Abstract
The State of California employs almost a quarter of a million people and the State’s employment structure is geared towards clerical, staff services, or program analyst tasks. This employment structure is apparent when 3 of the top 5 positions of hired staff statewide, are regarding governmental program analyst and staff services duties. Although the State has a core governmental function to perform, it has further civic duties to fulfill that span across Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM). When focusing on Telecommunication Engineering positions specifically, there appears to be a gap in how to properly implement duties in comparison to Governmental Program Analysts. Initial data reviews show this possibility when there are roughly 20,000 governmental staff in comparison to roughly 100 telecommunications engineers. This data outlines a preference at the State and engineers, compared to other classifications, may face differences when performing their engineering duties. Engineers would need to follow a structure toward the State’s most-hired positions instead of handling engineering tasks that require different employment structures. Furthermore, this structure shifts an engineering manager toward administrative tasks instead of the technical duties that will take place within the individual’s unit and may create subpar results. Resulting in the research question, “Are Senior Telecommunication Engineers able to effectively implement their engineering tasks within the State of California?”.
Sourcing data to answer this paper’s research question was collected via an anonymous and adaptive survey. An invitation was sent to all Senior Telecommunications Engineers at the State of California for their participation. This adaptive survey was created and conducted via Sac State’s Qualtrics’s web platform and data was collected over a 3-week period. In addition to the Qualtrics data, information from the author’s insider credibility was incorporated due to being a telecommunications engineer at the State of California and has worked at multiple state agencies. Public information regarding the State of California’s employment was collected via the State Controller, CalHR, and Transparent California websites. Academia related data was collected Sage Publications, Lahore Journal of Business as well as Management Revue.
Based off the collected data, Senior telecommunications engineers can effectively implement their engineering tasks within the state, but improvements can be made. Improvements such utilizing a specialist role or having staff take responsibility of all engineering decisions were the most favored improvements. Lastly, barriers that are faced are unique to the agency instead of being a common state-wide problem.