I think it really depends on how you define the role of an EM and what you personally expect from a manager.
In my experience, a lot of information gets lost along the way between engineers and managers unless they have at least a similar level of technical knowledge. This translation effort occurs between engineers and managers and is repeated at all levels of the hierarchy (managers to directors, directors to VPs, ...). The information becomes less technical each time it is passed on to the next level. However, there is a big difference at which level this translation effort and information loss first occurs. Does each individual engineer on a team (10, 20, ... people) have to translate information and possibly pay a price (overhead) when the information is passed to their EM? Or does the EM understand the information at such a high technical level that hardly any information is lost and the EM can translate it into less technical information if necessary to pass it on.
This is my, presumably biased, opinion as to why technical knowledge is important for managers in a technical field. To preserve as much information as possible in every conversation.
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I think it really depends on how you define the role of an EM and what you personally expect from a manager.
In my experience, a lot of information gets lost along the way between engineers and managers unless they have at least a similar level of technical knowledge. This translation effort occurs between engineers and managers and is repeated at all levels of the hierarchy (managers to directors, directors to VPs, ...). The information becomes less technical each time it is passed on to the next level. However, there is a big difference at which level this translation effort and information loss first occurs. Does each individual engineer on a team (10, 20, ... people) have to translate information and possibly pay a price (overhead) when the information is passed to their EM? Or does the EM understand the information at such a high technical level that hardly any information is lost and the EM can translate it into less technical information if necessary to pass it on.
This is my, presumably biased, opinion as to why technical knowledge is important for managers in a technical field. To preserve as much information as possible in every conversation.