An Application of Knowledge Management and Human Capital Valuation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of Knowledge Management (KM) and Human Capital Valuation (HCV) as it is applied in credit unions. Knowledge has been recognized as one of the most important assets, which if appropriately managed, provides a foundation for creating core competencies and competitive advantages for organizations. KM applications and strategies have become critical and significant in the credit union industry, as they operate in a highly competitive and knowledge-intensive financial marketplace. A few factors depict the level of KM maturity within an organization, the priority of implementation, and the availability and affordability of resources. HCV is the balance sheet metric from a development of systems and infrastructure, which can tie metrics of employee behavior of value offering back to the member owners (stakeholders). The case studies described in this chapter are based on the business experience of the author, a credit union CEO of 12 years and a business consultant to the Midwest-region of the United States, in the credit union industry for 6 years. A KM audit and an HCV were conducted in a mid-sized credit union. The appreciation of KM and HCV are developing in the credit union industry; however, it is found that organizations have not been able to capitalize on the expected benefits and leverage their performances with KM solutions and HC Strategies, unless it is priority and a planned event. This is a developing industry with signs of future improvement. There are examples siting various Midwest credit unions, where KM applications and HC Strategies are evident at various stages with opportunities for intellectual growth and learning.

Strategic Human Capital, Team Composition and Project Team Performance

This chapter seeks to explore what characteristic of human capital at the individual level links to the performance in project-based organizations (PBOs). In particular, we are interested in the enriching of the individual flexibility construct, which has received minimal investigation from the strategic literature. Moreover, the challenges inherent to this topic are arguably more acute in PBOs, where temporary teams are strategically relevant to the success of the performance and individuals need to be more flexible in order to contribute to high levels of project performance. In particular, we support the idea that the flexibility of members enrolled within teams may influence positively the project performance.

Innovation and the Value of Human Capital in a Collegiate Setting

This case study illustrates the value of intellectual capital measurement, specific to human capital and innovation capital within an academic unit at a University of Wisconsin System campus. Within the case study, the academic unit was audited for their innovation practices and then examined to identify the value of human capital on their front line employees. Innovation continues to be a crucial component within academia as well as organizations in general to provide a competitive advantage. Understanding the value front line employees brings to a non-profit organization in academia continues to be a growing concern for many Universities'. The case study contains three parts; an innovation audit, several models and formulas to understand the value of human capital within a particular academic unit, and an overall conclusion and recommendation will be given for the current academic unit at the University of Wisconsin System campus.

Cybersecurity and Human Capital in Community Banks

The topic is cybersecurity and human capital. The research question explored is, “Do United States (US) community businesses have the right human capital and technology resources to effectively counter the rising threat of cybercrime in the US?” Research findings conclude that US businesses need to increase their efforts and invest in technologies, staff, technical training, and processes and programs aimed at improving the use of risk-based assessments, defenses, intrusion and anomaly detection, and the business's ability to recover should a cybercrime take place.

Human Capital Accumulation in Medical Simulated Learning Environments

Economic evaluations of the use of medical simulation in nursing curricula to enhance human capital and positively affect clinical and patient outcomes are rare. This chapter first provides a conceptual model of the use of simulated learning environments (SLEs) in nursing curricula and associated clinical and patient outcomes. Second, it reviews economic evaluation methods in medical simulation drawing from similar fields, such as aviation. Third, it provides a methodological framework for conducting full economic evaluations of SLE programs, which includes the identification, measurement, valuation and comparison of all relevant economic benefits with economic costs for any competing programs. The framework used in this chapter has applicability to any health care field, in which medical simulations are used as an alternative program, to serve as a guide, or be adopted with ease.

Towards an Understanding of Team Dynamics in Very Small Enterprises

Given that it is relatively noncontroversial to claim that human capital, both in terms of education and experience, is associated with superior firm performance, this can be extended to say that having the requisite human capital in terms of software development staff is highly important for software development project success. However, translating into actual corporate benefits implies an understanding of the range of human capital issues in organizations. The present study examines one such range of issues with a focus on the dynamics of teams, where team dynamics is taken as a general term to denote the nature, quality and quantity of interactions among a firms human capital at the team level. Specifically we refer to collaborative dynamics among human capital team resources to indicate the extent to which valuable information is shared, levels of engagement, the existence of a collective sense of awareness and the ability to learn from one another. The results of a study of a series of very small software development firms are presented to ground this study in industrial practice.

Leveraging Human Capital Assets with Cognitive Computing

Computer science, data proliferation and cognitive studies are interwoven as complementary (even while potentially disruptive) concerns affecting virtually every other domain and discipline. As these concerns cut across fields, their impact takes multi-disciplinary approaches to new levels. This chapter introduces Watson, the cognitive science cloud-based computing service offered by IBM, as it relates to several areas of high abstraction, high information processing activities – the work of experts. Watson's capabilities are shown to be far more complex than keyword search engines, demonstrating that through the use of supervised machine learning, additional value to the organization in the form of a learning cognitive system is created. The quantification of the value of the investment an organization makes in leveraging the expertise of their employees through cognitive systems, software and processes is considered from a financial accounting perspective. A new role in the organization to oversee adoption and ensure delivery of the value promised by the technologies is described – the metacognition analyst.

A Multidisciplinary Critical Approach to Measure and Analyze Human Capital Productivity

The objectives of the article are, to illustrate the complex dimensions of the relationship between human capital management and organizational performance and to provide insight into new methods for organization development. Methods are a combination of several research areas, including system intelligence, tacit signals, quality of the working life index and the theory of human capital production function. This article presents a holistic approach of multi-disciplinary research that emphasizes the complexity of HRM-Performance and explains why, in some cases, human resource development increases business performance, and in other cases not. Development complexity is more difficult when organizational performance is measured by monetary value. The article presents human capital intangible assets' connection to monetary scorecards using human capital production function, which explains and also makes it possible to predict human resource development payback. This article's methods form a skeleton for future research and give fundamentals for effective organization human capital performance development.

A Study on the Effect of Culture and Human and Social Capital on Entrepreneurial Strategies in Family Businesses in Iran

Family businesses are formed and often transferred to new generations in order to achieve both financial and non-financial desired performances. Socioemotional wealth, such as a family's desire to exercise authority, and enjoyment of family influence, is an important driver of non-financial desires. Family business owners take into account socioemotional gains or losses for the family when considering the relative risks and benefits of various strategic choices. Culture, human capital, and social capital are some of the variables that influence decisions regarding socioemotional gains and losses. Entrepreneurship is also favorable for any economy and the interconnectivity of family businesses and entrepreneurship is of a great importance. To study the effect of the mentioned variables we have studied family business in Iran, a family oriented country with a strong cultural consistency which in many cases influences businesses. This study aims to analyze how culture, human capital, and social capital affect the preservation and development of socioemotional wealth in families and how they affect the firm's performance.

Human Capital and International Assignments

This chapter addresses the strategic importance of expatriate managers in the process of knowledge acquisition, and consequently the enrichment of the human capital of the firm. It proceeds by proposing guidelines for selection, training, compensating, and retaining foreign expatriate managers to avoid interruptions of assignments, that can be very expensive, or attrition, that causes a loss of accumulated knowledge to the firm.