describe an organization paper

Student’s Name

Paper #1

American Business Women’s Association

In this paper I will describe the American Business Women’s Association, ABWA, from an organizational viewpoint. The topics of discussion will be the purpose, vision, mission, and values of the organization, the types of leadership and management, and a description of how I perceive the organizational culture. This particular organization is the ASU chapter of the larger national organization, but for the scope of this paper I will limit the focus to the ASU chapter only.

According to their official Facebook page, the purpose of ABWA is to “bring together ASU business majors and provide leadership opportunities, networking, & national recognition” (ABWA – ASU). Since it is a small organization, no clear vision or mission has been established. I know from personal experience that a lack of properly stated visions, missions, etc. is an all too common characteristic of smaller student organizations. However, based on their stated purpose and considering that it is a student organization, it can be assumed that the vision and mission involves enriching the students’ college careers. I am convinced that by communicating this in a clearer manner, prospective members would more easily understand the benefits they would have from joining ABWA. It would also make the organization seem more professional from both an external and internal perspective.

As for the leadership and management, the organization is arranged in a hierarchical order. The highest person in the hierarchical order is the president. The president is selected through a voting process, and is replaced each year. This person decides what speakers are brought in to each meeting, and is also responsible for arranging time, location, and a short presentation for each meeting. In other words, this position might not be as glamorous and time consuming as one might think. However, in relation to the small size of the organization this is reasonable. Moreover, there are four positions under the president. Two positions report directly to the president, and are separate from each other; the vice president and the chairs. Each chair then has one or two committee members that report to them. The lowest position in the order is the regular member, who does not have a leadership position, but does get to run for office and vote for leadership positions each year.

The organizational culture in ABWA is highly influenced by the organizational culture of the larger, intertwined organizations ASU and W.P Carey. Because ABWA is a student organization, it means that all members are already connected through ASU and usually also the W.P. Carey School of Business. The topics that we talk about are often related to majors such as Marketing or Supply Chain, which brings in experiences and culture that we have in common form ASU. Some would maybe say that the culture is pretty formal, since we talk about careers and network with professionals. Compared to an athletic organization, that might be true. However, if ABWA would be compared to a large national and professional finance association, our organizational culture might seem extremely informal. For example, the president and chair members are very open to socialize with the other members. At times, the difference between who has what position might be very hard to tell. All in all, it is hard to define the culture of ABWA, but one thing that is certain is ASU’s culturally strong impact on the organization.

In conclusion, the ASU chapter of ABWA has a clearly defined purpose that is directed towards enriching the college careers of business students at ASU. However, the organization is too small to have publicly announced other purpose related elements of the organization. On the other hand, members have managed to set up a clear system of hierarchy in leadership and management. The member hierarchy consists of four different tiers, where each level of position clearly differs from the other levels. While the organization has a clear hierarchy, the organizational culture, largely impacted by the intertwined organization ASU, can be seen as relatively informal at times. This is likely due to the fact that although some people have higher positions within ABWA, we are all students of equal rank at ASU.