Integrating and developing human, social, and organizational capital in the workplace

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The notion of capital crops up a great deal in the business, management and allied academic literatures. This Fellowship is based at the Institute of Work Psychology, where our core interests concern human and social capital i.e. the individual attributes and relationship ties that assist in achieving effective performance now and in the future. We are also interested in human and social capital that enables people to meet their own personal career objectives.However, of course the notion of capital extends much further than this. In a business context it can be thought of as the sum total of the money, property and other valuables available to an organisation, especially in regards to investing in future organisational effectiveness. This can mean that the human and social aspects of capital are rather overlooked. Likewise, the applied psychology/HRM approaches to capital can neglect the more material and financial aspects.The overall aim of this project is therefore to bring together different perspectives on capital in the context of work organisations, in order to construct a holistic view of what we at this stage choose to call Organisational Capital Development (the name may change). We have a particular interest in human and social capital, and these will be our starting point, but we will want to apply ideas in these forms of capital to other forms of capital, and vice versa. More than that, however, we also wish to develop ideas and tools for ensuring the organisational change to promote the development of organisational capital is successful. Specifically, we plan to address three broad questions:1) How do senior managers in organisations decide what their employees should do which will add the most value? 2) How can people working in organisations be deployed and developed in such a way that they contribute both to the organisation's capital and to their own human and social capital (i.e. their employability)? 3) How can organisational behaviours be changed in the light of growing evidence that investment in organisational capital leads to competitive advantage?A careful review of existing relevant literatures and some creative manipulation of ideas and findings in them will be essential in order to ground this work and enable it to move in innovative directions. It is likely that in-depth qualitative data will be collected to address questions 1 and 3 above, in the forms of managers verbalising thought processes in a similar way to (for example) some of the research on expertise (question 1), and a case study approach with one or a very small number of organisations committed to making changes (question 3). Question 2 may be addressed using survey methodology, because although it is quite broad, many of the key parameters are laid out in the organisational career management literature, especially talent management and succession planning. However, the methods to be used are not certain at this stage.Outcomes will include a PhD for the Fellow, and also vigorous promotion of ideas and findings about organisational capital and its development in both academic and user communities. This will include presentations at conferences (academic and user) as well as written outputs in both arenas. It is also intended to develop tool(s) and/or techniques(s) that can be applied in organisations to review and improve the development of organisational capital.