Organizational resources for effectiveness and efficiency

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Discussion of certain basic concepts
Resource view based on Porter's Model
Various management consultants and thinkers have defined the process of strategy in various ways. Porter's model focused on defining a firm's strategy in terms of it's product/ market positioning. Building on Porter's notion of competitive advantage, the resource based view of strategy argues that the resources and capabilities of an organization can be a source of competitive advantage if they processes certain characteristics of being rare, durable and difficult to imitate, flexible and durable.

If firms have resources with these characteristics, they can position themselves strategically on the basis of these resources and capabilities. Most of the tangible resources may not have these characteristics and hence organisations have to focus on intangible assets to be a source of competitive advantage. Many authors have stressed on the strategic importance of intangible assets for firms to achieve competitive. Thus the resource view is based on knowledge, which emphasizes building, and sustaining competitive advantage on the basis of the knowledge resources and capabilities of a firm has gained currency due to the following reasons:
? Market is in a state of flux and going through a string of realignments
? Resources and capabilities are easily replicable
? The unprecedented growth of information superhighway has accelerated the spread of explicit knowledge and consequently the speed of replicability
? Tacit knowledge gained through years of experience is not easily replicable.
Reasons for emphasis on Resources Based view:
The need to focus on managing knowledge within the enterprise results from
? Economic and market-driven requirements created by customer demands and international competition
? Increase in customer demands for products and services that fulfill their particular needs more precisely and to a greater advantage
? Loss of knowledge to the organization due to increased personnel turnover
? It helps organizations to be able to repeat the processes followed in past successful projects.
? Effective knowledge management practices helps organizations avoid repeating mistakes of past projects, thereby reducing the time span required for completing current projects.

Organization efficiency and effectiveness -
They both are ways of performance measurement. The performance measures provide feedback to organizations in order to assist in implementing strategies and objectives. Note that in the strategic-management model that feedback is critically important. Changes can occur that impacts all strategic-management activities. Feedback allows these changes to be identified and adjustments to be made. Feedback in the strategic-management process promotes the creation of a climate for two-way communication and, thus, allows esprit de corps to be achieved in an organization. Therefore most desired outcomes are common to all types of organizations.
Many services must be delivered in an efficient and effective manner. For example, timeliness is often a good indicator ...