Resource Management Policies In Different Sectors Of The Economy

Benefits of Resource Management

Disucss about the resource management policies adapted by three companies in the different sectors of the economy.

Resource management is the procedure by which business organizations administer their various capitals or resources in an effective manner (Armstrong and Taylor 2014).The considered resources can be intangible in nature such as time and humans, or intangible such as materials, tools and equipment and finances. The process of resource management requires planning so that the appropriate resources are allocated the right tasks. Resource management includes budgets and schedules for humans, projects, equipment and supplies. Although the concept is often practicedin mention of project management, it can be applied to several other aspects of business management. For a small business, it is important to pay attention to the management of resources in many areas including finances, staffing, physical space, equipment and technology.

Resource management proves beneficial to an organization. It helps in eradicating common problems related to poor planning of resource, such as lack of visibility of the work done by the individuals, a dearth to understand the talent present and available within the entity, several conflicts of resourcing, and an increase in the risk of project or a fluctuation of utilization of staff (Manviand Shyam2014). The major benefits of resource management include an increase in the revenue of the organization by utilizing the resources to their maximum capacity to gain maximum return and thus increasing revenue. Resource management helps in improving delivery of projects, which in turn helps in reducing costs and increase margins of profit. It increases efficiency of operations by allocating the right person for the right job (Jenningsand Stadler2015). Improved resource management process enables the identification of skills, drawbacks and training requirements. This in turn helps in reducing resourcing conflicts and their negative effects. Furthermore, resource management reduces administration costs by tracking the resource pool of the company regularly.

This paper intends to investigate and compare the management of physical and human resources of organizations in different sectors.  This paper will help in identifying the different flaws of resource management and suggest ways for the benefit and betterment of the organizations.

Different sectors of the industry have different requirements for management of their resources. These requirements depend on the situation and the type of problem that the organization is facing.Resource management does have certain principles but it is one of the most versatile methods of management due to its situational nature.

Analysis of Differing Resource Management Requirements

The first organizationin consideration is an agricultural business belonging to the primary sector. Hence, they introduced innovation in their resources and facilities for the benefit of the customers. However, the primary sector has to deal with several issues related to management that can be solved through proper methods of resource management (Budhwar and Debrah2013). The agricultural part of the primary sector experiences several issues in terms of resources and require an investigation and evaluation of the situation to propagate accurately.Firstly, the volatility of the products in price and output tends to be an issue that needs to be taken care of.Agricultural products can experience great fluctuation of price. The demand is inelastic to price. The fall in price results to the fall in revenue, which causes problems within the economy. The business in consideration has introduced several facilities for the benefit of the customers who visit the store location (Renwick, Redman and Maguire 2013). They have also put an effort to take care of their resources required for production.The owners have to keep in mind about the change in climate and the damage caused by it. Adequate measures to prevent the crops from being damaged must be taken. The business has beenacting appropriately for the management of water, which is a precious resource in the agricultural sector (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). They have used a water reservoir for the storage of water for irrigation purposes.The business is looking forward to expand in terms of the variety of products they produce. In order to achieve this goal, the business needs to assess the condition of the soil in their farmland and act accordingly to increasethe variety of produce. However, the business does not have proper storage facilities due to which the crops last only till the season. They should consider introducing good storage facilities in order to make every type of produce available throughout the year. Machinery and equipment play a major role in increasing the produce in the agricultural sector (Fiorito 2013). Upgrading machineries can help the business in consideration to increase the produce and enable expansion. Human resource forms one of the most important resources in the entire function of resource management. Presently, the mentioned business has family members of the owners working as permanent employees (Deakins, Bensemann and Battisti 2016). They hire seasonal workers during the season of produce as manual labour to work on the business. In order to expand the produce and serve throughout the year, they require hiring permanent employees who would increase the workforce and thus the produce.

Agricultural Business

The second business in consideration belongs to the manufacturing sector, which is also known as secondary sector of the economy. The three basic types of resources in any organization consists of work resources, material resources and cost resources (Lee et al. 2013). The manufacturing sector faces many challenges while operation and those are required to be managed all the time using the principles of resource management. Product innovation is proving to be an increasing problem for the manufacturing sector. The business in consideration requires upgrading the equipment and ideas to manufacture updated products. Therefore, management of the tangible assets is important. The manufacturing industry is required to operate without affecting the environment. Environmental regulations and sustainability can prove expensive for the manufacturing sector. Effective cost management measures are required to be implemented by the organizations such as the one in consideration, which is a business in the lightweight sector. In addition, upgrading equipment helps in the reduction of production of waste expected to harm the environment. This procedure of management is classified under management of material resources. Furthermore, the strength of labour is low in the business considered who are mostly unskilled but can be trained on the job. Therefore, the principle of allocation is required to be followed here in order to manage human resource. The right task is needed to be allocated to the right person for best results and efficiency. In addition, the employers need to recognize and appreciate their effort and time for the work. They are needed to reward the employees over time to get a better outcome.

