rules of conduct well. This encourages responsible actions among their people. Thirdly, mutual trust is necessary because it enables people to share knowledge and give feedback. People also dare to take initiative—and that is necessary to launch renewal. All of these things make up the social capital of the organisation, which HR must invest in. This social capital contains the individual competency and knowledge management, but there is also a connection with the collective level. Social capital also serves as the bridge between explicit and implicit knowledge development.
And what about HRM’s traditional set of instruments? Recruitment and selection, evaluation and reward, training and development: these remain important tools, but they are now being employed more broadly. HR will increasingly be the initiator of learning-and-development processes, even at the collective level. The HR person responsible becomes a social architect who takes part in thinking about what the identity of the organisation is. They also supply the right resources and processes to help this identity grow in all layers of the organisation.
From the beginning of this historical development, people pondered whether women would display an innately feminine political talent, or at least have a political style that was clearly different from that of men. Clichés were thrown around about men and women, and people thought they could discern differences in the content and form of their respective use of language in public. But after objectively considering the matter, thus passing over any emotional aspects, we have to acknowledge that such ideas are untenable. On the one hand, the actual possibilities for exercising influence at the national and international level are overestimated. On the other, the example of Margaret Thatcher shows that women are very able in leadership positions to excel in qualities that are generally seen as characteristics of masculine social behaviour. The benefit for the social debate comes primarily from the fact that the image of the woman’s role in society can now definitively be adjusted and thus contribute to a wider acceptance of emancipated role models. Alexandra de Bruijne
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HR as Social Architect In what fields can HR work on this social capital? We know the first level: competency development. But we have to search for the so-called meta-competencies that enable a person to learn in a changed environment— initiative, responsibility, collaboration, integrity, and so much more. Competencies that not only improve daily achievements, but also form the basis for selfconfidence and versatility. Secondly, HR should promote social capital by encouraging interaction and collective learning processes. The implicit and explicit conveyance of standards and rules of conduct is a condition that is necessary in order for these processes it get off the ground. A third point on which HR should focus is psychological capital: increasing commitment and loyalty by promoting the independence, the self-esteem and the resilience of employees.
WOMEN IN POWER When in 1968 the black American civil-rights activist Charlene Mitchell ran as a third-party candidate against Nixon in the presidential election, it was particularly symbolic for the newly developed self-awareness of women in Western societies. A socialist, Mitchell not only challenged traditional patriarchal structures, she threw the door open for women of every political persuasion. It would be another eleven years before the British conservative politician Margaret Thatcher—under different political circumstances—was elected Europe’s first female Prime Minister in 1979.
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Can you give examples of implicit knowledge development? Generally this involves processes of socialisation pertaining to the transfer of values and rules of conduct, the adoption of successful problem solutions, the building up of networks. This socialisation applies not only to new employees, it is a form of collective learning that lasts throughout a person’s career. Someone that invests in their social capital is actually perpetuating and developing the organisational identity. And this identity inspires commitment and provides stability. It ensures that an organisation does not get blown off course during the first storm that blows.