Organizational Social Capital: Indicators and Measurement

Abstract

Social capital is broadly defined as an asset that lies in social networks and relations. Literature highlights that the indicators and a definite model to define social capital is still under a debate. This study focuses on identifying the most common indicators for defining social capital and testing them in the local context of Pakistan. Thorough literature review identified eight common indicators for the structural, relational and cognitive aspects of social capital and an adapted questionnaire was used to obtain data from the selected population i.e. permanent faculty members of University of the Punjab. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test these indicators, which highlighted nine indicators in the factor loadings. Since the theme of most of the factor loadings was similar to the original indicators tested, the model is thus said to be verified. This means that the selected indicators i.e. ‘Information sharing’ and ‘Communication’ for Structural Dimension; ‘Trust’, ‘Networks’ and ‘Collective Action and Cooperation’ for Relational Dimension; and ‘Shared Vision’, ‘Social Cohesion and Inclusion’ and ‘Influence’ for Cognitive Dimension have been proven to be valid to gauge the concept of social capital.
Furthermore, results highlight that the selected organization has moderate levels of social capital and need to improve the quality of relations among the employees. This paper lays the foundation for Human Resource Practitioners as well as researchers to identify in future researches how Organizational Social Capital can be optimally utilized for improved performance.