Experience with Organizations
My experience with organizations lie with my membership with my fraternity. The fraternity has a hierarchical structure both within out chapter in the University as well as on the national level. At the top of the school level is the alumni board of directors who own the chapter house and whom the officers of the fraternity report to. Below the alumni board is the executive committee which includes the president, treasurer and other executive members. These people are in charge of the members of the chapter. This is the hierarchy that is present in the University. However, both the executive committee and the alumni board both report to the national organization of the chapter. The national chapter personnel are in charge of the charter of the chapter. The charter is what makes a fraternity a Greek organization, it is basically a sponsorship.
While this type of organization is fairly common, but the organization is dependent on every member taking part and doing their job. The chapter leadership can issue minor consequences, but barring a major transgression they cannot make anyone leave. Sometimes there is miscommunication among leadership and members, this is an example of information incompleteness which is a motivation cost. Sometimes there are big lapses in communication before a big event and it leads to buying the wrong items or not communicating with the university what we are doing. These motivational costs lead to inefficiencies inside the organization.
We have been trying to implement weekly meetings with chapter members and leadership so everyone knows what the plan is each week. We have tried using listserv type email service where anyone can send an email to all members notifying them of an even or meeting. In addition, the fraternity has made group messages to be up to date on what to do for an event or meeting. These new communication methods have been made to decrease inefficiencies.
While this type of organization is fairly common, but the organization is dependent on every member taking part and doing their job. The chapter leadership can issue minor consequences, but barring a major transgression they cannot make anyone leave. Sometimes there is miscommunication among leadership and members, this is an example of information incompleteness which is a motivation cost. Sometimes there are big lapses in communication before a big event and it leads to buying the wrong items or not communicating with the university what we are doing. These motivational costs lead to inefficiencies inside the organization.
We have been trying to implement weekly meetings with chapter members and leadership so everyone knows what the plan is each week. We have tried using listserv type email service where anyone can send an email to all members notifying them of an even or meeting. In addition, the fraternity has made group messages to be up to date on what to do for an event or meeting. These new communication methods have been made to decrease inefficiencies.
You took a very structural point of view in describing this. It would have been good to also take a transactional view. What sort of transgressions require discipline? Would education efforts in advance of any problem be useful in preventing difficult situations from arising.
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure you are aware, fraternities have gotten a good deal of bad press in recent years. This essay, The Dark Power of Fraternities, offers one prominent example. Indeed, in some cases of truly egregious behavior campuses have shut down chapters, which shows that some of the authority is with the university where the the fraternity is located.
On the other hand, fraternities must do some things well, which offers a positive reason to become a member. So you might have also spent some time on things about fraternities that are uplifting and perhaps then talk about how your fraternity promotes those activities.
Among the more obvious of these is developing a sense of community among fraternity members, which acts as a counterforce to the loneliness that many students feel in college. Again, it would have been good for you to write some about how the fraternity builds this sense of togetherness among community members. I doubt that can be revealed from a structural approach. One needs to get a different perspective to understand that.