Difference Between Working in Higher Ed and Corporations

Because I have worked in both industry and higher education, and because Elliance serves both corporations and higher ed institutions, we can compare and contrast working in these two different organizational cultures. Here are some observations of similarities and differences between the two:

Mission
Corporations are motivated by profit and growth. Higher education is motivated by knowledge creation and dissemination.

Horizon
Higher education operates with a five-year horizon of strategic plans with milestones, while corporations are driven by quarterly and annual revenue goals.

Pace
In contrast to fast-moving corporations with the discipline of quarterly results, higher education moves at a glacial pace. Projects take time. More marathons and fewer sprints.

Culture and Decision Making
Due to a shared governance structure where all stakeholders have a say in decision-making, higher education has a far more collaborative, bottom-up culture as compared to the more competitive and top-down corporate culture. In corporations, it’s not uncommon for everyone in a meeting to look to the higher up to make the final call. In higher ed, you work through committees and everyone’s opinions matter and you have to cultivate the patience to hear everyone’s take on literally everything. Consensus-building and intellectual freedom are key in higher ed.

The net effect is that decision-making is slow in higher education, while it’s fast-paced in corporations. Higher ed is all about effectiveness while corporations are all about efficiency and speed.

Formality and Openness
Corporations are more formal and structured, while working with college students, faculty and staff is more casual. In higher ed, you easily form deep personal connections with co-workers. It isn’t uncommon to share personal successes and even heartaches and frustrations with your direct co-workers or even your supervisor.

Corporations put a huge emphasis on respect, integrity and development—but corporate culture doesn’t support oversharing the way education does.

Mobility
In higher ed, a lot of people stay put or climb the ladder within their particular function or department. It’s common to see people stay at the university for a decade, two decades or even three decades. You’ll meet many lifers. As a result, you’ll get to know your co-workers really well and you’ll discover that they have in-depth knowledge about the institutional and departmental history.

Corporations work a little differently. People frequently move within and across companies. The drawback is that people move around a lot and it seems as though as soon as you think you are getting to know somebody, they get promoted or move on to another part of the organization.

If you are moving from a corporation to a college or university, I hope you’ll find these observations beneficial in making this delicate transition.