The major objectives of this study are to investigate engineers' cognition and future effective management methods of shipbuilding industry.
Though managements of R&D human resources were frequently studied, the results were dealt with a narrow sense or general case. Therefore, through this study, it will be clarified engineers' cognition regarding human resource management and how to manage engineers especially in shipbuilding industry.
In this study, four management dimensions suitable for explanation and prediction of designers and researchers' perceptions, and eighteen variables necessary for the creative and innovative organizations are derived. A field study was undertaken to investigate the perceptions of engineers in design and R&D departments in a Korean company A. Data were collected from 129 designers and R&D professionals of a Korean shipbuilding company A. Frequency distribution analysis and correlation analysis were employed to clarify various facts, and those facts were described by a descriptive method in this study.
The major findings of this study are as follows;
1) Four dimensions such as human resource planning, career management, reward system and performance appraisal for management of human resources in technology field, and eighteen variables are derived by the survey of existing papers.
2) Job and personal characteristics between designers and researchers of shipbuilding industry are defined.
3) Differences of cognition between designers and researchers in a Korean shipbuilding company A regarding eighteen major variables are found and described,
4) The reaction indexes for four dimensions of designers and researchers are investigated and future plans for human resource management are analysed.
5) This study also showed various perceptions of designers and researchers for problems and improvements on the several factors, additionally.
Implications of management methods for designers and researchers of a Korean shipbuilding company A and future research directions are suggested.