1 – Introduction
In a competitive world where it is constantly developing new technologies to deliver more and better business performance, it is not surprising that the tangible assets such as machinery and buildings are not as valuable to companies that have .
In developing countries like ours, it is important to promote a new perspective of business management, so that our entrepreneurs to discover the level of knowledge available to your organization, understanding of course, that much of the value of a company is inexplicable and countless, so much so that some authors call the new wealth of companies.
For all this becomes interesting to ask why human capital is useful in improving corporate governance?, A company that does not dominate all aspects of human capital can not make true assessments on itself, so Therefore you can not define where it is, it has, or where it goes.
In this area we will roughly human capital, one of the components of intellectual capital and focus of study reports its origin and evolution of its concept.
It will also develop all matters relating to the components of human capital, ie, capacity, performance, effort and time.
Will conduct a comparative analysis of organizational capabilities versus human capital capabilities, denoting with this the importance of the latter on the growth and development of organizations and, finally explains the various ways or methods used to measure the results of the initiatives taken by the human capital of some companies.
It also describes how technology affects human capital management, and explains how companies retain the most important asset of them, as well as an approach to the challenges of human capital in strategic direction.
2 – Definition and origins of intellectual capital
Today’s organizations are really different organizations yesterday, and the change is not only in form, ie not limited to a flatter organization and other tangible characteristics, but also change background , ie, its employees, have changed, customers have changed and therefore the management of the companies had to change.
Businesses have all the tools to measure the tangible assets that comprise them, can mean cold numbers much invested in training, but can not easily tell how much was what was learned in such training, can quickly analyze how much you have won a specified period and may even plan what they will earn in the next period, all with a minimal margin of error, but is not as easy to measure how employees feel really identified with the company or what is the motivation for them.
However we can say that the mere fact that the company has a high level of knowledge does not necessarily mean a successful company, knowledge must be managed in such a way as to make the change from one thought or idea isolated a useful idea.
This fundamental change has brought a greater appreciation of the intangible assets of the company, which are nothing more than “all those resources that can contribute most to sustaining competitive advantage and, hence, business success, and which are more difficult to identify, transfer, duplicate, ultimately to imitate “(Cerdan, 2000), in short to intangible assets are referred to as intellectual capital. Intellectual capital can be divided into two groups, intangible assets owned by the organization and owned by members of the organization.
Several authors agree that the intangible assets that are owned by members of the organization are called “human capital”, however the other group, which belongs to the organization are commonly divided into “relationship capital” and “Structural Capital .
In short there are three components of intellectual capital. Human capital, structural capital and relational capital. For the purposes of the investigation will be a brief description of the last two, we focus on human capital.
3 – Components of Intellectual Capital
3.1 Capital Structure
In simple words structural capital is no more, that knowledge seen as part of the structure of the company, ie, managed in a manner that has been internalized by the organization, preventing it to be wasted or not taken into account.
Which raises structural capital is essentially the institutionalization of knowledge, so that the sharing of it is part of the corporate culture. Different methods for sharing knowledge, coaching processes and contribute to the spread, but especially the application of lessons learned in the course of our work, making this knowledge part of the company.
Of course, all this development and institutionalization of knowledge is gained for strategic purposes, that is, structural capital should be managed so that it becomes a long-term competitive advantage. Structural capital is divided into organizational capital and technological capital.
Inside the organizational structural capital, there are several types that help increase the contribution of each to the organization:
• The idiosyncratic structural capital represents specific knowledge of the company, which does not contribute directly to achieving sustainable competitive advantage over time.
• The residual structural capital, is known as knowledge which is not particularly useful for creating customer value, but is not specific to the company.
• On the other side is the essential structural capital, in which firms make the knowledge of their employees and what they know of stakeholders, both internal and external and insert it into the processes of the Company and are impregnated and implanted in the development of the daily work of the organization.
• Finally there is the generic structural capital of the company, ie what is known of the company and has been released, but that is not owned by the company, and yet can be used to achieve a competitive advantage long term.
• The structural capital, meanwhile, are all programs and adaptations to existing enterprise software that are created or developed to structure the knowledge, so that is the way to do the job.
Having defined the structural capital and given its strategic importance as a component of intellectual capital, we proceed to define the relational capital.
3.2. Relational Capital
Also known by some as, customer capital refers to the importance for the organization all relations with the external sectors related to it.
This set of relationships are basically customers and suppliers of the company, the first being the owners of the information and the latter being those who are required to first be completely satisfied.
