Difficulty: Easy
Correct Answer: people
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
Enterprise management commonly references four foundational resources that must be planned, controlled, and optimized: money, materials, information, and people. Understanding this framework helps align operations, HR, finance, and IT toward organizational objectives.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
People (human resources) are the workforce—decision-makers, operators, engineers, and knowledge workers—whose skills and collaboration transform materials using money and information into value. This four-part view underpins many planning models (e.g., the 4M/5M frameworks in operations: manpower/people, machines, materials, methods, and sometimes money/measurement).
Step-by-Step Solution:
Verification / Alternative check:
Management textbooks and operations frameworks consistently cite people as a core resource distinct from information systems or online technologies, which are tools enabling people.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Common Pitfalls:
Equating ‘‘information systems’’ with ‘‘information’’; information is the content, systems are the means to process it. The irreplaceable resource remains people.
Final Answer:
people
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