Sofie Micklisch

Discussion one: Human capital

Florida Southwestern State College

          “Human capital is the productive potential of an individual’s knowledge and actions (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012, p. 8).” This means, that people, or workers are a type of resource that can be used to help a company grow and prosper (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). People are going to want things like food, clothing, and a rood over their head, meaning they have the potential to want to work to achieve those things (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). This is best seen when people look at migrants coming in to other countries. When it comes to migrants, this is the case as well because they are going to want to advance in their careers (Ramboarison- Lalao, Ariss, & Barth, 2012). For Malagasy migrants, “human capital is a key determinant of career outcome for skilled migrants, leading to their career success (Ramboarison- Lalao, Ariss, & Barth, 2012, paragraph 3).” This means, that when migrants come in to a country they are driven to want to succeed so they can better support their families (Ramboarison- Lalao, Ariss, & Barth, 2012). America is very similar to this in that there are a lot of Mexican and Cuban migrants that work very hard to support their families. 

          Employers can develop their organization’s human capital in a multitude of ways. The first way that this can be done is through training (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Employers will want their employees to know what to do and when to do it (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Training also has its benefits in that an employee who has certain skills and knowledge could be worth something to another organization as well (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). If someone works at a retail store somewhere their traits can be used in other retail stores if they decide to switch jobs. Work-based development opportunities are another way to develop an organization’s human capital (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). This can be achieved through job rotation and shadowing (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Employees can also learn certain activities outside of work (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Becoming fluent in another language, such as German or Spanish in Florida, can attract foreign customers and make the employee a very valuable asset to the company (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). In today's society it is extremely important for people to know more than one language. With the invention of the internet events are now becoming more global than ever before. Career planning also has a huge influence on an organization’s human capital (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). These are, “opportunities identified inside or outside of your current place of employment and assess your strengths and weaknesses (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012, p. 11).” By, organizational and external context, the authors are referring to internal and external social capital (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). These two types of social capital can help mentor employees in their job careers, and they can allow them to meet other companies and learn other job opportunities when it comes to external social capital (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Mentoring employees can  be really important to the company because the managers working there would want their employees to know as much as they can. If any trouble happens to come up managers can then rely on their employees to help solve the conflict. 

References

Kinicki, A. & Fugate, M. (2012). Chapter 1: Needed: People-centered managers and workplaces. Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills, and best practices. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Ramboarison- Lalao, L., Ariss, A. & Barth, I. (2012). Careers of skilled migrants: Understanding the experiences of Malagasy physicians in France. The journal of management development, 31(2), 116-129. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/02621711211199467

          Rebeccah, a lot of what you mentioned in your post makes sense, and you explained things really well. In a sense, we all provide human capital because we all want food, clothing, and a roof over our heads (Kinicki & Fugate, 2012). Children are dependent on their parents when they are young for all of these things, but at they grow older they become a valuable source of human capital. One of the articles I read online explained that human capital from migrants, specifically that of Chinese migrants, is even even higher then that of non-migrants (Liu, 2011). This might be because migrants may be more motivated then those people who originally live there to work and support their families. One thing is certain, human capital is extremely important for starting a business (Liu, 2011). People have to rely on each other and trust one another in a business or things may not work out.

References

Kinicki, A. & Fugate, M. (2012). Chapter 1: Needed: People-centered managers and workplaces. Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills, and best practices. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Liu, J. (2011). Human capital, migration and rural entrepreneurship in China. Indian growth and development review, 4(2), 100-122. Retrieved from  http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17538251111172023