Responsibilities of a Team in Managing Resources - Assignment Example

Resource Planning Introduction Working in groups may be very interesting-especially if the group members work together. Nevertheless, if the members work in opposite directions, the entire process may be awful. Without enough direction, the focus of the team on its objectives may be diverted. This translates to the use of organization resources. If a team pulls apart in different directions, there is a tendency for the misuse of resources and the organization may face severe consequences. The team, therefore, should be aware of its responsibilities with regards to the management of resources. 1.1 Responsibilities of a team in managing resources The team has a collective leadership role of working towards the achievement of the organization’s mission, vision and strategic goals. The organization has to make use of its resources to achieve its objectives. Therefore, the team has to ensure that the group members aim at attaining the set standards by making proper use of the resources to avoid wastage. The team acts as the organization’s ambassadors. The team together with the stakeholders and the board develop strategies for future operations and give recommendations on the appropriate course of actions in the management of resources. More often, management of resources depends on the recommendations of the team-leaders and leadership of the organization. Team plays a critical role ensuring that it gives relevant information on the management of resources. It also keeps an eye on the progress of the organization in its operation. It acts as a watch-dog on how the organization operates and making use of its resources. Constant monitoring of the organization ensures those resources are used appropriately and wastage is reduced significantly. Lastly, the team has a duty of advising the management team on the proper use of resources. There is no doubt that most managers cannot manage the organization effectively without the help of other staff and groups. These are the information sources on how the organization can be managed. The team, advice on particular areas the organization can do to manage its resources effectively. 1.2 Components of a plan that manages team’s use of resources Resource plan is a document that explains the aim and purpose of the team, how it operates as well as the expected outcomes. They are simply the ‘roadmaps’ that ensures that the organization achieves its goals. Most importantly, this plan ensures that the organization uses its resources as intended thus achieving its objectives. Although the organization may face challenges, it provides a guideline on how to make use of the available resources and attain its success. To minimize the possibilities of getting off the road, it has to come up with a resource plan to ensure it achieves its objectives. This will help the team to concentrate on the right things from the word go. Nevertheless, coming up with the team resource management plan comes in different forms but the components are merely the same. These are: Context This is an overview of the whole plan. It gives information on why and how the team was initiated, the issues it is trying to address, how these issues fit in with the entire organizational objectives and the effects if the issues are not addressed. Essentially, these are resource management issues. Mission and objectives This is the heartbeat of the plan. By providing a clear definition of the mission, the team will be aware of what it has to accomplish. Without a clearly defined mission, team members may pursue their agendas. The objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound) Composition and Roles The effectiveness of the team is measured when individual members have definite roles. Members will have time to contribute ideas on management practices in various levels of operation. Team members have different roles to play in ensuring proper management of resources. Each department, for instance, have its roles to do. Authority and Boundaries This defines the mandate for all the team members and their limits. Team will execute its operations without fear of intimidation having known its limits of operation. Resources and Support This part enlists the available resources for the team so as to achieve its goals. This includes time, people, equipment and budgets. In connection with the performance assessment, making the desired changes to the resources needed ought to be frequently monitored. Apart from this, it also gives details of training and support programs available for the team to carry out its duties effectively. Operations This provides an outline on how the team will work on the daily duties. It can be detailed or minimal as long as the situation allows. It may also be broad and detailed especially for long-term team or brief for short-life team. 1.3 Impact of environment and legal factors on the team resource plan Factors that might affect the team resource plan in any organization include the external environment. External environment comprises of two parts directly interactive and indirectly interactive. Directly interactive-it is an environment that has direct and firsthand impact upon a team or an organization. These forces include employees, employee unions and the owners. In this case, employee and their trade unions provide the labor force and the representation of the representation of employee issues to the management. The owners of the company expect the management to take care of their interests within the organization and deliver return on investments. Indirectly interactive-this forms part of secondary environment and does not have immediate effect upon the team and the entire organization. New legislation being effected may cause some great impact. For instance, complying with the disabilities Act requires that every organization should have facilities that are friendly to people with disabilities. Some of the indirectly interactive forces include political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, legal and global forces. These indirectly interactive forces may affect the performance of a team in one way or another. For instance, socio-cultural dimension is very important since it determines the values to be held by the team. In most cases, socio-cultural factors comprise of demographics and values of a given group. Demographics comprises of the team, group or people characteristics that make up societal values. Gender, age and income are commonly used examples of de3mographic characteristics that are commonly used. On the other hand, political and legal environment comprises of regulatory parameters in which a team or organization operates. Political parties have some influence on laws, therefore, business owners and team members have to abide by these laws. Some of the examples that might affect the team or organizational performance include trade regulations, tax policies and minimum wage legislation 2.1 How information obtained impacts on changes to resource requirements Reliable information is very necessary for obtaining the desired results. Resource planning requires reliable information to reduce the error of over or to underestimate the costs to be incurred. Although the trends of the organization keep changing, reliable sources should be maintained. However, change of information, especially if not anticipated, may limit the organization from meeting its requirements. Information from electronic sources is very important in an organization. This is because they shape the business strategies and their operations. The use of electronic mails and groupware have created commendable change especially in the way information flows from one group/team to another or between them and their clients. Such information is very swift and in case where there are slight changes, it is very easy amend. This reduces wastage of resources and builds a good organization culture. On the other hand, management processes depends on the information from other leaders. For instance, in the figure below, customer relies on information from f1, and f1 relies on f2. As long as the chain exists, each part contributes towards the other. If there is a change in resource requirements, customers will depend on f1 for information, all under the process coordinator. In the end, information will have reached all the parties. 