Supporting engineering student leaders to influence organizational culture through a co-curricular leadership program

Abstract

Engineering students develop leadership skills and identity through campus activities such as student government, clubs and design teams. We developed a program to enhance experiential learning of student club leaders related to organizational leadership. In this paper, we examine elements of this program related to the topic of organizational culture, a concept that has received little attention in engineering education. Students reported making use of program learning to implement and influence impactful structural and process changes in their organizations. This paper reports on the results of this teaching approach with hopes of informing and inspiring other leadership programs that aim to leverage the rich learning environment that student clubs provide.