What is Social Entrepreneurship and Why the World Needs More Social Entrepreneurs
February 12, 2025
The Group discussion is a task, which is generally aimed at understanding and evaluating candidate’s behavior in a group. Through this method, interviewers can compare and assess a candidate’s knowledge, communication, and mental strength. It is quite obvious through the name that Group discussion involves more than one members and it happens within a group. […]
Labor-Management relations are the most complicated set of relations that any HR Manager has to deal with. Efficient maintenance of labor relations helps the HR Managers in developing a harmonious environment within the organization which, in turn, helps the organization in effectively achieving its goals and objectives. Well-managed labor relations provide a competitive advantage to […]
The greatest and widely accepted benefit of participation is the increased work ownership of employee. An employee is better able to relate himself/herself with his or her work and this improves performance and efficiency at work. John Newstrom and Keith Davis worked extensively upon the subject. They identified three variables that lead to increased performance. […]
Work culture plays an essential role in influencing employee behaviour. An employee needs to feel comfortable at workplace for him to deliver his level best. Encourage your employees to work in teams rather than working alone. Individuals who work in isolation tend to be overburdened and hence are frustrated and often criticize fellow workers and […]
Employee Engagement has transcended from being the latest business buzzword to being recognized by organizations as a tool that positively influences business performance. This linkage between organization performance and employee engagement was researched by ISR in 2006 by means of world-wide survey. The ISR study reveals that companies with high engagement scores saw an increase […]
Social Capital is a concept that aims at emphasizing the importance of social contacts between groups and within groups. It primarily means that social networks have a value associated and that they are not always detrimental in nature as previously thought of.
The concept of social capital also stresses that social networks lead to increased productivity in individuals, teams and organizations. This increased productivity can be both financial and otherwise. This means that social contacts can lead to increase in confidence, fulfillment by fostering positive relationships. The essence being that just like any other capital form (human, physical, financial) social capital is also important and beneficial to the sustenance of society.
The term social capital has been used in varied forms in various disciplines. World Bank, for example, uses it to define societal and economic development. Corporate pundits similarly use it to mean an approach of organisation development. Judson Hanifan championed the use of social capital. He used it in his discussions of rural school community centers. He promoted the importance of social intercourse among people for building goodwill and sympathy among fellow members and to promote cooperation.
Later on Jane Jacobs, Pierre Bourdeiu and James S. Coleman contributed from time to time in the development of the concept. Robert D. Putnam worked extensively later and it was his work that extended the idea of social capital to research and policy making discussions.
There can be a multitude of reasons that can act as barriers to social capital creation or development. These factors vary across geographies and cultures. For example in developing or third world countries social networks remain nucleated around family and identity. There is little or no social capital creation across families and castes. This is on account of the mistrust between two families or strata that is detrimental to the very idea of social capital.
There is a strong body of evidence that goes to suggest that social capital leads societies and individuals to prosperity economically and allows the development to be stable. World Bank believes that social capital when utilized properly can enhance the efficacy and sustainability of projects. This they believe can be achieved through a collaboration of communities’ efforts and its ability to work together. It also promotes greater transparency in the overall system, fosters a better bonding and increases the overall accountability.
The concept of social capital has gained significant ground as a means of enhancing overall quality and effectiveness specially those that involve large scale community action. Many organizations have designed practical constructs to make the idea feasible. World Bank, for example, developed Social Capital Implementation framework (SCIF). This was designed to access how social capital could be made use of in operations.
For social capital to be practically feasible it can be broken down into 5 elements both at practical and operational level. They are
These elements are important to the development of social capital and provide guidelines in the area at various levels of operation. By effectively breaking down into these 5 layers, each one can be administered separately and incorporated into operations.
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