In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work

by Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen

Book Overview

Examines the role that social capital plays in organizations. This book argues that social capital is integral to business life and that without it cooperative action isn't possible. It identifies the social elements that contribute to innovation and productivity, and reveals the benefits that derive from investments in social capital.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087584913X
• ISBN13: 9780875849133
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Social Capital is the leading edge for HR measurement- pay attention

The Information Age has put a premium on ideas and intellectual capital is more valuable today than ever. Knowledge has always resided within organizations, therefore the very sought after intellectual capital is a critical resource that resides within the employees of a company. Although these employees possess intellectual capital, with the emergence of technology, globalization, and the rise of free agency, another resource has emerged: social capital. This social capital is made-up of human connections, such as trust, networks, and a sense of community. In this book the authors share how to: · Recognize social capital for what it is and what it is not. Understand that social capital is not about everyone liking everyone else, nor accepting everyone. It is not about being nice, or being forced to share tales of their personal lives. It is important to stay focused on what is truly social capital. · Develop a sense of trust among employees and build trust between the employees and the firm. Learn how all social capital starts from a sense of trust. · Allow networks and communities to develop naturally. Within networks, the authors show that social capital is strongest. Allow employees the space and time to connect. · Encourage talk and storytelling. This is the voice of social capital. The art of conversation is discussed at some length by the authors. · Meet the challenge of an increasing virtual world. The authors stress the importance of balancing both the virtual and real world experiences.

Work as Social Process

Why do new CEOs staff the company with their men?Why are women under-represented un the business world?Why could some succeed in launching and establishing new enterprises while other couldn¡¯t manage do so?Why are the MBA degree craved, while there is no link between MBA results and future salary?Social capital is supposed to be the answer to these questions. Social capital is widely exploited to emphasize the social nature of work: the work is the social process. Previously, corporate culture is used to point out such a nature. Organization¡¯s culture means the set of rites and rituals that give it its unique character. Culture is the ¡®way things are done around here.¡¯ The HP way, for example, the open-plan, walkabout management style laid down in the 1950s, by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, a style that still imbues the company today. But culture is a elusive concept. It¡¯s too soft to be managed. One executive asserted that ¡®the only culture round here is in the yoghurts in the canteen.¡¯ Nevertheless, though too soft to grasp, it¡¯s very real one. So many M & As have been botched for clashes between corporate cultures. It¡¯s real but too elusive to manage and grasp. Social capital is introduced to ground it on tangible material base. Then what is social capital? Social capital refers attributes like trust, commitment, attachment and so forth which belongs to active connections among people, in other word, network and community. When the God decided to put a stop to human-being¡¯s first great collective enterprise, he confused their language so they could no longer understand one another, and could not carry out the joint project, Tower of Babel. Carry a heavy stone could be done without words. The real problem was the loss of understanding that cannot be mimed or diagrammed. Without common speech, the tower¡¯s planners could not have inspired others to join the project, workers could not have learned to trust each other¡¯s judgment, resolve unexpected problems together, or count on each other¡¯s help in dangerous situations. In other words, what they lost was not just common language, but the social capital which was probably more critical than the failure of information exchange. Some schools in economics of organization characterized the firm as the flow of information. It¡¯s hard to deny. In this regard, however, corporate culture is no more than each company¡¯s idiosyncratic frame to each processing info: the firm is no more than a cybernetic system. But the firm is a social process built on community and network. Culture is what resides in community and network within personnel. Moreover, organization¡¯s knowledge and capabilities lies not in official hierarchy but in unofficial community of practice. Most job training occurs after workers join a firm. They learn by dong on the shop floor. There is always a manual that describes how to operate a particular machine or conduct a job. As times passes, however, workers are apt to devise

Common sense, uncommon insight

If I could inflict one book on business executives this year, this would be it. In arguing that social capital within organisations has a value, and that there are ways to encourage it, the authors will not surprise most corporate infantry. But they draw together the human strands of this topic - trust, networking, the office environment, gossip - in an elegant and compelling way, and turn an insightful lens towards everyday facets of employee interaction. While the approach is scholarly, there's enough case study and anecdote to give their case a grounded authenticity. It's extremely well written, and the ideas it brings together beg for enlargement and further research.

Good Company Makes for Good Business

Here's a fascinating read that emphasizes one of the most-often overlooked components of an organization's success: the power of chance or commonplace conversations in stairwells or over a drink after work. The authors' "knowledge management" bias leads them to urge companies to invest in "social capital" by bringing together isoldated groups, encouraging in-person meetings, and giving employees time for casual conversations. Clearly a humanist argument but an important one that's gaining a lot of currency in a number of companies.

The unseen role of social capital in organizations revealed!

Larry Prusak and Don Cohen do a wonderful job in their book, In Good Company, of helping organizational leaders understand the social capital phenomenon in all of its exquisite messiness. This is an excellent work for anyone who cares about the quality of organizational life and the ability to do great things at work. Larry and Don do an outstanding job of showing how a number of important firms, including UPS, 3M and HP, take the matter of social capital very seriously and make investments in building and nurturing it.I would suggest this book as a bit of "contrarian" reading for KM emthusiasts, thinkers and practitioners who favor a more technocentric approach. In Good Company digs into the profoundly social aspects of work, knowledge sharing and learning and offers a heavy dose of reality in its discussion of "the challenge of virtuality." After reading In Good Company, my hope is that it will help all of us build our understanding of what individual, collective and organizational success truly looks like and requires of us in these extraordinary times!