However, to understand the customer capital is to be known first, that information gives them the power to customers is an intangible value that is central to the intangible value chain, which shows the displacement of a product or service from the initial seller to the consumer.
It has been said many times that the customer is always right and always has been, only that for a long time the companies were deaf and did not want to hear what they wanted to say, in the information age as many clients receive elements that help to compare one company with another, or a product or service with another that makes what they know is as important.
That’s why companies are more honest (a force) and at the same time managers seeking information about what their customers want to place it in a strategic point in the value chain and make the product or service arrives more effectively to end users.
The innovation is the best way to grow the relational capital, find every day a different product or service that meets the needs of customers and constant review of processes and procedures, to make improvements to add value, making companies are identified, and create competitive advantages over others.
There are four key factors for managing the development of relational capital: satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer acquisition and ret
ention, and measuring each of these factors impact on the increased value of the company because the company greatly values by the network of relationships that compose it.
Now are other aspects that are taken into account when talking about relational capital on terms to suppliers, as more and more investors for example, give more credit to the value of the company’s network Related obsolete has the financial accounts.
“Relationships are so precious that should be considered collectively as a central asset of the company. It has been called ‘Relational Capital’, and defined as the value of the network of relationships of a company. As vertically integrated companies re-focus on their core business, are becoming increasingly dependent on its links with these stakeholders:
• Involving customers in product development / solutions
• Share information with suppliers
• Develop longer and wider bridges with its alliance partners. “
In times of fierce dynamism that affects all areas of the company, management must be clear that interest groups are important assets and therefore must manage policies, procedures, services, products, add value and meaning to the needs of these same groups, no doubt the result will be a balanced and sustained growth over the existence of the organization.
In summary, we can say that the relational capital can be a competitive advantage for businesses provided they know to look and then use everything that customers have long wanted to tell you.
3.3 Relationship Between Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management
As a result of rapid development of information and technology knowledge is the only valuable resource available to businesses. The management of this knowledge is a function of all organizations, no matter what its mission.
The function of any organization should be to ensure that the knowledge has to be productive, because the knowledge itself is useless and only become productive if they unite, to which companies will develop a series of techniques and practices believes that knowledge to achieve an organization with steady growth and long-term.
For that companies must understand that employee loyalty is not obtained by means of salaries and other monetary benefits, but the company must be efficient, effective and functional, for the purposes of growth of its employees.
The knowledge as we have said is an asset though not recorded in the traditional accounting, is a leading partner in the company’s performance. Thus, before establishing a relationship between intellectual capital and knowledge management, we must define the concept of knowledge management.
There are different definitions, depending on the approach that gives each author, which will take account of this research is the most complete. “Conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and help people to share and convert the information into action in a way that will lead to better organizational performance.” (O’Dell and Grayson, 1998).
Knowledge management according to this definition, is part of intellectual capital, as the latter covers all the knowledge structure of the company both internally and with its stakeholders, as it is set by the relational capital and structural capital in knowledge management change, select the type of knowledge and the right person for you to develop through a series of knowledge activities.
The search for knowledge and its application in the best possible manner for the benefit of the company is nothing new, companies from ancient times, have sought the best way to develop the processes, provided the costs are kept to the minimum level .
Looking better this way, knowledge management has several main objectives:
1 – Collecting documents containing knowledge and place them in a place where you can easily retrieve when needed.
2 – Enhance the process for accessing stored knowledge, since in many cases the use of them is exclusive.
3 – Managing the environment for the creation, transmission and use of knowledge acquired.
4 – The knowledge should be part of the company reports, reporting of intellectual capital.
As described, knowledge management is a part of intellectual capital, as viewed learning as a competitive weapon.
The common point with these two activities is precisely the intangibility of the assets covered. The persistence of a culture of intellectual capital is rooted in organizational culture, to the point that makes it through borders that would not be achieved with tangible assets.
Another common point is that both deal with knowledge as highly available information, but mostly indestructible, leading organizations to work differently than they did before, based on ancient methods is the specialization of labor , and long hours of manual labor. However, despite all the benefits of knowledge management are many barriers to be broken prior to providing the benefits expected of it.
One of the biggest challenges they face, is to make a real commitment of employees, which is accomplished with a drastic change in the culture of the organization and strong support from the administration of the company, but this change in culture takes time and is very difficult. Despite this, the company can use various tools to remove this barrier, as the strong leadership developed in the company as well as a dramatic change in expectations and setting new objectives, one tool can be strengthened by stimulation of culture and greater empowerment.
