Skills and knowledge of senior Taiwanese manufacturing managers

This paper examines how the career development and education of senior manufacturing managers in six electrical/electronics firms equipped them to support the priorities of the Taiwanese national strategy. It reviews the operations management literature, which is subsequently used to evaluate the work experiences and attendance at educational and/or training programmes of the senior managers responsible for manufacturing in the six plants. It shows that these senior managers had limited formal education in manufacturing topics, which was partly compensated for by a number of post‐experience programmes. It also shows that these managers had little prior exposure to manufacturing. This was true in terms of working at more junior levels or in working in related functions such as product development before these senior management appointments. It argues for a cadre of highly skilled manufacturing managers capable of sustaining the ideas built into the national strategy.