The Discipline of Organizing: Professional Edition, 4th Edition

Chapter 4. Resources in Organizing Systems

Robert J. Glushko

Daniel D. Turner

Kimra McPherson

Jess Hemerly

4.1. Introduction

This chapter builds upon the foundational concepts introduced in Chapter 1 to explain more carefully what we mean by resource. In particular, we focus on the issue of identity—what will be treated as a separate resource—and discuss the issues and principles we need to consider when we give each resource a name or identifier.

Navigating This Chapter

In §4.2, “Four Distinctions about Resources” we introduce four distinctions we can make when we discuss resources: domain, format, agency, and focus. In §4.3, “Resource Identity” we apply these distinctions as we discuss how resource identity is determined for physical resources, bibliographic resources, resources in information systems, as well as for active resources and smart things. §4.4, “Naming Resources” then tackles the problems and principles for naming: once we have identified resources, how do we name and distinguish them? Finally, §4.5, “Resources over Time” considers issues that emerge with respect to resources over time.

4.1.1. What Is a Resource?

Resources are what we organize.

We introduced the concept of resource in §1.3, “The Concept of “Resource”” with its ordinary sense of “anything of value that can support goal-oriented activity” and emphasized that a group of resources can be treated as a collection in an organizing system. And what do we mean by “anything of value,” exactly? It might seem that the ...