The best bits of career counsel aren’t always the bits we pay enough attention to. Today I’ll tell you the publication that had the highest ‘potential’ to help my career after the Queens MBA program- although I didn’t believe so at that time. The book has been updated with new editions repeatedly over the decades. And it is called (drum roll pls)…:
‘The Ropes To Skip and the Ropes to Know: Studies in Organizational Behavior‘- 2nd Edition by R. Richard Ritti and G. Ray Funkhouser
imo it doesn’t much matter which edition – just read it ESPECIALLY if you have no previous experience in a large firms or didn’t grown up in home where a parent would candidly discuss what happens in a Big Office.
If from a small town with small biz experience, you may very poorly prepared to work in a ‘Big City Big Office’ workplace. I had worked small biz for a over a decade before taking an MBA, then a shot at “The Bigs”. I read ‘The Ropes…’ in my studies, yet failed to grok its lessons, failed to recognize how relevant its teachings would be. My small biz years were of virtually no value to prepare me with survival skills needed for a Big Corporate office. I would have been better off watching the ‘The Office’ &/or reading Scott Adams’ ‘Dilbert’ strip. Those 2 sources ARE a realistic reflection of Big Office culture, lessons, games.
Over the next months, on a new page called ‘Ropes’ (see top banner; named in honour of those inspirational authors), I’ll provide my (pale by comparison) nod to the original, iconic ‘..Ropes…’ with some confessions …errrr… lessons learned– at companies big & small, client-side & consultant-side, public & private sector. Each ‘case’ will be in a SetUp-Action-Results-Lesson format. Hope you enjoy it & hope you benefit from the page; but first – GO GET A COPY of the original (and still the best) tome on the topic, by Ritti et al.