Why Organizations Must Secure Continual Resources
By
Kai McLemore
Columbia Southern University
MBA6001

Abstract
If an organization is going to succeed, it must depend upon its resources, core competencies, and capabilities. These just happen to be the foundation of competitive advantage. The organization’s resources are structured towards organizational capabilities. This paper will discuss how an organization must compete for resources along with the concerns and cost of securing these resources. This paper will also cover how resource attainment differs with the organization itself, and not set on one set of standards, to include the organization’s environment.

An organization’s success will depend on a variety of things but heavily relies on three main areas of concern; resources, core competencies, and capabilities. These are the base of any organization’s competitive advantage over their adversaries. These capabilities are the baseline of the organization’s core competencies which will ultimately put the organization ahead in the competition (Dess, Lumpkin, & Eisner, 2009). The invention of competitive advantage establishes that most important aspect of competition is ultimately related within the leadership of organizational resources. The word resource covers a wide range of social, organizational, and individual sensations. When an organization relies solely on resources, they are failing themselves. Resources itself does not lead toward an advantage over their competitors because it must rely on a various source of resources. A prime example of this would be Amazon.com. They provide a variety of services and products which are distributed in a means that has an advantage over competitors. An organization can classify its resources into two large categories: tangible and intangible resources. For an organization to have the advantage over the competitor it must have full management over its resources. Part of this would be to secure a supply of resources that are continuous from the environments within the organization and must be able to achieve of the objectives and goals placed before the organization. At the conception of an organization, it is imperative that the resources be stabilized into a pattern that is ingrained within the organizational employees (Dess, Lumpkin, & Eisner, 2009). This paper will provide the significance of an organization’s resources and the topics that relate the resources with the management of resources. This paper will also reveal how organizations must compete for the necessary resources along with the costs of securing these resources, to include the consequences of obtaining and maintaining these resources. This paper will also explore how important it is for organizational resources are attained along with the verities available. Lastly, the organization must be able to adjust or revamp based on the type of organization and the organization’s environment.

Why an Organization Needs Continual Supply of Resources
When one mentions organizational resources to management, they are referring to the organizations structure, systems, and procedures. These areas will allow information flow which will encourage the members within the organization. Now, let’s look at the resources within an organization. These include but are not limited to: employees, finances, management systems, control systems, planning, organization policies, and of course the organizations culture (Edelman, Brush, & Manolova, 2002).
All of the above mentioned resources are normally classified into either tangible or intangible resources. In order for an organization to achieve, maintain, and exceed competitive advantage, both of these must be present and considered essential within the organization lifestyle. Items that can be touched, seen, or measured are labeled as tangible resources, whereas intangible resources are not touched, seen (except through actions), or measured. As an example, the beliefs and or unwritten practices that are part of the organization’s way of life and as a norm, cannot be copied by other organizations (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). Without both tangible and intangible resources, the organization has very limited ability to succeed. Organizational management must really conduct a more in-depth view of the various resources in each of these areas. They must be reviewed in order to be understood, accepted, and reached in order for organization success.
Tangible Resources Tangible resources are assets in a physical form. They include current assets and fixed assets. Current assets include inventory and money. Buildings, land, machinery, and vehicles are sources of fixed assets. However, all of these assets will fall under one of the following tangible resources and are essential to the organization’s success: * Technological Resources: Items as in trademarks, copyrights, patents, and advanced technology fit into this category (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2009). Technology that will be readily available to the managers of an organization that will assist in the operations and allow the organization to remain the cutting edge of the industry. * Organizational Resources: This is basically the formal chain of command or structure of the organization. This includes coordinating, monitoring of systems, planning, and controlling of the structure (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). * Financial Resources: Very simple, the organization’s ability to borrow funds and how they are able to create/generate funds from within. * Physical Resources: All about location and the organization’s facilities. How does the organization receive their materials and how they are able to convert this material into a finished product that is wanted by the consumer?
