ABSTRACT
In Anglo-Saxon societies the tendency is to see engineering and management as distinct, and at some points as antithetical. Engineering is felt to be about technical perfectionism; management is about profits, planning, controls and the big picture. Engineers glory in technical excellence; managers subordinate it to organizational objectives. Primary education in Germany runs from the ages of 6 to 10 and secondary education from 10 to 16. A general difference between West Germany and Britain is that the relationship between the subject studied at university and subsequent employment and career is much tighter in the German case. Engineering students constitute a higher proportion of the total university population in Germany than in Britain. Engineering courses in Germany are simply longer and arguably more substantial, both at degree level and the next level down, than in Britain. German management is qualitatively different in various ways that facilitate the accommodation of engineering.
