Personal and Contextual Antecedents of Knowledge Sharing and Innovative Performance among Engineers

This research investigates the impacts of proactiveness, openness to experience, and extraversion on innovative performance among engineers. The work also examines the mediating role of knowledge sharing. Using a person–situation interaction perspective, the study further explores the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in personality–knowledge sharing relationships. Data collected from engineers (N = 183) across various public and private engineering firms in Pakistan reveal that knowledge sharing mediated the relationship of proactiveness and extraversion with innovative performance. In addition, highly proactive and extraverted engineers are more likely to share knowledge when the POS is high. Contrary to the expectations, engineers who highly exhibit openness to experience are less likely to share knowledge under high POS. These findings provide significant contributions to the theory and practice of engineering management by highlighting the essential link of personality traits with knowledge sharing and innovation among engineers.     

Age-Related Differences in the Motivation of Knowledge Workers

Abstract:

With the impending retirement of the Baby Boom Generation, retention of older knowledge workers, defined as engineers, scientists, and information technologists, has become important to engineering managers. Traditional theories of worker motivation have not adequately addressed the impact of worker age on factors that affect worker motivation. The study outlined in this article gathered data regarding the satisfaction and importance of motivational factors to determine if there are differences in their impact on older and younger knowledge workers.     

First Steps in Understanding Engineering Students' Growth of Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge in an Interactive Learning Context

The development of procedural knowledge in students, i.e., the ability to effectively solve domain problems, is the goal of many instructional initiatives in engineering education. The present study examined learning in a rich learning environment in which students read text, listened to narrations, interacted with simulations, and solved problems using instructional software for thermodynamics. Twenty‐three engineering and science majors who had not taken a thermodynamics course provided verbal protocol data as they used this software. The data were analyzed for cognitive processes. There were three major findings: (1) students expressed significantly more cognitive activity on computer screens requiring interaction compared to text‐based screens; (2) there were striking individual differences in the extent to which students employed the materials; and (3) verbalizations revealed that students applied predominantly lower‐level cognitive processes when engaging these materials, and they failed to connect the conceptual and procedural knowledge in ways that would lead to deeper understanding. The results provide a baseline for additional studies of more advanced students in order to gain insight into how students develop skill in engineering.     

UML在实验教学智能咨询系统开发中的应用

UML（Unified Modeling Language)是一种面向对象的标准建模语言。概述了UML的模型种类、基本特征、开发过程，然后描述了如何运用UML进行“实验教学智能咨询系统”的建模，包括需求分析，特定领域分析，结构设计，详细设计，实现，测试和配置。     

中国企业实施并行工程的若干特点,问题及解决方法

基于对我国实施并行工程的若干企业的实际案例调查，分析并总结了我国企业实行并行工程在组织形式，人员选拔，培训，绩效评价和奖酬谢方法等方面的一些作法，特点和存在的问题，并探讨了解决的措施。     

Knowledge Networks and Innovative Performance in an Industrial District: The Case of a Footwear District in the South of Italy

The traditional district literature tends to assume that: (1) the competitiveness of firms depends on external sources of knowledge; (2) all firms in a district benefit from knowledge externalities; (3) relying on external knowledge relationships necessarily means these are confined to the district area. Our case study of the Barletta footwear district in the South of Italy suggests otherwise. Based on social network analysis, we demonstrate that the local knowledge network is quite weak and unevenly distributed among the local firms. A strong local network position of a firm tended to increase their innovative performance, and so did their connectivity to extra-local firms. So, it mattered being connected either locally or non-locally: being co-located was surely not enough. Having a high absorptive capacity seemed to raise only indirectly, through non-local relationships, the innovative performance of firms.