Intangible Resources Intangible resources are brought into the organization without really knowing. They are practices, beliefs, knowledge, trust, image, and communication between the organization’s employees and managers. It is a vision of how the organization wants the community, to include its target customers and competitors to see itself (Ryall & Craig, 2003). Customers and resource suppliers are also considered intangible resources because the organization cannot physically control or fully manage these resources. However, for an organization, the following are the most important intangible resources and the organization relies on these for full success: * Human Resources: Trust and professional relationships between managers and employees. Being able to perform duties and or taskings within their capabilities. Members of the organization must be able to work as a team, step in where needed without hesitation, open communication and trust with leadership and other employees, and realizing that the environment is ever changing (Edelman, Brush, & Manolova, 2002) * Reputational Resources: This is a process that can take years to create. Building a reputation that wants customers to repeat services with the organization. In building the organization’s reputation, the organization must look at the customers and their perception about the organization’s product(s), the products themselves being of quality and of brand/well-known name, and of course the reliability of the organization and their products. Once the organization has been established and has respectable reputation, the suppliers, employees, and customers alike can benefit (Ryall & Craig, 2003). * Innovation Resources: This is a very important intangible resource to the organization. This includes the organization’s ideas and capabilities to excel within a highly competitive environment. Without this, the customers will find new places to conduct business because of the ever changing world and all about the latest and greatest on the market.
An organization must be able to classify the two types of resources and utilize to their fullest extent. Ensuring that both types of resources are continually available is extremely important for the organization’s vision and mission success. One must understand that the organization cannot have only one of the two types of resources and be successful. Tangible resources provide the foundation for organizational goals execution and it is essential to the products success (Barney, 1991). In present day society and the extremely ever changing technology, ensuring that your resources are constantly being updated is vital to the success of the organization and without them. However, one must look at the consequences and cost of obtaining these resources.
Consequences and Cost of Obtaining Resources
With all of the coverage of essential organization resources, it has become apparent that an organization must have continual supply of resources in order to survive. But the level of survivability goes another layer deep. The next layer is being able to juggle the mixture of resources upon initial creation of the organization. Upon the start-up of the organization, it must be able to handle all of the issues that are related with the organization process (Harrison & St John, 2009). However, even with all of the issues that the organization must confront, the most important issue is the management of the organization resources so that these resources will be utilized to the maximum possible manner (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). If the organization ensures they have the best possible mixture of resources it will surely create effective and utmost quality products which will ultimately meet or exceed customer expectations (Barney, 1991). When this happens, the organization will see effective marketing of its products, which fulfills the requirements of the customers and in turn, the customers will establish lasting relationships with the organization along with spread the organization’s name.
Once the initial level of mix of resources has been accepted by the organization, the next important step is to ensure every employee member is on board with the core competencies. This will ultimately drive the organization to higher levels which lead to an advantage over the competition (Anderson, 2010). The only way an organization can attain full success is for the organization to ensure they have the best mixture of resources (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2009). But this appropriate mixture of resources cannot just be received by management, it must also be received, acknowledge, and practiced by all employees.
In order for the organization to achieve the advantage over their competitors, it must ensure that the resources they have adopted have attributes. These attributes are essential for success: * The resources must be easily copied by anyone. Should the competitor get ahold of the organization’s resources plans, it would lead to the demise of the organization. * The resources that are employed must be of distinction with the organization’s future and present competition. * All resources must have value. Wasted resources (those without value) are wasted time upon those that are instilling the resource. This statement is in reference that all employees should be able to have access to and utilization of the opportunities that is within the organization. The employee must also be able to identify and ensure existing threats are handled immediately.
When the organization has the above mentioned attributes, it will become effective and secure the advantage over their competitors. Once the organization has identified and initiated the required intangible resources it must begin the task of obtaining the required tangible resources.
How Organizations Compete for Resources Competition gets tougher day by day which is why some organizations just cannot handle the stress and end up going under and closing their doors. Competition is not just for customers but for resources as well. Unfortunately, an organization faces competition from customers, competition, but also internal and external pressures are present. These internal and external pressures have actually shown that more organizations are relying more heavily on their intangible resources for success. However they are also noting that relying on these intangible resources is harder than previous thought. Due to the changing of times, organizations are finding themselves utilizing the theory of resource-based view (The Internal Environment: A Resource Based View of Strategy, n.d.). Theory of resourced-base view has been around for a very long time but has resurfaced due to the increasing threat of competition. This theory deals is associated with the competitive environment which is confronted by the organization by looking from the inside-out. Basically, the organization takes a hard look at their own internal resources and then formulates a strategy that will project them over their competitors (Clulow, Barry, & Gerstman, 2007). When the organization utilizes this theory, it finds it easier to concentrate on the internal capabilities to include the resources that are required to create the advantage over their competitors. This theory helps the organization understand the relationship between competitive advantage, customers’ values, and the impeccable performance, making decisions about which vital resources are required for success along with ideas on how to secure these resources. Once the organization is able to reach this point, they will be able to improve and cause resources to be pulled in easily. For example, reputation of an organization will draw more skilled, developed, and educated employees, ultimately pulling in better, more committed employees.
