Resourcing Strategies

Term Paper , 2009 , 9 Pages , Grade: 2,0

Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance

The available resources for organisations are people, knowledge, finance and technology (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008: 474).
‘Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations’ (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008: 3). There is an interaction between resources and organisational strategy. The resources can create new strategies, while the strategy provides the framework for the capability of the resources. The success can be enabled by changing the resources to fit the strategy and by developing unique resources to build new strategies on it. In both cases the resources have to be managed efficiently to enable strategic success.
For an organisation it is important to be aware of the adjustment between overall business strategy and strategies concerning the resources (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Definition
1.2 Correlation between resource management and strategic success

2. Managing People
2.1 People as a resource
2.2 People and behaviour
2.3 Organising people

3. Managing Information

4. Managing Finance
4.1 Managing for value
4.2 Funding strategy development
4.3 Financial expectations of stakeholders

5. Managing Technology
5.1 Development of technology
5.2 Responsibility for technological development
5.3 Consequences for managers

6. Conclusion

7. References

Table of Figures

Figure 1: BCG-Portfolio

Figure 2: Porter's Five Forces

1. Introduction

1.1 Definition

The available resources for organisations are people, knowledge, finance and technology (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008: 474).

‘Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a changing environment and to fulfil stakeholder expectations’ (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008: 3).

1.2 Correlation between resource management and strategic success

There is an interaction between resources and organisational strategy. The resources can create new strategies, while the strategy provides the framework for the capability of the resources. The success can be enabled by changing the resources to fit the strategy and by developing unique resources to build new strategies on it. In both cases the resources have to be managed efficiently to enable strategic success.

For an organisation it is important to be aware of the adjustment between overall business strategy and strategies concerning the resources (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008).

2. Managing People

Managing people is a key factor for the success of an organisation. Everything that is done within an organisation depends on people. Technology, knowledge and finance are important, but people are those who exploit them (Thompson 2001: 471). People are a special kind of resource because they are sensitive to enthusiasm, leadership and shared decision making. Therefore, a human resource analysis is essential during the process of creating the corporate strategy (Lynch 2003: 253). This should be about the informal ways of people’s behaviour, formal systems and procedures, development of people as a resource, deriving advantage of people’s cultural and political context and organising people (Johnson and Scholes 2002).

Every company, independent of having a HR function or not, should think about the dimensions of strategy referring to people. These dimensions are:

- people as a reserve,
- people and behaviour and
- need to organise people.

2.1 People as a resource

Just having people employed does not mean having strategic success. The resource has to be managed, and in the case of people as a resource motivation is needed as well. This is why it is often called performance management. People as a resource is the hard side of human resource management. It involves audits, goal-setting, performance assessment, rewards, recruitment and retention as well as training and development (Johnson and Scholes 2002: 480-481). People are seen as a resource, which has to be used efficiently and effective. The aim should be to use the personal and organisational competences better than the competitor (Thompson 2001: 472).

2.2 People and behaviour

People and behaviour is the soft side of human resource management. It is more about leading people rather than managing them. People are seen as part of a team. The approach assumes that trust is more important than control and that people have to be involved in decisions and informed about strategies and mission (Thompson 2001: 472).

Even though the approaches are contrary, an organisation can combine both approaches of HR management (Thompson 2001: 472).

2.3 Organising people

People can be organised by the HR function, by middle line managers and by structures. For a successful organisation people are supposed to be a central aspect and therefore a central concern of managers. Leaving all aspects of HR to the middle line managers would end in overstrained managers. Therefore, HR function should act as a service provider, regulator, advisor and change agent. The structures and processes give the framework for organising people. For strategic success it is therefore essential that these structures and processes are up-to-date and match future strategies.

Only those organisations having HR strategies matching with its corporate strategy and understanding the relationship between business and human resource strategies are able to be competitive (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008: 478­480).

3. Managing Information

Managing information has a strong bound to managing people. On the one hand people have knowledge, which is important for the organisation and on the other hand people need information for their work. Information can be seen as the fuel in the decision making process (Thompson 2001: 486-487). For an organisation it is therefore essential to have an effective information system as part of the corporate strategy (Lynch 2003: 402).

From the perspective of strategy the ability of editing information (through information systems and IT) supports the progress of knowledge creation and spreading within and around an organisation. Strategy, information systems and IT are linked to each other (Johnson and Scholes 2002: 491). The main connections are:

- Strategic capability and information

Having the right information in the right moment at the right place enables organisations to achieve competitive advantage. This can be achieved by IT capabilities allowing the organisation to provide good service performance, which is valued by customers.

- Information and changing business models

The ability of organisations to process information has changed their ways of interaction and lead to new business models. Considering the strategic aspect it is interesting if these new models give an organisation the chance to create better value for money.

- Information and structures

For managers it is important to understand that the ability to process information can change the organisation and therefore has influence on structures and processes (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008).

By using information efficiently an organisation can create competitive advantage and the skill to reach new customers, but the organisation has to be aware of the fact that this might only be temporary (Lynch 2003: 404).

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• College: Coventry University
• Grade: 2,0
• Publication Year: 2009
• Pages: 9
• Catalog Number: V134344
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640425877
• ISBN (Book): 9783640422869
• Language: English
• Tags: Resourcing, Strategies