Effective Communication in Engineering: Insights from Industry Professionals"

[lauraboehme]

My name is Laura Boehme. I am a student at my local community college researching how people in the engineering field communicate for my professional communication course. I am working towards a degree in engineering, which is why I chose to research in this field. I would appreciate any help you can give, even if you can’t answer all the questions.

Questions:
What types of communication do you use internally (memos, emails, meetings, videoconferences, etc.)?

What types of communication do you use externally (letters, meetings, etc.)?

What problems do you run into when communicating internally?

What problems do you run into when communicating externally?

How do you deal with communicating with non-engineers?

How do you deal with communicating with people in/from other countries?

Does your company have an organization chart? Do you follow it?

Do you ever have a problem communicating to your superiors? Or people under you? Or people at the same level?

If/when you give presentation or reports, do you ever run into trouble with it not being understood?

Do you find the grapevine, or rumor mill, is hurtful to your company’s performance? Or is this not a problem where you work?

Do you have any other things, good or bad, to say about how you communicate in your company?


Again, I appreciate any help you can give. Thanks for your time,
Laura Boehme

 

[jehake12]

Engineers use lots of pictures to communicate. For example, a design engineering meeting might consist of a solid model being projected on a screen in real time. This would be accompanied by open floor discussion. People not on sight, but still necessary for the meeting, most likely would have a web client to observe the projection and phone into the conference room. In my experience, and depending on the meeting type, meetings heavy on words and light on visuals usually fail.