The third business in consideration belongs to the tertiary sector, more commonly known as the service industry.The mentioned business is of a large scale which is understandable from the level of human resource they have recruited to propagate their operations. However, the businesses in the tertiary sector face various types of problems, which require being solved using resource management (Simons 2013). The product of the tertiary sector is intangible in nature. Therefore, it is difficult to assert a valuation to the products of this sector. The service depends on the person providing it and hence proper recruitment of workforce and allocation is important. The mentioned company gives the employees proper training which enables them to perform better and be efficient. This might generate overhead costs for the company but will eventually be recovered through the service provided by the employee to the company. It is important for the company to reward the employees and recognize their effort. This helps the company to retain the employee and in turn increased revenue.The material resources required here are only the software, headsets and technology. In this case, the business needs to upgrade the technology in a regular interval of time for increasing revenue.

Manufacturing Business

All of the organizations irrespective of their sectors being primary, secondary or tertiary require considering similar principles of resource management for operating without a hindrance. Appropriate material resource management by investing into the latest technology and equipment required to accomplish the purpose of increase in revenue returns. Adequate human resource management by proper recruitment, allocation and appreciation of employees to increase the business operation of the company. Therefore, it is possible for businesses to achieve their targets in terms of operation, revenue and expansion by practicing resource management.

Physical resources are the elements a business required to operate. An absence or deficiency of physical resources leads to the inability of a business to pay the running cost and affects the recruitment of the employees. Commodities such as buildings, facilities, materials and waste, equipment, insurance and security are considered as elements of physical resources.

Monitoring the physical resources is important for any business. The process of monitoring includes encouraging team members to take responsibility for the usage of resources. It is important for a manager to ensure maximum efficiency of a physical resource with minimum adverse impact on the environment. A manager requires monitoring the quality of resources and ensuring that the standards of service and delivery of product are maintained (Alexander 2013).There are certain steps that are needed to be taken for monitoring the use of physical resources. It is required to be ensured that a team uses the resources efficiently and considers the possible impact on the environment. The quality of physical resources needs to be monitored in accordance with the organizational procedures. Methods that are reliable and observe the requirements of the organization are expected to be used to monitor the use of physical resources. In addition, monitoring the use of physical resources against a plan at regular intervals is also recommended (Smith and Wong 2016). Maintaining complete and accurate records that relate to the use of physical resources and are available to authorised personnel is recommended. An employer should also take action to minimize the effect of actual and potential risks. It is important to present details of the proposed change to the line manager, where improvements of service and delivery are identified. All of the above mentioned steps are applicable to industries from every sector. Specifically, the secondary and tertiary sector requires a majority of these steps in order to operate properly. The agricultural business being a part of the primary sector, only requires monitoring the use of equipment and machinery.

Tertiary Sector Business

In order to evaluate the wastage of physical resources, it is required to know about the resources itself first.The first business is an agricultural one where the physical resources are fertility of land, water, seeds for production and other inputs with tools of cultivation. The second business is of engineering (Barkemeyer et al. 2014). The resources are steel, raw materials, plants, manufacturing operations and system panels. The third business is of a call centre. The networks, tools and services related to information technology and the teams of experts constitute the resources of business. Wastage of resources always has a negative impact of performance and efficiency of business regardless of the type of business (Matofska 2014). The results of wastage of resources account to reduced sales, fewer measure of profitability, ineffective process of manufacturing and low employee morale.

The associated costs of technology and information technology related equipment is at a surge most of the time. The failure of such technologies can result to a huge financial loss for any organization irrespective of the sector it is operating.The companies are expected to suffer from several critical issues if they neglect their attention towards technology (Ucbasaran et al. 2013). If businesses do not pay attention to providing training to employees related to information technology, no arrangement is made for internet security, and cyber-crimes are ignored, they are expected to face losses in revenue to failure in technology.

