Needs Assessment and Managerial Strategies - Essay Example

Needs Assessment and Managerial Strategies

Human resources are basically less tangible resources that normally originate internally and constitutes personal attributes and character. Some of this human resources are more tangible than the others. They are usually used within an organization for production purposes. Human resources play an essential and crucial role of creating a successful and satisfied individual. The overall potential and associated benefit of human resources are not always realized and at some time overlooked. Some of the essential human resources are abilities, skills, knowledge, attitude, interest and energy. On the other hand non-human resources are also well-known as material resources. They are always easily identified and essential when it comes to the achievement of each and every organization goal. Non-human resources entails everything that is owned by an organization both internally and externally. The essential non-human resources includes time, capital, technology, facilities, services, goods and community facilities (Guest, 1987).

Management can be defined as a set of standard utilization of both human and non-human resource in order to effectively and efficiently achieve the intended organization goals. These processes comprise of organizing, planning, controlling and leading with an aim of utilizing and achieving the very best from the available resources. Planning is always all about analyzing the existing situations and circumstances, defining goals, forecasting the future, determining the resources requires as well as establishing a standard strategy. Organizing entails coordinating the available resources by clearly understanding what tasks needs to be accomplished, distributing resources to different human resource character as well as allocating tasks. Leading will entail the overall enhancement of performance by directing people to do certain task. Motivating and communicating is essential in this managerial task. Controlling is actually monitoring activities to run as planned and making necessary modifications. However the discussed above are not at all the only responsibilities of managers, they as well need to perform other crucial managerial roles, apply standard management perspectives as well as deal with management challenges (Gomez-Mejia et al., 1995). In order to effectively analyze and evaluate the needs of an organization as well as managerial strategies various human and non-human resources will be discussed.

One of the human resources is knowledge. Knowledge is an essential human resource use by an individual within an organization to select what is the best for an organization at the moment and what should come later. It is used in regard to purchasing and sell of organizations good, assets and services. It is a vital human resource within an organization. The other human resource offered to an organization is ability and skills. They are essential resources when it comes to the achievement of goals within an organization. Some of the skills offered by this human resource can be learned or inherited. Another human resource vital in an organization is Interest. Different members within an organization poses different types of interest. All those interests should be fully developed and made of use for the benefit of the company. Interest to do a certain thing within an organization may be essential when it comes to increase of sales within an organization without increase in production cost. Attitudes are always feeling and opinions that can lead to a certain essential action. This makes them an essential human resource tool. Men with positive attitudes becomes the most productive resource within an organization while those with negative attitude requires to be changed in different ways. Energy is as well a human resource. It is defined as the ability to do work. When the existing energy of various members of organization is well utilized, there is the achievement of the organization goals (Ahmed, Sang, & Torbica, 2003).

Alternatively, non-human resources are very essential in an organization. One of the non-human resources is time. Time is always a resource that is available and in equal amount with each and every member of the staff. Every staff has twenty four hours to complete a certain task. Any form of delay should be discouraged by the management for effective utilization of time resource. Another resource under this category is capital. It is the purchasing power of any organization for efficient run. It can be easily exchanged for goods and services. It is used as capital project to run projects that leads to the success of an organization. New trends in technology makes the resource an essential part of organization. With the existing level of technology, the production cost has greatly reduced and sales maximized. There is property resource or facilities within the organization. They forms what an organization owns as fixed asset. Some of the assets can be considered as human or non-human. Good and services can be as well considered as non-human resources within an organization. Revenue generated from their sales within the organization can be used to run other forms of production within an organization. All of this resources should be well monitored and utilized using effective managerial practices for the realization of organization success (Wright et al., 1994).

Business projects always range from analyzing the financial accessibility of completing projects all the way to fully planning for an international expansion. There is need to evaluate capital projects rationale in order to understand why a project should be well funded by the management. The rationale is usually a part of proposal in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. One of the rationale for capital project need is the evaluation of financing multiple projects. A company may at some point decide whether to fund development and research of a new product as well as acquire a new competitor with similar commodity for sale. The common evaluation tool are present value and the payback period of the product. The other rationale is basically technology evaluation of the existing competing technology solutions. A certain company may be carefully selecting a number of software and hardware for its next products generation (Ahmed, Sang, & Torbica, 2003). The senior manager of the organization may establish a project team to fully evaluate the existing alternative and recommend the most effective and efficient technology tool that requires funding. Another justification for capital need is business expansion. Companies are always venturing into new avenues for revenue generation. They are constantly looking for growth opportunities. For start-up business, they may develop new ideas into products, increase sales into existing products as well as exploring new products. The company may fund projects to fully evaluate the existing project needs and strategic alternatives (Wang & Burris, 1997).

There are various problems that arise when conducting needs assessment and managerial strategies within an organization. One of the problems that arises is acquiring false information during the needs assessment. Wrong information leads to wrong interpretation of data. It is necessary for those giving needs assessment to offer confidential information. Another problem that affects needs assessment is failure to involve the clients assessed in all the three phases of the needs assessment. This entails gathering information, analyzing the information and creating a training plan. It is necessary to fully involve the assessment procedures and tasks to all the clients for efficient need tabulation. Customers or staff members may be unwilling to spend their precious time completing an interview or survey (Tallis, 2008). One needs to increase participants involved in the information gathering for the purpose of acquiring the most effective data. It is necessary to promote the purpose of the survey with managers and supervisors. Cost of conducting the needs assessment and managerial strategies may be insufficient. This leads to possible delays towards the accomplishment of the needs assessment program. This leads to delayed implementation of the actual needs within the organization. It is necessary to implement procedures and practices that do not require a lot of funds for effective conduct of needs and assessment (Tallis, 2008).