National Academies Press: OpenBook

Engineering in Society (1985)

Chapter: 5 Maintaining Flexibility in an Age of Stress and Rapid Change

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Suggested Citation:"5 Maintaining Flexibility in an Age of Stress and Rapid Change." National Research Council. 1985. Engineering in Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/586.
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Page 65

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MAINTAINING FLEXIBILITY IN AN AGE OF STRESS AND RAPID CHANGE 65 5 Maintaining Flexibility in an Age of Stress and Rapid Change Chapter 4 established a general framework for assessing the adequacy of the engineering supply system, from the point of view of both society and the engineering profession. Based on experience up to the present time, a variety of general conclusions were reached about the importance of flexibility and adaptability among engineers and within the disciplines at critical junctures in the nation's industrial/technological development. Basically, the panel finds that the system can respond (and has responded to changing demand for three reasons: (1) the engineering educational system is flexible enough to adapt institutionally and pedagogically to new requirements; (2) students react quickly to economic signals in opting for or against an engineering career and in choosing specific fields of engineering study; and (3) historically, change has seldom occurred more rapidly than individual engineers could adapt. But a number of characteristics of the engineering institutional infrastructure were pointed out as being potential weaknesses in the system, in the face of emerging economic, technological, and social stresses. The general conclusions set forth earlier on the adequacy and functionality of the system were necessarily tentative, acknowledging the fact that the environment in which the system operates is changing rapidly. What was lacking was some means of understanding more clearly how the system might function under possible future conditions. Accordingly, the panel undertook to project a number of potential scenarios of situations affecting engineering and to use past events

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