Another obstacle is the selection and sharing of knowledge, it is not simple to choose what knowledge will be useful for the company and after being selected to do the same to be shared, because the knowledge is in the minds of employees and shares only if they want and to wherever they want. Finally, the measurement of outcomes after implementing a knowledge management model is not a simple matter, since the same intangibility of knowledge does not make the measurement task is easy.
All companies must take a reality and the world in which we move, is shifting from an industrial to a knowledge economy, it is necessary to understand that, unless you change the way we operate, there is no opportunity to achieve sustained success in this highly dynamic business environment.
This means that organizations should prepare to stop operating in ways that were effective during the industrial economy, to take new approaches that better suit the new situation. In this sense, Ventura (1994) considers that the capacities of the company is a dynamic concept which expresses the conjunction between resources and organizational patterns, and determine what a company is and can become.
To achieve this, companies need to possess six basic skills.
1 .- Production
Companies should produce goods and services using the appropriate application of knowledge in the appropriate structures and processes. This involves using knowledge to control processes that are often very complex.
2 .- Responsiveness
The quick reaction to market changes, is both a challenge and an opportunity for companies.
3 .- Ability to anticipate
For a complete success, a company must be able to see the big picture and not just react to trends, but anticipating them.
4 .- Ability to create
Companies should constantly look for ways you can keep adding value as they go.
5 .- Ability to endure
The professional knowledge, play a crucial role in the knowledge economy. This will lead to the professional knowledge, not easily engage with a company, but is more liberal, seeking greater satisfaction.
6 .- Ability to learn
Companies should follow the process proposed by some authors unlearn, relearn, that is, must be open to new methods and forms, but above all learn about themselves and their network of relationships.
The organizations that compete successfully are those wi
th a permanent attitude to manage knowledge, ie, develop a proactive capacity towards change, which included in its management structure to integrate systems thinking to do, which are able to bind all members of the organization, through practice groups relevant to it and make the professional development of its people.
It should be clear that the accumulation of knowledge without a specific purpose, provides no value in itself. This knowledge should be managed strategically aligned with the strategy of the organization and allows you to learn at all times.
4 – Models of Intellectual Capital Measurement
The need to quantify knowledge-based resources, require more effort than measuring tangible assets because, as has been said is its intangibility precisely what makes them so subjective on many occasions. For this purpose various models have been developed measurement we will attempt to summarize.
Skandia Navigator 4.1-
It was developed by the Finnish company Skandia, for Edvisson and Malone between 1992 and 1997, it led to the first business publication on the measurement of knowledge in 1994.
This model introduces the consideration of a temporal dimension triple past, present and future, ie, assumes the past referring to the financial approach, sees this as the emphasis that the company should make to your customer relationships and internal processes of the company, and finally visualize the future as a focus for renewal and development.
This model defines human capital as intangible assets owned by the people who compose the organization and on the other hand defines structural capital as the knowledge possessed by the organization.
With this structure provides the company Skandia model from different perspectives that support each other, integrated into a system which takes into account, but above all strengthens the economic approach.
4.2-Technology Broker Model:
Powered by Brookings in 1997 feeds the fire fueled by the need to develop a methodology to audit information related to intellectual capital. The model breaks down intellectual capital into four blocks and within these blocks introduce qualitative indicators. (Gonzales, 2005).
In this model the intellectual capital consists of:
Market assets, which are those arising from a beneficial relationship between the company and its market and customers and thus provide a competitive advantage in the market. (Gonzales, 2005).
Another component is the intellectual property assets, it is property rights that come from the intellect. Give an additional value for the company is the exclusive exploitation of an intangible asset.
The third component modeled Broker technology are human assets, which emphasizes the importance of people in organizations for their ability to learn and use knowledge.
Finally there are the infrastructure assets, which include technologies, methods and processes that allow the company to operate. This includes: the philosophy of business, organizational culture, information systems and databases in the enterprise.
The model also provides the steps to carry out an efficient management of intellectual capital:
• Identification of intellectual capital
• Development of intellectual capital policy
• Intellectual Capital Audit
• Documentation and file in the knowledge base of intellectual capital
• Protection of intellectual capital
• Growth and renewal of intellectual capital
• Release
4.3-Model and Model Intelect Intellectus
The model intellect, creates a process of identifying, selecting, structuring and measurement of assets is generally not evaluated in a structured manner by organizations.
