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Family resource management is concerned with the way in which a family uses all its resources to achieve the individual and family goals. In simplest terms Varghese et al, have defined home management as ‘the mental process of utilizing the available resources to achieve what you want in life.
Gross and Crandall have given a simple definition for home management as “using what you have to get what you want”. In the context of home ‘what you have’ is the available resources like time, money, energy, knowledge, skill, material goods etc and ‘what you want’ is the set goals. Gross and Crandall have further expanded the definition of management as “it consists of a series of decision making process of using resources to achieve goals”.
Nickell and Dorsey have defined management as ‘a planned activity towards the accomplishment of desired ends. It involves the weighing of values and the making of decisions’
Mary Parker Follet called management as’ the art of getting things done through people.
According to kotzin ‘home management is a practical science. Seetharaman et,al, have summed that home management as a vital factor in every family contributing to the overall health, happiness, wellbeing and higher standard of living for the family members.
According to Nickell et,al, management is not only a means to accomplish desired out comes through people, as is in business or profit making organizations; it is a means to accomplish desired outcome within people.
Management is a behavioral process that recognizes the actions and reactions of persons in living situations as they discover and use the available resources to achieve the desired goal or end. It includes all kinds of behavioural process experienced by the people in identification and coping with problems of setting goals, establishing and testing values and norms, identifying roles, solving conflicts, establishing power authority lines with in the family and outside the family and communicating with others in the solution of all these problems in a given situation. Management is also an interaction process and one has to discuss with others in finding the way or solution to a problem or a given situation. To make decisions the family members have to interact with other members with the family and often with members of the larger community outside the family. Communication is the medium of interaction.
Why to manage?:
Human needs and desired change through the time due to research, technological and social developments and cultural and ethnic influences. This leads to the discovery of new tools, new materials, sources of power, and new methods are devised to meet changes in human needs and wants. The impact of these changes and developments on the human being and social institutions like family gives rise to conflicts or problem situations because people tend to accept new technologies, procedures and products more readily than they accept changes in their personal life. Management is an essential process that helps to resolve the conflicts aroused due to social, technological, political and environmental changes, and accomplish the desired wants/ goals of an individual or the or the family. Management helps in channeling of efforts in a given direction. Once the family is established, all members work together for the common purposes and goals, which necessitates the development of a plan of action, delegation of responsibility for each activity, organization and control of resources. Evaluation is needed to bring actions in harmony with the objectives
What to manage?:
The resources by nature are limited and have multiple uses. The family can use the available resources in countless ways to satisfy each member of the family and achieve the desired goals. Nickell, Rice and Tucker(1976) have classified the resources available into three broad categories, viz; human resources economic resources and environmental resources.
Human resources are the instrumental traits or qualities available with in the human being. Some of the examples are the skills, knowledge, physical power etc.
Economic resources are those which can be quantified into money form. These are the resources like money, wealth and the fringe benefits available through employment like leave hospital charges insurance etc.
Environmental resources are the external physical conditions that influence the quality of life. Some of the examples are the natural resources like light, soil, climate etc, and social environmental resources like, political structure, community facilities (hospital, school, college…) and services.
The amount and quality of resources available to each individual or the family are unique. Some resources may not have been recognized by the members of the family until their requirement is felt. Example: the individual members’ knowledge or ability to perform a given task. There may be valuable resources which are either wasted or not utilized completely. A careful inventory of all available resources and potential resources is essential to achieve the highest level of goal attainment. The management process helps to integrate all resources that are used in daily personal and family life. The family has to arrange these resources to gain maximum satisfaction and achieve maximum number of goals.
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