3 ms·
> I'd expect the next transition point at around ~1,500 people. I wonder if this is present, at least for the same human-relationships reasons as the others.
by Bartweiss 8y ago
> I'd expect the next transition point at around ~1,500 people.
I wonder if this is present, at least for the same human-relationships reasons as the others.
It seems like there ought to be an upper bound past which people are basically disconnected and lack personal relationships to most of the organization, at which point those relationships become less relevant to structural issues. I guess the ~200 and ~500 problems will keep recurring within subgroups like divisions or offices, but excluding that it seems like non-social constraints might dominate.
At 1,000+ person companies, it seems like the problems I hear about are often structural (e.g. the contractors are treated as second-class citizens) or logistical (e.g. we can't get the bulk of the company to an all-hands, even once a year). At 10,000+, purely-statistical treatment of employees seems to take over, like IBM's systematic dismissal of older workers. (And resulting individual-level idiocy, like bringing back some of those essential workers as contractors at higher rates.)
- groby_b 8y agoI'd wager a medium-sized amount on the 1,500 inflection point. It's based on a vague feeling of being in a 1,200 person office, and feeling like things were likely to change soonishly. Also, for large companies, you have separate social dynamics for offices. I've seen the 200/500 point happen in offices of much larger companies. You then layer the "too large to comprehend" dynamics on top of that, for added fun :) (Also, you can get 1,000 people offsite. It's just a lot of work. That might be another of the 1,500 size problems) Either way, social dynamics at large institutions is a fascinating problem. I wish I could find decent literature around the topic, because it's a fun subject :) (Corollary: All the things I said above are anecdata, I don't know if there's a theoretical foundation)