Minimizing the Impact of Organizational Distress on Intellectual and Social Capital Through Development of Collaborative Capital

Abstract

Intellectual capital (IC) and social capital (SC), as forms of intangible value in organizations, are crucial assets in today's volatile business environment. Efforts to retain and develop these intangibles are becoming more deliberate and disciplined. However, organizations fail to recognize the relationship between organizational distress and the loss and/or reduction of intangible value. The loss of intangible value may potentially impact an organization with equal or greater damage than the loss of more tangible value. IC and SC generate many outcomes beneficial to the individual and the organization. These benefits are reduced when stress of employees becomes excessive and damaging. The relationship between the health of an organization and the degree of impact of distress serves as a lingering threat to organizational financial resources. Managers must build upon the growing knowledge from research and practice to help organizations account for the costs of organizational distress, translate the importance of intangible value into tangible terms, and garner support for developing IC and SC to obtain business objectives. Deliberate and disciplined effort to build collaborative capital can facilitate the growth of IC and SC which minimize the damage of organizational distress.

Citation

Kennedy, M.F. and Beyerlein, M.M. (2005), "Minimizing the Impact of Organizational Distress on Intellectual and Social Capital Through Development of Collaborative Capital", Beyerlein, M.M., Beyerlein, S.T. and Kennedy, F.A. (Ed.) Collaborative Capital: Creating Intangible Value (Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 237-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-0977(05)11009-7