Universal Journal of Management and Social Sciences

Vol. 3, No.8; August 2013

A Survey of social capital aspects in Organizations

Dr.Bijan Shafiee Department of Public management, Islamic Azad University Rasht Branch, Rasht Iran Abstract Today, in addition to human capital finance and economy, other capital has been proposed in organizations and communities, as "social capital." This concept is of modern concepts in sociology. This has close relation with human capital as most important source of organizations. Social capital provides an excellent platform for the exploitation and utilization of human resources in organizations. On the other hand, benefiting from other capitals of organizations is possible because of this capital, and this point refers to the importance of this capital in organization. Keywords: Social capital, Organizational Commitment, Trust, Information flow 1.Introduction Some believe that the concept of social capital refers to links and relationships between members of a network, as a valuable source that by creating the norms and mutual trust, will cause achieving the goals of members (Alvani,2004). Social Capital plays much more important role than physical and human capital (material) in organizations and communities. Collective relationships and networks ," is. Consistent between "people" and "organization with human" and organization with organizations and without social capital, other capitals will lose their effectiveness (Alvani,2004) .Unlike traditional investments, this capital, increasing in practice by using and applying (Salimi et al, 2004) .In the past, social capital was not a critical competency for organizations; But at present, rapid IT environment changing, growing needs for information and education necessary requirements for innovation and creativity,continuous improvement, changing towards design of flat and flexible organizational structure, the relationship between the network and customers, suppliers and competitors will require that the leaders of organizations create social capital as an specific organizational competence (Rahmanpour, 2003).

Figure (1): different capital of organizations

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Vol. 3, No.8; August 2013

Ronald Burt believes that social capital refers to the social composition and physiognomy, which through it characteristics such as trust, norms and shared beliefs and networks (to improve usability and facilitate the coordination of the work) are, formed (Ronald Burt,2007). Social capital can be known as derived relationships based on mutual understanding and trust between employees and organizational managers and the nature of social organization in which all resources are created and make social life of organization, more pleasant and more agreeable (Alvani 2004). By using Social capital can be realized that why an organization or company moves successfully and why the organization is on track to break. Social capital focuses on the cooperation and coordination of human resources and norms that increase cooperation and coordination within the organization, Precise definitions of social capital we will found that this concept emphasis on concepts such as trust, cooperation and interaction between members of an organization or group. We also based on this process, first mention some aspects of social capital, and then factors affecting it: 2.Aspects of social capital 2-1 Trust Trust is a very fragile phenomenon that for creation requires a lot of time; but it can be easily eliminated, and access it again, is not an easy task. Also, since the trust provides trust, should say distrust also cause exacerbated distrust (Parsaian & Arabi,1998). Trust, including concepts that are used repeatedly in the debate: Leadership, change, human relations, and the active participation of individuals, Existence of trust atmosphere and ruling it on human relations among people, is one of the longstanding ambitions. Trust is very necessary for effective human relationships, establishing and improving organizational communication, transformational leadership and the people, group formation and group work, and partnerships for successful organizational change (Salimi et al, 2004). Ronesis Likert has put his management systems theory based on mutual trust and interaction between managers and employees and acknowledges managers should be much closer to his proposed style(Hersi ,2008). In the organization that Mutual confidence between its members is accepted as a norm and members of it and management move further towards the trust, organizational processes have improved, work done faster and internal processes is done more effectively and efficiently. Of course this trust is proposed In addition to relationships between members within an organization, can be viewed as an essential element in the relationship between the organization and the surrounding community, especially its clients and customers, that in case of realization of such thing, in organizations surrounding community, will have more Popularity and acceptance and the strength of its interaction with neighboring systems, will increase. 2-2 Dimension of Trust Stephen Robbins, consider five dimensions for trust as follows: 1. Honesty: friendly, clean, and has a color of truth 2. Competence: technical knowledge and skills in human relations 3. Stability: the reliability and predictive power and good judgment, to cope with different circumstances 4. Loyalty: honor and other secrets 5. Frank: Gadgets. Giving information freely (Robbins,2005)

