321 E Lesson 10
321 E Lesson 10
Resource Management
Notes
10
FAMILY RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
All of us want to lead a peaceful and fulfilling life. We want to get good food,
clothing, education and a house for comfortable living. Do you think that all fami-
lies get all these things? How will you know that all families enjoy a comfortable
and happy life? Observe the families living around you. Despite living in the same
locality, same kind of house with almost the same amount of income and family
size, you will find that some of them are happy and well settled, while some others
are dissatisfied.
Do you know the reason for this difference? What can be done to ensure that all
families are happy and satisfied? Let us find out how we can help the families to
achieve this.
OBJECTIVES
After reading this lesson, you will be able to do the following:
explain the terms ‘resources’ and ‘management’;
identify and classify resources;
describe the characteristics of resources;
describe ways of maximizing satisfaction from the use of resources;
explain the significance of management in day-to-day life;
enumerate the steps involved in the management process;
identify the motivating factors in management;
discuss the role of decision - making in the management process.
When you want to buy a dress, you need money. Similarly, when you want to go
to your friend’s house, you will walk or use a vehicle. You will need land and
money when your family wants to build a house. In the same way, we need other
Notes resources like knowledge, material things, skills etc. to perform all our activities.
Thus, we find that we need a lot of things to do our day-to-day chores. These can
be called our resources. Therefore, we can say that the means used to meet our
needs are called resources.
Resources are the means for satisfying our needs and reaching our goals.
When you look at this list carefully, you will realize that there is a difference be-
tween resources like money, house, equipments, etc., and resources like knowl-
edge, time, skills and abilities. A house or an equipment would have a fixed cost
for everyone, i.e., anyone can buy these things at the same price. However, your
knowledge or skill can be very valuable for you and your family while it may not
be of the same utility to others.
Your energy is a resource for you and can be used to do any work that you want
to do. But your energy can not be used by others to perform what they want to
do.
Similarly, if your mother has the skill of being a good doctor, it is something which
belongs to her and only she can use it.
Resources
Human Non-human
Time Money
Energy House
Skills Material goods
Abilities etc. Community facilities.
Activity 10.1: List all your own and your family member’s human re-
sources. Also suggest two possible goals each that you and your family
can achieve using these resources.
Notes
Activity 10.2: Identify at least five human and five non-human resources
available to your family and compare this list with that of your
friend’s list. Suggest at least 2 ways by which you can enhance or
maximize their utility.
For example, if you could not go and get the ticket yourself, you could have asked
your brother to buy the ticket, because his office is close to the railway station.
Thus he will be in a position to buy the ticket.
Can you say what would happen if you did not organize your work? Can you
think of what would happen if you assigned tasks to people who were not willing
or able to do them? What would happen if you asked a very busy person to do
something for you?
Yes, you are right, the work would either not be done properly, or not done at all.
Therefore, your plan would not be successful.
This means that since the work gets distributed among two or more persons, it
saves time and energy. Since more than one person is doing the work, all the work
gets done and no one is overburdened, that is, there is a fair distribution of work.
By doing so, there is no wastage of the resources and they are also conserved.
You make adjustments as the plan is being carried out or implemented. You change
or control your activities so that your plan is not a failure. This is also called flex-
ibility.
Controlling means carrying out the activities as planned and organized earlier.
Step 4: Evaluating
Evaluating, means checking the progress of your plan and taking correc-
tive measures if needed.
For example when you cook a meal for your family, you want to taste whether it is
done properly or not. You also see whether everything is made in adequate amounts.
Evaluation helps you to check your mistakes and improve your work and
product.
Thus evaluation helps you to understand your weaknesses and mistakes so that it
is checked and will not be repeated in future. This is also called looking back or
“feedback”.
Goals are the aims or objectives that we want to achieve and work for.
Thus goals grow out of our values, needs and desires.
We expect that by accomplishing these goals, we get a sense of achievement,
happiness and satisfaction.
Just as our values and standards change with time, our goals also keep changing.
Some goals are achieved sooner than the others. Some goals are achieved more
easily than the others. Some goals are reached within the span of a few minutes
(eg cooking food), few hours (eg sewing a shirt) or few years (eg completing a
degree course, owning a house, building a bank balance, etc). Sometimes, certain
goals are dropped because they have already been achieved. For example, if you
have finished your schooling your goal of schooling is dropped, instead a new goal
of joining a college for a degree course is added to take its place. Can you think of
some goals of this type?
To understand goals better, let us consider the example of Reema, Mahesh and
Sanya who value health, hence, work for it by joining a class for jogging, aerobics
and yoga respectively. The main goal that all of them are trying to reach is good
health. However, Reema is jogging for half an hour everyday as her goal may be to
lose a particular amount of weight by a certain time. Mahesh may be doing yoga
exercises to improve his chronic back pain and asthma. Sanya may be doing
aerobic exercises to increase her stamina, keep trim and maintain her body weight.
Besides exercising, these three friends may also be aiming at taking a balanced
diet, nutritional supplements, vitamins and tonics, etc. to improve their health. Thus,
they may have a number of smaller goals to reach the larger goal of health.
Q. Would you change your values and standards because your friend wishes
you to do so? What factors should you consider while fixing your values,
standards and goals?
Management
Notes
Is the process of
To achieve goals.
TERMINAL EXERCISE
1. Define the term resources and classify them.
2. What is management? Describe the steps of management by using an ex-
ample.
3. What are the three major motivations in the process of management?
4. Identify a major goal in your life. State the value (s) from which it originates
and the standards (s) you have set to achieve it.
5. Write briefly the importance of decision making. List the steps of decision
making.
6. Rearrange the jumbled letters to identify the correct term describing the state-
ments written below:
(i) Means for reaching our needs and goals – CESURROSE
(ii) Using what you have to achieve what you want – MGEATMENNA
(iii) First step of management – INLAGPNN
(iv) Fixing responsibilities and assembling resources in management –
NNSROGGEAII
(v) Carrying out the activities as planned and organized earlier –
GIOONNTCRLL