RELATIONAL RESOURCES

Humanity has always held a firm conviction that no man is an island. However, until the rise of powerful business models built on the interaction of individuals; the inherent value of communities was taken for granted. The rise in popularity of social and professional networking facilities on the internet is evidence of technology facilitating a long held survival mechanism of humans – relations and their interactions. In social psychology, there is a formal study of a special kind of capital – social capital, it proves that beyond talent, information, finance or material goods, there is another class of resources that counts because all these must relate and interact with one another. (Social Capital Wikipedia.org)

DEFINITION, LOGIC AND EXAMPLES

A Relational Resource is the resource pool and its associated links between two or more entities established by mutual consent for their contribution to, sharing of and making use of the resource pool.

A relational resource is the integral unit of entities connected to one another

Examples of Relational Resources are Communities, Markets, Networks, Partnerships, Consortiums, and Supply Chains etc.

BASES OF VALUE

-          Connectivity: This is the extent to which member entities are linked to one another and to the pool of resources.

-          Trust: This is a measure of the extent to which members have confidence in and reliance on the responsibility and ability of other members and the resource pool.

Where the members do not have confidence in and cannot rely on the responsibility and ability of other members, there is bound to be little or no interactivity within, hence rendering the population and established connections useless.

Individuals learn to trust their communities or other institutions. Most often, the trust is dependent on the historical performance of the community.

-          Equity: Equity is a measure of the extent to which members perceive a state of justice and impartiality among themselves in relation to the resource pool.

Instinctively, some members expect to gain more than their share of contribution to a pool. However, none will be pleased to know that they are being treated unfairly while another member is receiving favors. As such, balance is reached only when the relational resource metes out to members what is merited based on defined and transparent objective criteria.

The rule of law is the main tool which has been used in the past to build equity in a community. Clear, explicit, public and active legal systems assure members that just as they cannot perks; no other entity is taking unfair advantage of the system. As such, whatever is merited to them shall be fully possessed by them.

-          Commitment: This is the extent to which members are willing to engage and be engaged with other members and the resource pool.

In Africa, there is an old saying that “tightfisted hands get nothing”. This is not true only for the sages of old; it is the same for us in this day and age. Commitment is mutual; members not willing to engage others in their affairs will hardly be engaged in the affairs of others. Societies where people engage others in their affairs and are willing to be engaged in the affairs of others advance faster than those with less commitment. It is an infinite chain of providers and customers. In receiving an engagement, an entity is a customer, while in giving an engagement it becomes a provider. (3)

-          Delay: This is the minimum time taken by a member entity to make a contribution to, share or make use of the resource pool. (2)

Time is a critical factor in building communities. Every minute in waiting is a minute wasted.

-          Critical Effort: This is the human energy and resources expended by a member entity in order to make a contribution to, share or make use of the resource pool.

-          Bureaucracy: These are the number of procedures needed to be taken by a member entity to make a contribution to, share or make use of the resource pool.