In today’s economic crisis, working for an organization that has a healthy environment which draws from their intangible resources is a huge plus for any employee. Most employees desire to work for an organization that takes pride in their name and products, which causes the employees to take pride in their work and having a sense of ownership. This all ultimately allows the organization to be more selective and hire employees who have experience and commitment towards their employer. On the flip side, when an organization becomes stable and is able to demonstrate and prove their worth, tangible resources will be more readily available along with a lower cost compared with their competitors, ultimately being able to give back to the customers by providing impeccable customer service (Rose, Abdullah, & Ismad, 2010). Even with all of the advantages that an organization can receive once established and proven it must still compete for resources. To do this, the organization must contemplate the specific attributes along with the resource availability and attainment.
Various Ways for Resource Attainment When one references resource attainment, they are referring to how an organization achieves the required organizational resources. Every organization is different in how they will obtain these resources depending upon the type of organization. With each organization facing their own precise type or formation to include their exclusive environment, they must realize and understand all of the affects that they have on the process (Wilk & Fensterseifer, 2003). The organization must also realize that there will be other significant aspects will and can affect the organizations’ resource achievement process and this normally falls within the organization’s stage of development. Realizing that the organization will go through several various stages of development is important to the success of the organization and instills organizational value (Dobson, Starkey, & Richards, 2004). There are two main ways for an organization to attain and secure resources:
Business Oriented Resource Attainment When an organization utilizes the business oriented means of resource attainment, they are looking at the needs of the organization. The first step is for the organization to sit back and review all available resources and place them into categories. These categories are classified in various schemes such as knowledge asset, resources based strategic approach, or intellectual capital (Aaltonen, Tuikkala, & Saloheimo, 2007). When the organization is using this means, they must realize the imperativeness in being able to identify the factors that are considered critical along with being able to realize the critical resources as well.
Resource Attainment Using Semantic Spaces A totally different approach is taking time to develop the techniques within the semantic spaces provided. This is also known as cross-organizational resources and which allows all essential resources to be identified and then acquired. No one set way or model is utilized, thus allowing a variety of ways or means for success. This approach would be best fitted for an organization that has multiple business interest (Aaltonen, Tuikkala, & Saloheimo, 2007). The process of attaining the resources will vary depending on which stage of development they are in. This is primarily due to the fact that every stage has different approaches, leading to the various levels of organizational effectiveness. From cradle to grave, the organization will adopt a various level of strategy for running the organization and this too will affect the resources; however, the good thing is that each level of development does not require the same type of resources (Finlay, 2000). The various stages will take the organization through the what’s, whens, where’s, and whys of resources, starting with the initial stage being more about tangible resources versus intangible ones. As the organization progresses to the last and final stage, they are merely looking at various ways to change or improve. This is the stage where the various department heads come together to determine which restructure or change is best for the organization. All of this is completed with one single focus, competitive edge and advancement over their competitors.
Conclusion
After this review, one can most definitely state that organizational resources are extremely important to the final outcome of the desired statement: success over their adversaries. These resources are important when it comes to the management of the organization. For an organization to maintain the competitive edge over their competitors the organization must secure supplies that are continual and from environments that are secure, trusted, and valued in the eyes of the consumers/customers (Aldrich, 1999). The organization must be aware that the upfront resources will be a mixture of tangible and intangible resources but mainly tangible and as it progresses through the various stages of development, it will come to the point of success and desire to then utilize the resources that can and will increase productivity, customer data base, and put them way ahead of their competitors. The main focus has to be on focus, patience, study, and utilizing your intangible resources to the fullest extent until the first few stages are complete. This will all give the organization the advantage over their competitors. Lastly, this paper provided the foundation of how resources and their attainment will depend upon the type of organization, the organizational environment, and the development stages of the organization.

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