Engineers’ job-related perceptions of empathy in Germany

Technical and interpersonal competences are essential characteristics that engineers need to obtain nowadays. Prior studies suggest that empathy and care are important skills in engineering within an increasingly global and innovative work environment. However, there is still limited literature about engineers‘ perceptions of empathy and care particularly when developing curricular approaches to strengthen engineers‘ empathic competences. Thereby, the current study aimed first to validate the factor structure of the US-American Empathy and Care Questionnaire (ECQ), by Hess, Strobel, Pan, and Wachter Morris (2017), regarding German engineers‘ perceptions of empathy and care at their workplaces. Second, the study sought to investigate the differences of perceived empathy of German engineers concerning engineers‘ years of work experience. Results suggest the five-factor model fit was acceptable and that German engineers with more professional experience perceived empathy and care as a more important aspect of their work in comparison to those with less professional experience.