The project’s objective intellect was to design a measurement model of intellectual capital of organizations. By approaching the value of the company explained its market value and obtain information on the organization’s actual capacity to generate sustainable results, continuous improvement and long-term growth.
The main features of the model intellect are: linking intellectual capital with business strategy is a flexible and open, measure the results and the processes that generate them, is applicable in practice, presents a systemic view and Finally combining different measurement units.
As in other models Intelect model structure includes three main blocks, the human capital, structural and relational, which can not be defined because they are basically the same definitions given above, but rather we focus on step intellect to intellectus model.
How to be supposed intellectus model takes as its basic reference model intellect. From the three main concepts of this model incorporating the new trends, and lessons learned from the business application of intellect model of best international practices in knowledge management and intellectual capital.
The biggest need for the intellect intellectus model is motivated by the need to enhance the equality of the components included in each block and prevent different and unrelated elements are treated. In this connection, the three capitals originating intellect model has spent five intellectus capital in the model: human capital, organizational capital, technological capital, business capital and relational capital. (Gonzales, 2005).
The structural capital is decomposed into technological and organizational capital, which recognize the need to separate internal administrative aspects of those other abilities more closely linked with the development of technological innovations. In turn, the relational capital is divided into basic business capital and social capital on relations with other agents acting with their environment.
4.4 “Intellectual Assets Monitor Model
This model of intellectual capital measurement, was developed by Sveiby in 1997 as a complement to the theory of “Enterprise of Knowledge”, developed by in 1986.
According to the model, the measurement of intangible assets has a double orientation:
• External to inform customers, shareholders and suppliers
• Internal, addressed to the management team to know the progress of the company.
The model defines three areas of importance assets external structure and internal structure of individual skills, these will be defined below.
External structure assets: Refer to the customer base, relationships with suppliers, banks and shareholders. These assets are owned by the company and some of them may be legally protected as trademarks.
Active internal structure: Refers to the formal and informal organizational structure, methods and procedures of work, databases, systems research and development, systems and management. These are full ownership of the company.
Assets individual competition: they relate to education, experience, know-how, knowledge, skills, values and attitudes of people working in the company, not owned by the company, but contracts to use them.
The key feature of this model is the development of three types of indicators within each structure:
• Indicators of growth and innovation, reflected the potential future of the company.
• efficiency indicators: tell us how intangibles are productive.
• Stability Indicator: indicates the degree of permanence of these assets in the company.
5 – Origin and Definition of Human Capital
It is known that mankind has had little development times and others in which the company has simply evolved.
The last two industrial revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are among the most relevant. The information technology and telecommunications, which have increasingly become central to the advancement of the society of our time, to the extent that some call the information society.
It is not necessary to be an expert to check the outward signs of this information society, such as mobile phones, internet, electronic commerce, digit
al television, cable television. However, information systems and telecommunications are but a means to convey to effectively manage content and knowledge, which as already described above is the main source of sustainable competitive advantages of organizations.
So, step has been opening the assertion that the primary source of competitive advantage for an organization lies primarily in their knowledge, or more precisely on what it does, how it uses what it knows and in his capacity as instructed in learning new things. Thus, in connection with this special importance of knowledge, today’s world also called a “knowledge society”.
The human capital theory, was developed by American economist Gary Becker in 1964, who was awarded the Nobel, the development of the concept. Becker began studying knowledge societies and concluded that his treasure was the human capital they possessed, namely, knowledge and skills that are part of the people, their health and quality of their work habits and is used to produce goods and services.
In the past, it was considered that the primacy of economic development and then would come the rest, is completely different today because the relationship between education and economic progress is essential. Becker points out as follows: “The growing importance of human capital can be seen from the experiences of workers in modern economies that lack sufficient education and training in the workplace.”
Human capital is defined as: “Increased production capacity of work, achieved with improved capabilities of workers.” (Cruz, 2004).
The term capital expresses the idea of an intangible stock imputed to a person, which can be accumulated or used. It really is an investment. Human capital distinguishes two possible styles of training: general training acquired in the traditional educational system, training is financed by the worker and the specific training is gained in a production or service enables the development worker productivity within the company, in this case is funded by both the company and by the worker.
The management must identify human capital with which she works, at present there are various tools that help make this identification is complete, in order to ensure productivity, creativity, innovation and quality.
6 – Components of Human Capital
Any company with advanced mentality should have a comprehensive process of developing and exploiting the capabilities of human capital as the main basis in meeting the objectives of the organization.
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