Organization within a System

            I’ve actually been a member of various successful teams, each with their own unique structures whom have had their own respective success. As I’ve previously mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I’m part of a social fraternity who has a certain organizational structure stemming from a president to seven executive members each who has their own committee. The president has a pretty straightforward job, he oversees that each executive member is doing his job, runs meetings, and attends meetings representing the fraternity as a whole. It could be said that the president implements a centralized system since he decides what needs to be done with little input from the other exec members. The reason why the system is centralized is due to the fact that most social fraternities have the same general structure and since the university has standards set for all fraternities. Executive members’ job varies depending on their role. For example there is an executive member in charge of brotherhood events (events centered around the promotion of members of the fraternity interacting with one another and to meet each other in a more personal level) such as barbeques, paintballing, eating out etc. The executive member in charge of brotherhood events also oversees that every member is doing good academically and is in good emotional health. For example, if a member from the fraternity is depressed and is failing classes, the executive member in charge of brotherhood makes sure that that member gets the proper help from university resources. The executive member in charge of brotherhood implements a decentralized system since he relies on his committee members input. For example, when helping out a member who, as previously mentioned, is in need of help, the brotherhood exec relies on his committees input and when analyzing how to resolve such issues. Like the exec member in charge of brotherhood events, the other exec members implement similar strategies. For example, the exec member in charge of programming also implements a decentralize system, probably the most decentralized of all. His committee members are in charge of coming up with community service events, philanthropy events, and social events. The exec member leaves it up to the committee’s discretion to come up with events but the committee takes input from the rest of the members of the fraternity. For example, the committee member in charge of social events makes polls on Facebook where the rest of the members get to vote on what events they prefer. Same system applies for the community service aspect. The committee member working under the exec member of programming comes up with community service events and then its up to the rest of the fraternity members to choose which events to attend.

            The system my fraternity implements works pretty smoothly since it uses a good mixture of system implementations depending on the hierarchy level that certain members hold. The system is pretty centralized from the top, where the president sets out general “to-do list” and then each exec member uses a decentralized system letting their respective committee members handle their respective work area.

            Another team that I’ve worked with that implemented a different system from the one I’ve previously mentioned is working as a project director for AMA (American Marketing Association). AMA is an RSO here at the university, which focuses on developing Marketing experience and knowledge. As the previous example, AMA has a president who then has an executive board working under her. Each exec member then has a committee who handles specific task. For example, I work under the exec member in charge of professional development; the professional development exec member is in charge of working with clients such as banks and provides them with a team that works in providing consulting services. My job is to lead a team of consultants who come up with questions for a client, analyze their needs, and the come up with solutions to their problems. As opposed the previous example where a centralized system is used from top to bottom, AMA has a more decentralized system from the top and a more centralized system at the bottom hierarchies. The president allows her exec members to run things to their discretion and the exec members do the same when it comes their committees. The system changes once it hits committee level and the system becomes more centralized. For example, I run a centralized system as a project director since I only serve as a middleman between the exec member I work under and my team. The professional development exec member sets out a game plan for me and my job is to simply ensure that my team fallows the game plan set.

            An interesting fact about AMA is that it began to use economies of scale to its advantage. They had a huge input of new members this semester, which allowed them to expand and take upon new projects such as working under Vitamin Water, another big company. If you compare AMA to a firm you can say that they over achieved in its core competencies, taking over new projects and still providing excellent service.

            Having experience with different teams shows how different organizations have to modify their structure and organize certain ways to get the best out of their members, and duties.