Business ethics is defined as taking the right path of action to achieve the targets. There are several factors responsible for carrying out business ethically. They are production, business process and behaviour of business with its employees, consumers, suppliers, stakeholders and the communities in which it operates (Bringezu and Bleischwitz 2017). The ethics generally involve the integrity of the business, understanding the situations of business, unity, excellence and responsibility for the operations of the business.

Sustainability is defined as the arrangements made to ensure balanced approach for economic activity, accountability of environment and benefits of society. The sustainability of resources and ethics in business is compulsory in all the three types of mentioned businesses.

Planning of human resource in the workplace:

Planning of human resource is an important component of Strategic Human Resource Management.Planning connects with overall plans of strategy of business especially if it has to deal with service-oriented sector like call centres or business related to professional service. The importance of human resource is as important as the planning for decisions related to finance is required. In the first business, which is associated with agriculture sector, the work force plays an important role in products based on agriculture. Their trainings are important by conducting the general affairs of business (Hollenbeck, Noe and Gerhart 2018). The second business is of manufacturing steel. In this business, the immediate need of the managers and engineers cannot be negated, so the requirement for proper planning of human resource also prevails in this business. The last business is of service sector of telecom. The interruption of the human resource manager is mandatory because satisfaction of the customers with the services and not with products is required and generated through human resource?.

Application of theories of motivation to people at work:

The possession of motivated employees at their workplace helps in achieving the mission, organizational goals and objectives with ease. This is because motivated employees at their workplace show organizational citizenship behaviour. Whereas, demotivated employees show organizational deviant workplace behaviour. There are multiple theories and approaches to motivate the employees at their workplace (Miner 2015). The mentioned initiatives can prove helpful in motivating the employees. A proper system of wage and compensation with bonus and commission facility can be maintained. Ensuring the participation of the employees in the process of decision making should be encouraged. Every employee deserves a friendly environment at work. Adequate guidance an appreciation to the employees by assurance that their share of work is essential for the company. Assigning group tasks and setting parameters for evaluation of performance can help in the process of motivation (Huczynski, Buchanan and Huczynski 2013). Assuring job security to the employees help in motivating and retaining them. The employees should be provided with social and family benefits like social esteem and family insurance in order to motivate them.

Ways to monitor and improve employee performance:

There is a relation between motivation of employees and higher performance by them. If the employees are motivated enough, only then will they perform enthusiastically. This in turn will result to the overall increase in the performance of the organization. There are several tools to monitor the performance of the employees. The employer can set realistic level of expectation of the employees and reward them when they perform better. An employer requires to be transparent to the employees (Dweck 2013). the organizational decisions and important information must be conveyed to all of the employees of an organization. The employer should take constant feedback and also convey it to the other employees.

Effectiveness of reward systems:

It is important for an organization to reward the employees for their performance in order to keep them satisfied, motivated and retain them. Rewarding the employee is an effective tool of resource management. The motivation of the employees and reward are interrelated and interdependent upon each other. Motivation and reward are directly proportional in nature (Njanja et al. 2013). The effectiveness of reward system depends upon management and enhancement of employee relationships, in turn ensuring that their performance is improved. Rewards help in motivating the employees and in turn increasing the profitability of the organization.

Use of physical resources against performance measures and procedures:

The process of monitoring of the use of physical resources can be made possible if some practices are adopted by an organization. The employer needs to ensure each member of a team is accepting individual responsibility for effective utilization of physical resources. Monitoring the actual utilization of physical resources against the planned parameters at regular intervals. Ensuring the realistic, reliable and comparable nature of methods of measurement of usage of physical resources is required. Making sure that the teams use the physical resources efficiently and considering the environmental impacts that are possible on these resources.

Data analysis of employee performance:

The process of evaluation and ranking of the employee of an organization involves several factors. The data envelopment analysis approach (DEA) can be used to evaluate and improve the performance of the employees. This process identifies the underperforming employee and eliminates the lack of efficiencies occurring at the workplace (Carter et al. 2013). By the adoption of this approach of measurement, evaluation of ranking of employees based on their performance is possible. Other factors that indirectly affect the performance of the employees can be identified. It can be made sure that the target values are communicated properly to the underperformers. Suggestions of ways to improve employee performance for ensuring better results can be conducted through this approach.

