THE BEECHMONT CREST CAREER GUIDE:
SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN THE CORPORATE JUNGLE
Chapter 1: What do Employers Want?
Teamwork at small companies vs. teamwork at large corporations
“I would prefer not to.”
-Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener
A capacity for teamwork is necessary at the large corporation that has a hundred thousand employees. You will also need teamwork skills at the small company that has a handful of employees. However, your ability to “play well with others” will be tested in slightly different ways in each environment.
Large companies are characterized by extensive bureaucracies and deep hierarchies. In order to get your job done, you will frequently have to navigate your way through “the system.” This may mean exercising tactful diplomacy in the individual fiefdoms of half a dozen middle managers across scattered, competing departments. It may mean cajoling a Bartleby the Scrivener who has minimal formal authority, but can nonetheless come up with ten bureaucratic excuses for delaying or denying a request.
In a small company, you will need to maintain good relations with a smaller number of colleagues. However, your relationship with any one colleague will typically have a higher relative degree of importance. Similarly, working at a smaller company means interaction with fewer, more powerful managers. An entry-level employee at a small company may have daily interaction with the owner and CEO.
Copyright 2006 Beechmont Crest Publishing