On campus, I am very involved in
two different RSOs. The one that I generally dedicate more time to on a weekly
basis is the Illinois Student Government. In ISG, I hold multiple elected
leadership roles. I have been involved in the student government beginning my
freshman year when I served as an executive assistant. Through my time in the
organization, I have worked with multiple executive boards as well as seen the
organization change, both directly and indirectly. In working with different
executive boards, some of the challenges have been figuring out peoples’
leadership and communication styles. Additionally, over the past year we have
transitioned into a new structure including separating branches to mimic the
federal government, a popularly elected President / Vice President ticket, as
well as a name change. With the separating of branches, there was a lot of work
done in determining the structure of the organization. Separation of powers was
a goal of the structure change, which took a lot of work on the part of the commission
to ensure that our previous charge would be upheld. Additionally, due to the
way we are part of the University of Illinois structure, our new constitution
had to be approved by way of referendum question. While many students inside
the organization were on board with the new changes, the question still needed
to be approved by the student body. To me, this mimics a public firm’s process
in terms of stockholder approval, which from an outsider’s point of view was
very interesting to see how everything played out. Upon the approval of the new
constitution, figuring out how new roles and duties would play out in action
was a bit of a challenge. Additionally, with a name change came all the
challenges of rebranding. The executive board and senate leadership did a good
job of working through the challenges, but from an organizational point of view
it was very interesting for me to observe how things were progressing.
In terms of thinking through
transaction costs of relationships, my social and professional relationships
are different but also very similar. In my social relationships, the
transaction costs are mainly search based. I have found that most of my friends
have similar backgrounds or we were in organizations together. The transaction
cost in making this relationship stronger is more personal than anything as I
was the one who had to decide what groups to be part of. Once that decision was
made, meeting new people and building those connections was also a transaction
cost. Spending time in any sense is a cost, but specifically focused on social
relationships weighing the pros and cons of time spent socializing is something
that I sometimes struggle with. I have come to realize that there are never
enough hours in the day and that decisions must be made in terms of time
management. While I believe that the transaction costs of professional
relationships in terms of maintaining them is like those of social
relationships, I think that the search transaction cost of those relationships is
different. With professional relationships, often they come out of previous
decisions made such as area of study, background or career. They are very much based
on environment or nature of the relationship, for example mine with student
government. Within student government, many of us also serve on the UC Senate.
Through this, I have gotten to know many professors outside my area of study. This
has helped me to develop a stronger and wider reaching professional network on
campus that has assisted me in my shared governance roles but also personally.
While there are costs with both creating and maintaining any sort of
relationship, the costs have a personal and professional gain. When making decisions,
I find it helpful to look at the costs versus the potential gain. In these
cases, I have a strong group of supportive and understanding friends, as well
as a professional network that spans farther than I would have ever imagined.
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