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Is there anything to back this up? In my experience comparing startups to non-profits, people working for non-profits don't tend to get much done and have a phe

by drpgq 12y ago

Is there anything to back this up? In my experience comparing startups to non-profits, people working for non-profits don't tend to get much done and have a phenomenal number of meetings.

jMyles 12y ago
No joke. It really is a phenomenon.
djokkataja 12y ago
I've had a similar experience; I've worked and volunteered with several nonprofit organizations, and I've worked for several for-profit companies (not startups), and the nonprofits were dazzlingly inefficient by comparison. The executives in the nonprofits were pretty driven and at least somewhat visionary, but average nonprofit employee seemed less competent than the average for-profit employee to me. Dug around to see if I could find studies about this--most seemed to be about the beneficial effects (if any) of profit-sharing. The closest I came was this survey of hospital workers (http://www.gallup.com/poll/7042/ForProfit-vs-NotforProfit-Two-Paths-Same-Outcome.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/7042/ForProfit-vs-NotforProfit-Tw...). Very roughly, it suggests that for-profit employees may be slightly more committed to doing quality work if the difference found in the survey is actually significant. Besides that, work at not-for-profits seems to be significantly more humane based on the responses. Unfortunately it's only about hospital employees and doesn't specify the sample size or the methodology.
zobzu 12y ago
"is there anything to back the opposite up?" I worked in a couple of well known not-for-profit and a few for profit. The vast majority of people worked much harder in the not-for-profit (note: they're still paid a good salary) and didn't get in the for-profit, unless they were playing the political games. I would imagine that small not-for-profit dont necessarily work as hard since they're probably making zero impact since forever and live on donations, yes. But then again its the same problem with small but long lasting for-profit as well. The only diff is that there are more of the later and less of the former.

by drpgq 12y ago

Is there anything to back this up? In my experience comparing startups to non-profits, people working for non-profits don't tend to get much done and have a phenomenal number of meetings.

jMyles 12y ago

No joke. It really is a phenomenon.

djokkataja 12y ago

I've had a similar experience; I've worked and volunteered with several nonprofit organizations, and I've worked for several for-profit companies (not startups), and the nonprofits were dazzlingly inefficient by comparison. The executives in the nonprofits were pretty driven and at least somewhat visionary, but average nonprofit employee seemed less competent than the average for-profit employee to me. Dug around to see if I could find studies about this--most seemed to be about the beneficial effects (if any) of profit-sharing. The closest I came was this survey of hospital workers (http://www.gallup.com/poll/7042/ForProfit-vs-NotforProfit-Two-Paths-Same-Outcome.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/7042/ForProfit-vs-NotforProfit-Tw...). Very roughly, it suggests that for-profit employees may be slightly more committed to doing quality work if the difference found in the survey is actually significant. Besides that, work at not-for-profits seems to be significantly more humane based on the responses. Unfortunately it's only about hospital employees and doesn't specify the sample size or the methodology.

zobzu 12y ago

"is there anything to back the opposite up?" I worked in a couple of well known not-for-profit and a few for profit. The vast majority of people worked much harder in the not-for-profit (note: they're still paid a good salary) and didn't get in the for-profit, unless they were playing the political games. I would imagine that small not-for-profit dont necessarily work as hard since they're probably making zero impact since forever and live on donations, yes. But then again its the same problem with small but long lasting for-profit as well. The only diff is that there are more of the later and less of the former.