Describe the organization as it is.

Describe how you would change it.

Field

How do you describe the field in which this organization operates? Be specific.

This association operates in both educational and entertainment fields. The association focuses on representing all Arab countries and their cultures, make people in PSU engage in the association through communication, teamwork and sharing as much all Arab countries and their cultures.

I feel as a newly recognized association, these fields are the key fields that accurately promote and represent this association.

Philosophy

Is there a formal philosophy or set of values and beliefs for this organization? Is it even stated, and does everyone agree with it?

There are set of values that this association stick to, which are: always being respectful towards other people, the countries and their cultures, make people comfortable by giving them the chance to explore these countries, and even more, become a part of this association either becoming one of the leaders in the upcoming years, handling the events or even performing in those events.

I think we could do more by reaching out to as much people as the association can, engage outsiders, not only the PSU environment, in the events that takes place and be part of the performances. This being said, this would really help us, the association, accomplish the aim we set, and also result in creating a strong community.

Attributes

What are the major attributes, characteristics and qualities of this organization – related to leadership?

The major attributes of this association are the ability to educate, entertain, communicate and engage others. The characteristics would be spreading the cultures while also defining it, make people engage but even more, experience it. Moreover, PSU students, faculty and outsiders are always welcome to share their ideas and thoughts.

I believe the association have a great built-up attributes & characteristics that makes everyone comfortable volunteering or even relating to it, which always can be improved in the future, thus improve greater results. One more thing to add on, is that the budget increases every year (each Fall term), which will help us take more ideas and thoughts into consideration, and also hold bigger events or more averaged events but with different topics discussed.

Organization as a Leader and/or Follower

How do you define this org. as a leader and has this changed over time in this particular field?

To be clear, this organization consists of 7 leaders, 3 from which are also the co-Founders of this association, and then there are the 4 of us, who became also leaders this year. One of the requirements to become a leader in the next years is to be a PSU student, so you can know who to target, what happens in the campus, organize those events in PSU and also would be able to attend the leader meetings between classes, during the break. Although the seven of us leads this association and are mostly the ones who make a decision, yet it’s open to all people and communities. Everyone is free to express their opinions, share their idea and thoughts, through the meetings that the leaders arrange with the students, faculty and outsiders.

I feel the way our leadership works/ takes place, is the best way right now. I also believe that we, the leaders, can act taking in consideration the restricted policies given by our “student organization advisors” and also the limited budgets and places we have for our events. So we’d rather work the way we do, rather than breaking or manipulating these policies.

Drivers

What are the most important internal and external influences on this organization?

Some of the Internal Drivers are: [Many Arab students here wants to represent their countries, so we are offering them the opportunity to] & [People also get to experience how the association works].
Some of the External Drivers are: [Give all PSUs students and faculty the chance to explore the cultures] & [These events creates a community] & [Give the clearer picture about us rather than people hear from media].

One of the drivers that I believe would change the way our event is structured and the opportunities given is the possibility of raising money. The events we hold in this interval of time are free from all people, even people who don’t study here in PSU. Now with the reputation we have, and hopefilly in the near future, we might put a cost on the tickets to purchase them, which at the same time it would be affordable for everyone to purchase. This being said, it will give us the chance to polarize famous people to become part of our event and collaborate with us as for the performances. This will result people to join the community and help us represent all Arab countries/cultures in a better way.

Audience for this Organization

Who is outside the organization’s formal leadership-followership? Is it the general public or a specific group?

The Audience can attend any event we organize, or even collaborate in, which people can easily get access to exploring the different cultures with the similarities and differences. To all those who can’t attend, many of the times we’ll have our Instagram Live, and if not, we’ll post some videos and images of the events.

The change in Audience alters as our capabilities and drivers alters. The more we have access to, the more wider the association gets. If couple people from different countries got us a sponsor, this will make the association known even if the Arab countries, not only here in PSU. This means that the audience will become more and we’ll get access to more people.

Organizational Structure

Is it formal or informal, hierarchy, web, etc.? You can attach an organization chart to this document.

