Human Capital Dilemma

Often, we have seen the custodian of human capital the Human Resources function becomes a scapegoat for Management decisions. It is a pity that, while HR is liable for employees’ well-being, motivation and morale, they are considered to be a liability to organizations/employers sometimes. What makes them so? Is it a myth that HR does what CEOs wants them to do? or are they sandwiched between employer and employees to maintain a diplomatic figure? or do they not understand what the expectations of the organization or management are? A must-read book for all Managers/Leaders as everyone is a human resource manager when they deal with individuals/teams or even at home when you deal with your own people. Some interesting factual stories/case studies will make you realize how important the above questions are. Also, this book will make you aware of practical issues faced in the day-to-day life of HR professionals, the dilemmas faced by them with management and employees, how they can become an able business HR leader, and a few worthy solutions you can deal with. This will also help CEOs to understand how to deal with human capital better. I’m sure this book will inspire you to change your mind-set on Human resources.

President Bush's number-one management initiative for the federal government is the Strategic Management of Human Capital. According to Knowledgeworkers.com, human capital is the accumulated value of an individual's intellect, knowledge, and experience. In the U.S. federal government, a human capital crisis exists. The factors contributing to a human capital dilemma include a knowledge bleed due to retirement eligibility, changing perspectives on work, and escalating knowledge loss. According to a Joint Hearing on the Federal Human Capital, by 2005, more than half of the 1.8 million non-postal civilian employees will be eligible for early or regular retirement. An even greater percentage of the Senior Executive Service, the government's core managers, will be eligible to leave. All government agencies are required to develop a human capital strategy by 2005. Many of these agencies have scored a "red" (lowest rating) on the Government Scorecard in the way they are approaching their strategic management of human capital. This book is an executive briefing on developing a successful human capital strategy based on lessons learned from analyzing existing strategies at government agencies such as NASA. Using a knowledge management perspective, Liebowitz identifies four pillars of an effective strategy and gives examples of these in practice.

The decision to move Germany's government seat from Bonn to Berlin by the year 2000 poses an epic architectural challenge and has fostered an international debate on which building styles are appropriate to represent German national identity. Capital Dilemma investigates the political decisions and historical events behind the redesign of Berlin's official architecture. It tells a complex and exciting drama of politics, memory, cultural values, and architecture, in which Helmut Kohl, Albert Speer, Sir Norman Foster, and I. M. Pei all figure as players. If capital city design projects are symbols of national identity and historical consciousness, Berlin is the supreme example. In fact, architecture has played a pivotal role throughout Germany's turbulent twentieth-century history. After the fall of the monarchy, Germany gave birth to the Bauhaus, whose founders argued that their own revolutionary designs could shape human destiny. The century's warring ideologies, Nazism and Communism, also used architecture for their own political ends. In its latest incarnation, Berlin will become the capital of the fifth German state in this century to be ruled from that city. How will the official architecture of reunified Berlin, a democratic capital being built amid totalitarian remains, be different this time around? Th e Federal Republic of Germany, a highly stable democracy in stark contrast to its predecessors, has been struggling with burdensome architectural legacies. In the process, it has considered remedies as varied as outright destruction, refurbishment, and, in the case of the former Nazi Central Bank now being converted into the new Foreign Ministry, physical concealment.

Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC uncovers and explains the dynamics that have influenced the contemporary economic advancement of Washington, DC. This volume's unique interdisciplinary approach using historical, sociological, anthropological, economic, geographic, political, and linguistic theories and approaches, captures the comprehensive factors related to changes taking place in one of the world's most important cities. Capital Dilemma clarifies how preexisting urban social hierarchies, established mainly along race and class lines but also along national and local interests, are linked with the city's contemporary inequitable growth. While accounting for historic disparities, this book reveals how more recent federal and city political decisions and circumstances shape contemporary neighborhood gentrification patterns, highlighting the layered complexities of the modern national capital and connecting these considerations to Washington, DC's past as well as to more recent policy choices. As we enter a period where advanced service sector cities prosper, Washington, DC's changing landscape illustrates important processes and outcomes critical to other US cities and national capitals throughout the world. The Capital Dilemma for DC, and other major cities, is how to produce sustainable equitable economic growth. This volume expands our understanding of the contradictions, challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary urban development.

