As a sophomore, I was fortunate to be accepted into a very
prestigious organization here on campus.
When I say prestigious, you might be tempted to laugh a little, after
all, how prestigious can an RSO really be?
Rest assured, as a student within my major at the university, there
really was no higher goal in my young college career. In fact, I was not accepted into the
organization the first time, but the second time around I had matured and
worked on my communication skills, and I was lucky enough to be offered a
bid. The fact that I was offered a bid
during a fall semester but not a spring semester is rather ironic now that I
have experienced it from the other side.
Typically a fall rush has around 400-500 candidates, which are then
whittled down to a pledge class of about 20, while a spring rush may usually
only have about half that. Once
admitted, my experience lived up to everything I could have wanted out of a
school organization. I found my circle
of friends on campus, began to build my network, and in general had a great
time. I know this story is not unique,
most students go through some sort of searching out process and finally find
their place on campus. I only describe
what being a part of this organization meant to me as an attempt to highlight
how much the change which occurred within this organization really impacted
myself as well as my close friends.
By now you are probably wondering, what happened? Well, as in most organizations, there are
certain “traditions” which develop over time, and to the members of the
organization, are an integral part of what makes them so close. Unfortunately, from the standpoint of a
governing central office, these traditions often violate bylaws the
organization is supposed to follow. It so happened that a disgruntled member
took it upon themselves to detail several of these violations to the central
office of this organization. Long story
short, this resulted in an extended investigation and suspension of many
activities myself and the other members valued, essentially changing the
culture of the organization as well as the structure. Many new guidelines were put in place, with
the chain of command as well as organizational bylaws being changed, all due to
harmless transgressions. As a byproduct of all this, many members, including
myself, felt that the organization had changed to such a degree it was no
longer worthwhile to continue to pledge time and effort to the
organization. While the organization
still exists, it is essentially completely changed from what it once was, and
does not hold the same meaning to many of its current and former members.
A transaction cost is defined as the cost incurred in making
an economic exchange, or in other words, the cost of participating in a market.
Of the three types; search and information, bargaining, and policing and
enforcement, bargaining costs hold the most relevance to me due to recently having
gone through the negotiation process after receiving a job offer. After receiving the offer, I went through several
rounds of negotiations to work out the salary and benefits that seemed most desirable,
and fair, to me. Besides the discomfort
in negotiating, it took a considerable amount of time that could have been used
elsewhere. This is also similar to a scenario in game theory called the game of
chicken. The game of chicken states that
while both parties prefer not to yield to each other, the worst possible
outcome is when neither party yields. I believe a job offer negotiation is very
similar in many aspects. I have my own
self interests in mind in terms of compensation, as does the firm’s
representative. However, the firm has already
invested considerable time and resources into my growth while I was an intern,
and does not want that to be wasted. On
the other hand, I have invested my own time as an intern, and have nurtured the
relationships at that firm in hopes of being offered a job. Clearly, if we cannot come to an agreement,
both parties lose. These are all factors
in determining when is the correct time to accept the offer on the table, a
very important decision in any young professional’s life.
You said this was an RSO, but then you were vague about what it did. Perhaps you had a reason for not naming it, but the vagueness weakened your essay as I didn't really understand your claims about why this organization was important to you.
ReplyDeleteThen when you started to talk about practices that came into question, this sounded like a Fraternity rather than an RSO. I'm pretty ignorant about both, but there has been an awful lot in the press the last couple of year about fraternities and practices that the general public would find disconcerting and excessive.
Because you were vague you encourage the reader (me) to guess as a way to fill in the blanks. If you know a lot about me as a reader, perhaps that is okay as an approach. In this case, however, it is your first real post for the semester. So I would have preferred a piece where you were more straightforward in what you said.
Then you completely lost me in the last paragraph, where you talked about salary and benefits. For an RSO? Or are you now discussing a job offer you had. If the latter, you omitted the part to describe that. As a reader I'm usually pretty good at connecting the dots. Here, however, I couldn't do that.
Yes, I was intentionally vague in not naming the organization or what it did. This was more for protection of current members of the organization than myself, as the issues I mentioned are still ongoing.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify, this is indeed an RSO, not a social fraternity, and the issues at hand are nothing like the ones you reference being in the press. That being said, there are many aspects of the fraternity pledge process, in terms of structure, terminology, etc, that are borrowed and used within this RSO. This is not uncommon.
The last section was completely unrelated to my experiences within an RSO. I thought I had made clear that I was talking about the process of receiving a job offer and negotiating benefits. I will keep your feedback in mind for the next post.