Date of Award

3-1-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering Management

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Diedrich Prigge V, PhD.

Abstract

The United States Air Force Civil Engineer (CE) officer career field involves a host of duties and opportunities for technical competence and leadership excellence as the Air Force mission grows and personnel numbers shrink. Most CE officers spend their careers as a technical manager, performing a mixture of duties that require a wide variety of skills. Because of this, the use of engineering design skills have decreased and the use of project and construction management have increased. While the career field accepts a variety of architecture and engineering degrees for new accessions, technical management degrees like Construction Management have been denied. This study uses a Delphi study to rate a list of skills most needed by CE Company Grade Officers, and compares those skills with the accreditation outcomes for Civil Engineering and Construction Management undergraduate degrees. After 2 rounds of surveys, a list of 40 skills was used to compare the relative emphasis of the degrees. Construction Management was shown to emphasize higher rated skills. Civil Engineering still showed a high relation to the skills, but emphasized engineering design skills that were consistently rated lower by the Delphi panel. The research shows that accredited Construction Management display a better fit for CE officers and should not only be considered acceptable, but encouraged for new accessions.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-18-M-225

DTIC Accession Number

AD1056521

Download

Share

COinS