Transfer Costs

I have been involved in various organizations, both as a worker within a governmental organization and a member within an RSO. I worked as a maintenance worker for my hometown’s park district which provided me insight into how organizations within a city government operate. I have also held several positions within my campus fraternity which has enabled me to learn more about the interpersonal workings within a smaller organization.

I have worked as a parks maintenance for the Winnetka Park District. My hometown of Winnetka is located in the northern suburbs of Chicago which has a population of a little over 12,000, as well as twenty-five public parks. My job as a maintenance worker was essentially to monitor and maintain the various facilities and amenities within the parks, as well as their general cleanliness. The organization which presided over the park consisted of about fifteen people. Most of the employees were general laborers, while a few workers with higher levels of skill or education served as supervisors who oversaw the whole operation.  These supervisors would delegate tasks to laborers such as myself at the beginning of every workday. These tasks were based on decisions made by another organization of individuals within the park district. This organization was a board of directors of sorts composed of several high-ranking individuals within the park district. They would meet to discuss projects, deal with budgeting and salaries, and so forth. More broadly, the organization which presided over this board of directors was the city government itself.

This was an interesting experience as I could see how decisions made by the public and the town’s politicians affected me on a day-to-day basis. Given that our budget was set by the board of directors above us, I didn’t necessarily have to deal with the monetary costs of whatever equipment or supplies the department needed. However, there were still evident transaction costs that occurred in our daily operations. For example, I bumped into another person’s car while driving a work-issued truck. I reported this to my supervisor, and we filed a police report. The monetary transaction cost of this incident was pretty negligible; there was a possibility that our insurance rates would go up, but it was unlikely due to how minor the accident was, as well as the fact that our insurance was government-issued. However, there was a sort of “social” transaction cost to making this mistake; I feared that my coworkers would view me as less responsible, and therefore a less competent employee.

I’ve also served various positions within my fraternity, including alumni chair and risk manager. As alumni chair, it was my responsibility to correspond with our chapter’s alumni regarding events, donations, and various other factors. As risk manager, I had to develop and implement our chapter’s risk management and safety protocol. During my tenure as these positions, I learned a lot about the inner workings of an organization. The fraternity was run by an executive board consisting of seven other members who had varying responsibilities. We had to correspond almost daily about issues facing the house. Certain transfer costs were often one of the major points that was often discussed. For example, deciding on our final budget was one of the critical jobs of the executive board. We had to decide how much to allocate for every event as well as factors such as insurance. In addition to having tangible monetary costs, there were certain social implications associated with these transfer costs. In the event that we had to cancel events to save money for other necessities, members of the chapter would often get irritated and hold a more negative opinion of not only myself, but our executive board as a whole.