Initial thoughts

Actually my story is quite similar to Paul’s, from class, in that I have always been fascinated with entrepreneurship. This originated at an early age (say about 9 or 10) messing with producing different kinds of goods in gardens and gathering bait to sell for fishing ( a business which never quite got off the ground).  I even attempted to write contracts for my brother and sister. Though I left that realm for quite some time, Professor Paul Magelli instilled that same fire what feel like infinitely more when I took his class junior year. Since then though I am leaning towards a non for profit because it seems to fit my direction much better, I am considering what running my own organization might entail. Therefore the economics of organizations seem to make complete sense.

As for my own personal experience I have not been able to dabble in the private industry but have been fortunate enough to work for the University in both the parking department and the athletic department. Each department has its own quirks. To be quite blunt they don’t seem to like each other. They operate much differently, athletics being more lax, wasteful, yet quite creative, while parking is a bit more uptight and stingy. Not to say that one is better but the people in these organizations look and carry themselves differently. I have also worked for a forest preserve garage which also has slightly different dynamics than the two previously mentioned jobs. Unfortunately I have very little experience with clubs and registered student organizations at the collegiate level.

My original expectations for the course would simply be that I come out with a few tips and pointers on how to make people work together within an organization. Maximizing decisions and putting together a slightly dynamic model on how an organization is built, specifically more along the lines of the human resource department. Now I am beginning to think that we may include a bit more involving partners and how outside groups like independent contractors effect the way organizations are run. From the first two classes, I have yet to be able to determine what we are really going to talk about. The first stuff was quite basic, there are independent contractors like test administers which have advantages like being standardized and one can hire employees like Illinois which help promote a brand yet are differentiated.

The other stuff has been a bit more confusing as to the direction we are taking as a class. I have a hard time seeing how diploma bills, teacher ratings within departments, and students grade point average is going to play a part with organizations. The music piece while quite fascinating, will be remembered simply as a piece on the evolution of music. Maybe we will dive further into that in our next class discussion. I am not worried as to where the class is headed/ At least I have been intrigued initially and that is really all one can ask for during syllabus week. One thing I am really quite excited about is our class size, which is the smallest I have been a part of during my time at University of Illinois.