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Organization Structure and High Function

Organization Structure and High Function

My most familiar organization is ICDI(Intercultural Community Development Initiative). It is an RSO on campus and our mission is to promote communication between domestic and international students on campus so that our community could be more inclusive. But carrying a bigger dream to ultimately eliminate barriers between individuals from different backgrounds in the world, we have the plan to become an official Nonprofit Organization. In my own experience in ICDI, our structure is more like dual authority system, or actually I should say "triple authority". Because besides president, there are three people given authority in three different specific areas and lead three different groups: Industrial Development, Public Relations and Financial Affairs. Thus, as mentioned in the textbook, the information flows from general members to the individuals who are in the authority in each division first. But I'll say that the communication is easy and fast in our organization, given the small number of members about 20 to 25 (since we are during the process of recruiting). Since we have general meeting every Tuesday night, all members would get together and report the working process and discuss next move. The communication between every member and president is easy and open.

 I would explain more of ICDI in terms of Katzenbach and Smith's features of high functions teams.
First of all, ICDI apparently has a clear purpose in given situation in our campus. UIUC has the highest proportion of international students in the U.S.. So we see this is a precious opportunity for us to explore different cultures, and try to promote more communication between individuals in different cultures. Changing the stereotype and let people know more about others from different countries by personal experience rather than by watching TVs and listening to news. Thus I would say our organization is funded in response to the opportunity.

 Secondly, Katzenbach and Smith propose that a high function organization should make the goals specific and measurable. Though our mission looks so big, we have our specific goals, which are offering two workshops for domestic students and international students on campus, and facilitate a workshop focusing on the upcoming freshman in Shanghai during next summer. Our workshops are designed to last from half day to whole day, with purpose of raising culture awareness and understanding, as well as promoting communication. Then we would adjust our future goals and workshops according to evaluation from the participants.

In terms of size, there were about 15 members in ICDI in the end of last semester. While in this semester we're recruiting people so that the final number would probably between 20 and 25. This fits the high function organization too. And from my own experience, our communication efficiency is high. One of the reasons is that we don't have so many people so it would be easier to manage when we are preparing for workshops. More importantly, friendship is a strong motivation. Many members of ICDI are friends before we started our organization. And since we are a very diverse organization, members are more comfortable to accept new members with different cultural background to join in.

 Additionally, ICDI has diverse expertise. Since three divisions have specific responsibilities. Industrial Development is focused on developing workshops. We have individual who has many experience working with different people and facilitating workshops. And there are also individuals majoring in Engineering, Psychology, Business, etc. And in Public Relations, which is the division to do outreach and marketing work. We have people majoring in CS, who can get prepared for our website and all social networks. There are individuals who have experience writing for Daily Illini. And we also have photographer and graphic designer. Individuals who are majoring in marketing also help a lot. In financial affairs, which is the division to do fundraising and budget planning, we have individuals majoring in Accounting and Economics. So basically everyone is assigned to specific field to contribute. But it is true that we're students, which means we don't have enough experience. Thus we interviewed a lot of professional persons who facilitate a lot of workshops on campus and ask suggestions from them. Overall we have a good mix of expertise.

 Next, since we have interview process, which can make sure members' enthusiasm, members are all committed and feel confident about our goal. Of course we have members quitting as well. Quitting process is easy because we want to make sure everyone is voluntarily engaging in. So as long as members feel unwilling to keep working on, it is their freedom to quit after finishing current work. Furthermore everyone is assigned to specific responsibility. Actually we have made responsibility charting already, which explain individuals responsibilities and the whole division's responsibility. But I would say that the working relationship is not emphasized to much. Of course we have explained relationship between people in specific work, such as "graphic designer should send materials to content manager to check, and then designer send the final products to the website manager to put on website." But the general working relationship between divisions seems vague. It is more likely a temporary cooperation for specific work instead of a long term working relationship.

 At last, I'm sure that ICDI enjoys this common purpose. Every member who passes the interview shows passions about working with people from diverse cultures, and realizes this great opportunity. As we made efforts together and made some real progress, ICDI is strongly collective. As far as I know, a lot of members introduce our organization to their friends, present ICDI information in the beginning of some classes, and send emails to a lot of people. These actions are the reflection of responsibility because they value the organization and try to promote it in the way they can think of.

Comments

  1. Professor ArvanSeptember 28, 2014 at 8:07 AM

    You did a pretty good job describing ICDI function. But I didn't see much at all about your own role. You might have included more on that and how you have learned about the organization via the role you play.

    Let's also talk about "apprenticeships" by which I mean that new members learn from more experienced members in the organization. Sometimes you can get expertise brought in from the outside, but other times you grow expertise via the development of new members.

    Finally, given the mission, you might have spent more time talking about the both the general meeting - what happens there? - and the workshops - who comes to those and why do they come? In particular, do non-members come for a single workshop and then you never hear from them again? Or do they become members soon thereafter?

    I imagine that it takes a while for somebody to get beyond the stereotypes they have about people from other cultures. So one might ask how your group function ties to that sort of learning. It wasn't clear in what you posted above.

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    Replies
    1. John RobertsOctober 2, 2014 at 5:25 PM

      In terms of "apprenticeships", it is actually mutual for new members and experienced members. In our last meeting, we introduced about 10 new members to ICDI. During the meeting when I introduced my work in Financial Affairs and overall schedule and experience, new members seemed to have a more clarified and specific idea about what is going on and where we are right now. So they could learn from experienced members to catch up on and start contributing. Also, from one of the new members who named Sophie, I actually learned something from her. She has many experience about funding and proposed some possible ideas of fundraising which are feasible and effective. So this is some sort of "apprenticeships".
      And as you mentioned in the class. I realized that I should definitely write more about my job and what I did in the organization. As the assistant treasurer, I mainly keep the budget and do budget planning, as well as deal with agenda and other things in Financial Affairs. And I should also explained more about our workshop contents, such as cultural awareness activities, labeling activities, stereotypes, etc.

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