basic functioning of our society depends on our modern technology; technology in all its forms is by now the indispensable mechanism by which developed nations carry on their economic and social lives. Engineers are, more than any other group, the nurturers and purveyors of this mechanism, this essential product. How society views that product is, in a basic sense, irrelevant; it must and will continue to be delivered. But the perceptions surrounding the product (is it good or evil, necessary or dispensable?) andâby extensionâits purveyors, the engineers, can significantly affect the product development process. For example, it can influence the degree and type of support that government gives to engineering education. It affects the numbers and types of students entering engineering studies, and their choice of courses and careers. It alters the direction of research and development by both government and industry, and can result in the curbing of individual lines of technology development through regulation and boycott.