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Personnel and Organisation, The DaVinci Institute, course: PhD, language: English, abstract: he research problem addresses the issue of learning taking place on broad walks of life. Such learning attracts limited recognition. The objective is to develop a system where structure could be given to such learning, for inclusion in formal systems. The researcher considers amongst other the role of organizational objectives, in determining required skills. Required human capital could be benchmarked against “formal learning programs”, with a view to create a formal credit transfer system. The research also probes the possibility of using such a system to determine specific skills gaps. Collectively, the research is contextualized within a Corporate Qualifications Framework (CQF), that measuring human capital in terms of a strategic plan. A Corporate Qualifications Framework operates on three principles – the required human capital (demand side), the actual human capital (supply side) and the gap. The demand side consists of job descriptions, qualifications and occupational profiles. Supply side standards are used to measure actual human capital by means of performance management, performance assessment and the recognition of prior learning (RPL). The development of a Meta Business Framework suggests a business consciousness that recognizes the role of thinking and the development of alternative realities that recognizes the evolution of humanity. Meta Business suggests that business honours the relationship between mind and matter as well as the interconnectedness of all things. Thus, the evolution of educational thought, being integral to Meta Business, suggests the development of learning to serve business requirements, whilst business is designed for the benefit of humanity. The discussion is centered on the possibility of using non-formal learning as formal credit in a process termed “work based learning”. The process entails creating a system whereby the training conducted at the workplace translates into credits in formal education. The roles of academic institutions are important to enhance legitimacy & credibility. The result is the creation of a framework that is industry based. The implications are that a CQF can be used to develop an integrated system of human capital management. The integrated conclusion suggests a redesign of the current educational system in South Africa, to become adaptable and effective, serving the needs of industry and society at large.

Companies and organizations are increasingly more aware of the importance of people and their knowledge for dealing with economic scenarios as well as their relationships developed both inside and outside of the company. Strategic Approaches for Human Capital Management and Development in a Turbulent Economy examines the useful information developed by individuals presented within organizational structures, routines, and company policies. This book is an international platform for academics, researchers, lecturers, decision makers, and policy makers in order to enhance their understanding and collaboration in issues of knowledge management and human resource management.

Strategic human capital management (HCM) is not just a measurement focused approach to human resource management (HRM). It is certainly not a decision science in which people can be managed as a result of quantitative analysis and financial valuation. In fact, it is probably more of an art than a science and is a way of leading people to unlock great business performance. Strategic HCM focuses all people management and development practices on maximizing the capability and engagement of the people working for an organization to create valuable intangible capability, human capital, which enables the organisation to take full advantage of potential business opportunities. Unlike HRM which focuses on getting closer and closer to the business, strategic HCM draws its energy from people, from their individual strengths, interests and motivations, which, aligned with long-term business strategy, can increasingly provide the main basis for differentiation and competitive advantage. However, the perspective also recognizes that measurement is important, and the book outlines an approach to measurement which recognizes the importance of knowledge, complexity, best fit and intangibility. Pulling together seemingly disparate strands of thinking, the book calls for a paradigm change in which people really are seen as an organisation’s most important asset, and are managed in a way that reflects this fact. The text includes case studies from leading private and public sector organizations and commentary from HR practitioners and academics.

At times mirroring and at times shockingly disparate to the rise of traditional white American medicine, the history of African-American health care is a story of traditional healers; root doctors; granny midwives; underappreciated and overworked African-American physicians; scrupulous and unscrupulous white doctors and scientists; governmental support and neglect; epidemics; and poverty. Virtually every part of this story revolves around race. More than 50 years after the publication of An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 classic about race relations in the USA, An American Health Dilemma presents a comprehensive and groundbreaking history and social analysis of race, race relations and the African-American medical and public health experience. Beginning with the origins of western medicine and science in Egypt, Greece and Rome the authors explore the relationship between race, medicine, and health care from the precursors of American science and medicine through the days of the slave trade with the harrowing middle passage and equally deadly breaking-in period through the Civil War and the gains of reconstruction and the reversals caused by Jim Crow laws. It offers an extensive examination of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse, and neglect of African Americans and other non-white people. Also included are biographical portraits of black medical pioneers like James McCune Smith, the first African American to earn a degree from a European university, and anecdotal vignettes,like the tragic story of "the Hottentot Venus", which illustrate larger themes. An American Health Dilemma promises to become an irreplaceable and essential look at African-American and medical history and will provide an invaluable baseline for future exploration of race and racism in the American health system.