Resource Management

Resource Management

Introduction

Understanding and managing an organization's resources and budget is critical to the success of an organization. As a Chief of Finance of a newly established branch in local government's disaster relief organization there is a huge responsibility of managing organization's resources and budget. It is important to determine individuals and or sections of the organization that would need to me met to fulfill this objective (Ahuja, 2000). Some other things that require careful consideration are fiscal processes used by the organization, organization's financial health and the contracting process.

Discussion

In managing and understanding an organization's budget, meeting with key organizational personnel is compulsory (Nepal, 1995). Key organizational stakeholders include the strategic and managerial layer of the organization. For a disaster relief organization scarcity of resources and their mismanagement can be lethal. At times of a disaster, resources need to be in sufficient quantity so that relief work can be carried out with effectiveness. Their mismanagement may mean their shortage or unavailability when they are needed the most.

Among key individuals that I would need to interact with as a Chief of Finance are the top senior management as this is where guidance and direction comes for. Undoubtedly it is the Board and senior management that are charged with governance process and have the ultimate responsibility to oversee things. State run organizations such as a disaster relief organization is mostly dependent of grants and budgets allocated by the State. Hence it is very important to gain an understanding of how much monetary resource are provided by the State for smooth functioning of the organization. Second tier of stakeholders that needed to me met are the managerial layer that comprise of people that are responsible for using the budget and plan things accordingly. Ideally a top-up budgeting and resource allocating process should be followed which means that users of budget are allowed to express their views on the current budget and suggest improvements and identify flaws (if any). Among other sections that need to be met with are lower level employees that are actually on field and are performing disaster relief activities. Their input is of immense importance as they are the ones who are final users of resources allocated to.

As a Chief of Finance it would be of great significance to determine the fiscal process used by the organization (Fredman, 2008). The fiscal process would determine how a budget would be developed, resources allocated and consensus reached. Fiscal process would start by identifying what went wrong in previous budget. This is one of the first areas to begin from. Identification of what went wrong provides an insight of the most risky areas that of corrected would ensure smooth operation of activities, Second most important step of managing resources and developing budget is to identify the stakeholders and key users of the budget. Such stakeholders needed to be consulted and their input seeked in the budget setting process. The fiscal process also deals with identifying key ...