Findings on the effective use of physical and human resources:

It is true that a business in possession of the latest technological and other physical resources will experience lack of growth if the resources are not managed properly. The businesses that are successful in determining the exact figure of human resource required to operate the organizational functions smoothly, flourish (Marler and Fisher 2013). In addition, the organizations that are able to determine the cost of annual investment along with the ratio of productive human resources against total available human resources, experience growth.

The root cause of inefficiency should be identified and conveyed to the higher management of an organization instead of blaming it on the employees. It is recommended to use a proper system of accountability. Excessive counselling of the employees are not recommended (Albrecht et al. 2015). Encouragement, motivation and occasional reward based on performance is recommended for better operations. Regular training of the employees to develop and enhance their skill level is also suggested. Lastly, organizing feedback sessions at regular intervals and taking corrective measures to improve efficiency is highly recommended. 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this paper touches the surface of an age-old concept that affects every aspect of life. This paper intended to talk about the factors responsible for adequate resource management in organization and also recommended ways to improve the situation. The paper takes examples of organizations belonging to different sectors of the economy and analyses and evaluates their operations. In this paper, the management requirements of organizations belonging to the three different sectors of the economy are analysed and outlined. Physical resources play an important role in the operation of any business. Hence, it is very important to use them effectively and efficiently. The importance of effective use of physical resources are discussed in this project. A company also requires monitoring the use of these resources for effective operation. The process of monitoring of these resources is discussed in this project which gives the company to look after and keep a check on the excessive use or wastage of these resources. Furthermore, the importance and impacts of the wastage of physical resources are discussed here, which allows the companies to be aware of the adversities and act on them accurately. Along with physical resources, human resource also plays a major role in the functioning of any organization. The effective use of human resource are discussed in this project.

References:

Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.

Alexander, K., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Barkemeyer, R., Holt, D., Preuss, L. and Tsang, S., 2014. What happened to the ‘development’in sustainable development? Business guidelines two decades after Brundtland. sustainable development, 22(1), pp.15-32.

Bringezu, S. and Bleischwitz, R., 2017. Sustainable resource management: global trends, visions and policies. Routledge.

Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.

Carter, M.Z., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S. and Mossholder, K.W., 2013. Transformational leadership, relationship quality, and employee performance during continuous incremental organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(7), pp.942-958.

Deakins, D., Bensemann, J. and Battisti, M., 2016. Entrepreneurial skill and regulation: Evidence from primary sector rural entrepreneurs. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 22(2), pp.234-259.

Dweck, C.S., 2013. Self-theories: Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Psychology press.

Fiorito, G., 2013. Can we use the energy intensity indicator to study “decoupling” in modern economies?. Journal of cleaner production, 47, pp.465-473.

Hollenbeck, J.R., Noe, R.A. and Gerhart, B.A., 2018. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill Education.

Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D.A. and Huczynski, A.A., 2013. Organizational behaviour (p. 82). London: Pearson.

Jackson, S.E., Schuler, R.S. and Jiang, K., 2014. An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), pp.1-56.

Jennings, B. and Stadler, R., 2015. Resource management in clouds: Survey and research challenges. Journal of Network and Systems Management, 23(3), pp.567-619.

Lee, J., Lapira, E., Bagheri, B. and Kao, H.A., 2013. Recent advances and trends in predictive manufacturing systems in big data environment. Manufacturing Letters, 1(1), pp.38-41.

Manvi, S.S. and Shyam, G.K., 2014. Resource management for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in cloud computing: A survey. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 41, pp.424-440.

Marler, J.H. and Fisher, S.L., 2013. An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 23(1), pp.18-36.

Matofska, B., 2014. What is the sharing economy. The people who share, 444.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Njanja, L.W., Maina, R.N., Kibet, L.K. and Njagi, K., 2013. Effect of reward on employee performance: A case of Kenya Power and Lighting Company Ltd., Nakuru, Kenya. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(21), p.41.

Renwick, D.W., Redman, T. and Maguire, S., 2013. Green human resource management: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 15(1), pp.1-14.

Simons, M., 2013. The future of the tertiary sector workforce: a kaleidoscope of possibilities?. Structures in tertiary education and training: A kaleidoscope or merely fragments, pp.36-47.

Smith, L.C. and Wong, M.A. eds., 2016. Reference and Information Services: An Introduction: An Introduction. ABC-CLIO.

Ucbasaran, D., Shepherd, D.A., Lockett, A. and Lyon, S.J., 2013. Life after business failure: The process and consequences of business failure for entrepreneurs. Journal of Management, 39(1), pp.163-202.