Knowledge And Social Capital

Social capital - the informal networks, trust and common understanding among individuals in an organization - determines major competitive advantages in today's networked economy. Knowledge and Social Capital explains how social capital can drive collaboration, reconcile an organization's internal and external labor markets, and improve organizational effectiveness. This edited compilation of authoritative articles helps readers understand how they can build and capitalize on their own organizations' social capital. Knowledge and Social Capital teaches core principles and important strategies to a range of executives, including organizational development specialists, corporate strategists, and knowledge management professionals. Readers will learn how an organization can:

This book analyzes the social capital of the growing knowledge economy, from both theoretical and empirical points of view. The theoretical section discusses social capital as an economic concept, developing a theory of the social capital of the enterprise. The empirical section compares aspects of the social capital of three different socio-economic systems: the US, Japan and Sweden. The book discusses a number of issues for further research.

ÔThis book by Westlund and Kobayashi emphasises the fact that the gap between urban and rural areas is no longer relevant today: all places and regions are under a strong influence from cities. The authors show in a straightforward way that the continuum between more and less urbanized places requires new types of regulations, based on innovation and local skills, and that rural policies cannot be based on agriculture only but primarily require the mobilization of local social capital links.Õ Ð AndrŽ Torre, INRA Ð Agroparistech, Paris, France ÔÒRuralÓ communities are not all resource dependent and very low-density places. Not all have people leaving in droves and no newcomers. This bookÕs theoretical arguments and case studies (from five countries) help one understand better the diversity of ÒruralÓ. We find population gainers, population losers; newcomers and long-term ÒstayersÓ together in sizable towns; Aboriginal communities where out-migration is limited. The diversity is a key dimension in the analyses of public and private action to build and maintain social capital.Õ Ð Roger E. Bolton, Williams College, US ÔThis amazingly surprising book takes the popular topic of social capital and provocatively examines the contemporary rural development issue. New social capital driven thinking and insights are applied globally from a conceptual frame and locally with examples. The way forward for both urban and rural development is achieved when the variables that define social capital are simultaneously balanced around focused development objectives. Examples show how a multidimensional view of social capital enables meaningful rural development.Õ Ð Roger R. Stough, George Mason University, US Social capital is often considered a key factor for local development. This book analyzes the role of social capital for rural areasÕ survival and development in the current age of metropolitan growth Ð an era in which urban is the norm and where rural areas must adapt to this new situation and build innovative urban-rural relations. The traditional division between ÔruralÕ and ÔurbanÕ is no longer valid in the knowledge society. Instead of being a homogeneous unit based on primary sector production, the countryside in the developed world increasingly consists of areas with very different development paths. With examples from Europe, Asia and America, the book discusses building and renewal of rural social capital from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives, and from the standpoint of business, and both the public and private sectors. Being the first book to treat social capital and rural development in the age of megacities and the knowledge economy, it will be of great benefit to academics interested in social capital research and rural development.

For this book Bartkus and Davis assembled the social capital equivalent of the New York Yankees slugger s row of the 1950s, recruiting some of the best Hall of Fame hitters around along with a number of future stars still early in their careers. The result is a good reflection of the current state of the literature on social capital. Robert D. Putnam, Harvard University, US Social capital is widely used and sometimes mis-used by scholars, policymakers, and the general public. The time has come for thoughtful reflection, synthesis, and informed criticism regarding this important concept. Bartkus and Davis have developed a ground-breaking collection of essays exploring the ideas and evidence underpinning social capital. Denise M. Rousseau, Carnegie Mellon University, US At heart, social capital is a simple concept that relationships matter. Bartkus and Davis foster a vibrant debate among leading scholars as to the critical definition, creation, and consequences of social capital. I commend Bartkus and Davis for their interdisciplinary efforts, for there is no more important challenge facing the social sciences today than the exploration of trust and social capital in our society. Father Theodore Hesburgh, University of Notre Dame, US Social capital has taken the social sciences by storm yet remains fraught with controversy. Despite its complexity and conceptual difficulties, the persistent interest in social capital arises from the fact that it helps us make sense of why people do what they do. This book showcases new innovative research in economics, politics, sociology, and management regarding the topic. Leading scholars from a variety of disciplines present ground-breaking new research exploring the still-undiscovered value of social capital. The book employs a self-consciously multi-disciplinary approach to address two objectives: reaching out and reaching in. Through theoretical and empirical scholarship, the authors explore the many contexts in which the phenomenon can have impact. In effect, social capital research reaches out to issues of economic well-being, civic participation, educational achievement, knowledge and norm formation, and competitive advantage. Further, the authors investigate the many connections between the core themes of social capital and the pillars on which it rests, including structural networks, cognition, relationships and trust. This book is fundamentally about bridging bridging across disciplines, units of analysis, and themes. Scholars, students, and other interested readers from the social sciences and management will find this book challenging and illuminating.

Intangible value leads to new insights and ideas, and higher levels of creativity and innovative thinking. Personal knowledge capital focuses on the knowledge worker, knowledge creation, and third generation knowledge management. A focus on the ‘inner and outer’ aspects of personal knowledge capital creates a balanced approach in order to produce creative solutions. As such this forms part of a synthesis of mind versus body thinking in relation to knowledge creation theory within knowledge management. This title is divided into two sections: the inner and outer path. The inner path focuses on tacit knowledge in knowledge creation, and highlights the importance of inner value, resulting in a model for personal knowledge awareness. The outer path explores how to effectively communicate and exploit knowledge in a modern business world, both online and offline. This section focuses on valuing intangibles including social capital, relationships and trust, exploring community, conversation, infrastructure and ecologies for a web world. You can manage your own assets through your communities and networks, exploiting the latest technologies around you. Examines know-how, tacit knowledge, and emotional and cognitive knowledge Links social capital to web technologies to create innovative frameworks, tools and models Puts forward tools and mechanisms supported by research, which can be used for the design of a knowledge infrastructure

Linking social capital to knowledge productivity

Linking social capital to knowledge productivity

Knowledge has always resided in organizations-but it wasn't until the Information Age put a premium on ideas that intellectual capital was recognized as a critical resource. Now, forces like technology, globalization, and the rise of free agency and virtual workplaces are bringing another form of "hidden" capital to the forefront. In Good Company is the first book to examine the role that social capital-a company's "stock" of human connections such as trust, personal networks, and a sense of community-plays in thriving organizations. Written by leading knowledge management experts Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak, this groundbreaking book argues that social capital is so integral to business life that without it, cooperative action-and consequently productive work-isn't possible. The authors help today's leaders understand the nature and value of social capital, suggest ways they can encourage and enhance it, and explore how they can protect this vital but increasingly vulnerable resource in a volatile, virtual world. Drawing on major social and economic theories, and the experiences of organizations including the World Bank, Aventis Pharma, Alcoa, Russell Reynolds, and UPS, In Good Company identifies the social elements that contribute to knowledge sharing, innovation, and high productivity. The authors convincingly show how almost every managerial decision-from hiring, firing, and promotion to implementing new technologies to designing office space-is an opportunity for social capital investment or loss. They also reveal the benefits that derive from investments in social capital, such as greater commitment and cooperation, increased talent retention, and more intelligent responses to customer needs. A landmark book on the critical role that relationships play in organizational success, In Good Company helps employees at all levels recognize the power of social capital to help people work better, and make organizations better places to work. Don Cohen is a writer, consultant, and the editor of Knowledge Directions . Laurence Prusak is Executive Director of the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management and co-author of Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know .