2.2 Trends and developments that affect resources Since time in memorial, organizational performance is affected by various external and internal factors. These factors are a result of dynamism of the world that surrounds the business. Of late, there are several trends and developments that influence the resources of the organization. As a result, an organization should adopt change when new trends and development arise so as to remain unaffected. Some of the trends are related to political, technological, economic and social set ups. Trends Effects Political- Increase in political stir up in an organization may affect the rate at which resources are used. Political dilemma limits effective resource utilization and misuse of resources. Political matters give powers to team leaders in an organization thus shaping the utility of the resources Economic Economic related issues and developments pull resources together for the achievement of the objectives. In fact, stable economic status attracts other investors to put their resources in the organization. On the other hand, low economic status forces the organization to use a lot of resources to regain its operational levels. Social Social development has developed drastically and influences the use of resources. The use of social media e.g., Facebook and twitter has captured the attention of several people. These developments incur extra resources for the organization. Technological The developments of new technologies influence how resources are being used. The use of mechanization and internet has reduced wastage of resources and save time. The use of machines has enhanced team spirits since members interact and transact online. 2.3 Impact of resource change on the team’s objectives Change is the only constant in the life of a team, especially nowadays where the world is very dynamic. In essence, change is part the constant part of resource management. If a team does not understand the reasons why change is done, it may lose direction and fail attain its targets. When the team is implementing change, communication has to be conveyed to reduce the resistivity of the affected members. Resource change brings about restructuring of the organization. This brings forth to new departments, while others are fused. This may force some team members to be moved from one section to another thus unity of the team may be compromised. Due to both external and internal sources of resource change, objectives may be hard to achieve. On the other hand, restructuring as a result of the change calls for new decisions to hire or fire other team members, managers and generally how work is done. The initial bargaining powers of various groups within the organization are weakened by thus difficulty in attaining the set objectives. Alternatively, resource change may allow like-minded people to meet and work jointly towards better outcomes. The organization may realize big scores for this change. On the other hand, some of the external events that cause resource change results in the formulation of new policies and actions that may trigger reactions within the entire organization. More often, teams react positively to such changes because it unites the workers, executives and the managers to work with a common goal of attaining the organizational objectives. 3.1The need to monitor and record the use of resources Monitoring and recording of resources provides an opportunity for team members to personal responsibility and accountability to effective use of resources. In most occasions, lack of good records and close monitoring leads to members misusing the resources. People tend to be reckless and senseless when using them because they are not held responsible. As a result, there is a tendency of environmental degradation. Disposal of wastes, and improper use of materials leads to pollution of the environment and human health is at risk. For inventory purposes, organizations will account for their assets and other inventories. At any given time, the organization will tell how much resources should be invested, and which sections requires more attention. For instance, if one department has deficit of stationeries and others have more, it can easily make orders since the records show how they have been used. In fact, records are used to communicate the position of the organization. Monitoring and keeping records of resources helps in reducing operation costs. Frequent purchases of unaccountable resources are greatly reduced since records show when, how and why they should be purchased. More often, organization spend a lot of money buying materials and equipment which are not accountable in the hands of employees due to poor record keeping. The need to take immediate corrective actions to reduce the effects of future potential risks call for close monitoring and record use of resources. Some measures need exclusive evaluation so as to give relevant solutions. It becomes cheap to take preventive measures than corrective measures. This can only be achieved by monitoring and recording of resources. Quality of service is at the heart any organization. Every organization strives to offer quality products and services all the time so as to remain competitive in the market. This calls for constant monitoring of all the processes. Any inspection done is recorded to aid in taking the correct measures. 3.2 Importance of recording relevant and accurate information and using records to plan for future resource requirements Success of any organization mostly relies on accurately kept and up-to-date records. Every organization, therefore, should realize that relevant records are very important management tools and should be accorded due importance. While organizations keep records and monitor them for their daily business activities, they are very good due to the obligations under state laws. Record keeping helps the organization to prepare financial statements very fast and precisely. Usually, big organizations find hard to draw financial statements due to large volumes of cash they operate in. planning for the subsequent budgets will rely entirely on the previous operations and this is only possible due to proper records. Records also help in providing relevant information that enables the organization take control of its resources in the business. Furthermore, recording helps the organization prioritize its activities by allocating enough time and money to resources that are very important and giving more attention. It is also a source of management information for the organization that aids in making sound business decisions. Lastly, the organization can use relevant records to monitor its future trends and make necessary adjustments. This includes having the necessary resources to curb upcoming challenges. Reflective statement Resource planning is very important for every organization. If an organization wants to achieve the best results, I think it should plan well how it uses its resources. Ever since, organizations have kept their records, but I am interested in how they keep them. In fact, most of them keep without making any reference to them, especially when all is working well. When I was employed as a casual worker in one company, I realized how it managed its resources and the use of teamwork. I really enjoyed how the organization disintegrated the central duties to various groups to facilitate effective resource management. I totally concurred with the use of resource plan in providing guidelines on how various teams can work towards managing organization resources. Resource planning helps me to be accountable and responsible for my actions. It arouses an attention and inner drive to be sensitive of the others and the environment. It helps me identify the gaps that organizations have left in managing resources and possibly how they can manage their resources effectively. In essence, it calls for combined efforts for all the members, including you and me. Finally, the dynamics in the world should be appreciated. In most cases, we are rigid to accept change, even positive change. I should take the lead to embrace change towards implementing effective use of resources. Above all, we all have a duty to plan and monitor how we use our resources before we are held accountable in organizations and people we work with. Bibliography Bret, Wagner, and Monk Ellen. Enterprise Resource Planning. Cengage Learning EMEA, 2008. Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah. Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions and Management. Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2002. Leon, Alexis. Enterprise Resource Planning. London: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2008. Read More