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Vol. 3, No.8; August 2013

2-3 Participation Mutual cooperation in organizations is another interesting aspect of the concept of social capital. In concept of participation lie two things. That idea of equality of human worth is the most basic and fundamental of these two. Another thought behind that, refers To participate as a process that through it staff development standing and responsibilities, or other changes, can get and consider themselves as a part of evolutions 'within the organization'(Toolai,2002) Participation of employees, if comes from belief in "Human Relationship Management" an indication of the growth of human personality and will be effective to ensure need of employees to get respect and great self-discovery. The importance of employee participation in the organization, rise to the concept of "participatory management" in the organization has as a management style. Participatory management is set of workflow and operation that make all employees, including managers and subordinates in an organization, in the decision making process relating to the organization, involved and included. This kind of management is based on the cooperation of members in activity process and wants to benefit from Ideas of organization forces in order to solve organizational problems. Wider participation may provide more reliability and its participants, gain experience and get a chance to witness benevolence, the reliability competencies, honesty and breadth of their partners. Powell, named this trust of the community, as social capital and it is treated like a real fortune. (Abbaszadegan, 1998) Sashkin, argues that participation leads to improved performance and increased productivity through: Increase organizational commitment, satisfied the de- challenging and security, (Salimi,2004) better decisions, higher spirit of self-actualization, increased effectiveness and efficiency of the organization and increased commitment and personal development, are of arguments phenomena involved in the organizations that confirmed. According to experts ideas a sense of ownership among staff, motivate people increase the working life, higher values of human sit in the culture of Hermitage and reduce stress and reducing middle management, of benefits of participatory management in terms of efficiency. 2-4 Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment based on Alan Doyer theory, is a state of mind (First, determines employee relations, with organizations, and secondly refer implicitly to the continuation or discontinuation of individual membership in organization (Danaifard, 2001). Potter and his colleagues considered Components of organizational commitment includes These cases: 1. Belief in the organization's goals and values; 2. Keen desire to organization Way, 3. Deep desire to membership in the organization (Behboodi, 1998) Commitment cannot be imposed this issue is an internal affair and often when people's participation can amplify this feeling (Salehpour, 2004). About effective factors also should say social capital and these factors affecting each other (figure 2) Among the effective factors we pointed to three factors: Organizational Communications, Organizational Culture 48

Universal Journal of Management and Social Sciences And information flow in organizations

Vol. 3, No.8; August 2013

Social capital Organizational Communications Organizational Culture Information flow

Trust

Participation

Organizational Commitment

Figure 2: Factors effecting Social capital Information flow in organizations Organizational Communications, Organizational Culture 3. Factors effecting Social capital 3-1 Information Flow One of the roles of organizational leaders is giving effective, timely and adequate information to staff. Those leaders, who are unwilling to share information to individuals, will never be successful in managing their employees and never will have organizational empowerment (Haghighi,2002) 3-2 Organizational Communications Managers, because of little time, every time communicate with their subordinates , do not have enough time for follow-up messages provide feedback or communication from bottom to top. In such circumstances, creation and development environment based on mutual trust between managers and employees can facilitate communication and managers who are able to create such an atmosphere in the organization adding to their credibility as a result, the message will be understood by those (Rabbins,2005) 3-3 Organizational Culture Organizational culture consists of the unique pattern of assumptions, shared values and norms that forms socialization activity patterns of organization and operations (30) Many experts in this case agree that purpose of the corporate culture, is a common perception that members have toward organizations and this feature makes distinction between two organizations (Abbaszadegan,2004) 4- Conclusion Effective factors of social capital in organizations in all three major aspects of social capital namely, trust, participation and organizational commitment are briefly discussed above. Although social capital in organizations, has many other aspects as well; But considering brevity and importance, the three main aspects was paid in the following paragraphs, we talked about some of the factors affecting social 49

Universal Journal of Management and Social Sciences

Vol. 3, No.8; August 2013

capital, but before that, we need to point out that the concepts presented in this article are all interacting with each other and this feature is a social science concepts this is good to understand explanations of each concept. References Abbaszadegan Mohammed ,(2000),"Principles of Organization and Management", Tehran: Publishing Company Abbaszadegan Mohammed , (2004),"troubled administration", Tehran: Kavir Alvani Mehdi and Shirvani Alireza, (2004)"social capital, the guiding principle of development" Tadbir Magazin, No. 147 Ahmad Bazzaz Jazayeri, (2005)"employee empowerment-based management", Tadbir Magazin, No. 162 Alvani Mahdi, (2005) "The role of management in the development of social capital", Tadbir, No. 100. Behboodi MR (2000)Comparative Evaluation of of organizational commitment in the fields of public and private companies, management, master's thesis, University of Shahid Beheshti, Danai Fard Hassan ,(2001)"Pathology participative management in the public sector", Journal of Management Today (Tabatabai University) Luqman Rehman pour, (2003 ) "Social capital management approach on the part of human resource management", Journal of Management Development, No. 19 Parsaeian Ali and Arabi Mohammad ,(1999),"Principles of Organizational Behavior, Stephen Robbins" Translation, Tehran: Office Cultural Research, , pp. 118. Paul Hersey R.. K ,(2008) "Management of Organizational Behavior", translation: Alagheh band , Tehran: Amir Kabir. Toulabi Zainab (2002 )participation and decision making ", Management Education Quarterly, No. 29, 30 Rahnavard Farajollah and Radmanesh (2003) Iran 'participatory decision-making and organizational commitment ", Journal of Knowledge Management, No. 62 Robert Marcus,( 2003). "decision-making", translation: Iraj Safa, Tehran: ISIran Mohammed Ali Haghighi ,(2010) Management, organizational behavior, and colleagues, Tehran: cashmere, p 81. Robert Heller, (2002) "Manage Groups", Tehran: Sargol Salimi Ghorbanali et al., (2004)"The relationship between organizational climate and confidence in the work of teachers in city schools", Journal of Management Salimi, Mohammad Hossein,(2001) "Collaboration and Collaborative Management in Education, Management Education, No. 28 Salehpour Masoomeh ,(2004 ) "The relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment of teachers, school districts, 4, 6 and 7 Mashhad", Quarterly Management in Education, No. 27, 30 Education, No. 37- 40, pp. 78, 80.

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