# Resource Exchanges By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-07-03 Organizations convert resources. Inputs come in; outputs go out. These resources can be material, financial, or human. The output could be physical, intellectual, or experiential. Whatever their form or function, organizations, as resource exchanges, consume, transform, and create. Viewing organizations as resource exchanges hold potential. Adopting this view prevents one from getting bogged down by common distinctions between public and private and between profit and nonprofit. Each organization type is engaged in some form of resource exchange. From an organizational perspective, the question becomes how efficiently and effectively it makes these exchanges. Each employee has some resources to give. Often this is reduced to time. People will be at work and likely do things for a period. Focusing on time obfuscates the underlying resource being consumed. It is seldom time, although time is also being consumed through the process. Often what is being consumed is effort, mental or physical. For one’s mental or physical effort, an exchange is made for compensation for a period. This compensation is often money, but it can take other forms like prestige. Organizations likewise make exchanges with donors, clients, and customers. Each is engaged in a chain of resource exchanges. This perspective brings focus to a basic element of organizations. Focusing on this aspect can reveal much about what and how organizations function. #### Related Items [[Organization]] [[Economics]] [[Resource]] [[Time]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Money]]