This association is built up of web structure. The association consists of 3 people who are leaders but are also the co-founders of the association, and there are 4 people who are only leaders. There are also the followers and the audience. The only difference would be that the co-founders have more knowledge and experience in managing this association than the 4 of us. The 4 jobs in this association are: catering, decoration, AV and submitting the budget. Those jobs are not specifically assigned to each individual, it gets assigned to whoever are “more free” when deciding on the event, or even sometimes it’s assigned to someone who didn’t handle, for example, the AV before, which he/she must at some point of time. This makes each leader works in different jobs to acquire more characteristics.

I believe that’s the best way for us to manage the association, because as I mentioned before, it makes every leader accessible to the different jobs, and thus acquiring more characteristics and gaining more experience. In addition to that, this way makes everyone equally responsible of the association, no one have a bigger role than the other. I also believe the communication between all the leaders, updating on each other, will make everyone aware of what’s going on. The same thing with the followers and audience, as there are events, we will post a volunteer form in our Instagram account and all details about the events. This makes people be familiar with the new updates, and all sort of communication between the leaders and people are available.

Organizational Mission

What is the main reason for this organization to exist? This may exist in a Mission Statement.

“The purpose of this organization is to promote the cultures of all Arab countries and to create a community for the students.” As spoken before, the mission was clearly stated before with all the explanation of its value, attributes, characteristics, and the drivers. All these works in the aim of promoting all Arab countries’ cultures and creating a community within the PSU which also can extends to people in the US and all over the world.

I will settle with what I said in the earlier aspects, with all that should remain the same, what should change and what can be added to create more value for the association.

Organization as “Community”

Does this organization define community or lead one?

Arab Student Association is leading the community through the efforts of all the people included, leaders to volunteers to performers to attendances. The community we created has no limit for improvement towards the best. It’s not all about the leaders’ management, because the help of other people, the association wouldn’t have done what they did till now. So respect, diversity and team-work are what hold the community tighter and stronger.

The change that can happen through the community is by enhancing each other to volunteer and represent the countries. Moreover, I believe the more people take place in the event, the more it makes the community expands, and that’s by supporting people to outweigh their personal fears, show their talents and improve their skills from leadership to making change to communication and etc.

Work Place Questions:

If this organization is your workplace and you have been there for longer than 3 months, briefly compare this company to its closest competitor or partner.

To be honest, there is no competition between our association and other associations. Every association focuses on group of countries/cultures, and try to present them for the PSU community. There are many events that 3 and more associations collaborates in and help each other to make the event become a successful one. On the other hand, there are events which only our association takes care of, from the first time we meet for this particular event to the last meeting we have (after the event) to analyze the event itself.

Nothing can really changes in this aspect, beside the fact that we should be more united and collaborate more often with each other. This not only strengthen the relationship between the associations, but furthermore, allow us to present variety of things in the events which will make the event even be bigger than how it was the previous year.

Describe the organization as it is.

Describe how you would change it.

Field

How do you describe the field in which this organization operates? Be specific.

This association focused on the educational and entertainment field. Their main focus is presenting Arab culture to the people who don’t know it. They are inviting people at PSU engage in teamwork, communication, and see what other culture represent.

(You probably wouldn’t be able to change how the field is described, but maybe…)

Philosophy

Is there a formal philosophy or set of values for this organization and does everyone agree with it?

Attributes

What are the major attributes, characteristics and qualities of this organization – related to leadership?

Organization as a Leader and/or Follower

How do you define this org. as a leader and has this changed over time in this particular field?

Drivers

What are the most important internal and external influences on this organization?

Audience for this Organization

Who is outside the organization’s formal leadership-followership?

Leadership Model

Is there one that is obvious or is it hidden in a Mission Statement?

Ask fellow workers to describe one if you don’t see it yourself.

Organizational Structure

Is it formal or informal, hierarchy, web, etc.?

You can attach an organization chart to this document.

Organizational Purpose

What is the main reason for this organization to exist? Again this may exist in a Mission Statement.

Organizational Timeframe

What is the sense of time for this organization and is there a time for it to end?

Organization as “Community”

Does this organization define community or lead one?

Work Place Questions:

If this organization is your workplace and you have been there for longer than 3 months, briefly compare this company to its closest competitor or partner.