Silver Bullet: Learning to Manage Human Capital
Preeta M. Banerjee, Former Assistant Professor of StrategyWhile human capital may be valuable, it can also be costly and difficult to acquire and retain. As sociologist Howard Aldrich writes, “[most firms] can’t always get what they want, and certainly don’t always get what they need.” The issues of resource and time constraints are significantly exacerbated in emerging economies, especially as human resource management and human capital development practices continue to evolve. Due to resource and time constraints, many entrepreneurial firms use bricolage (“making do with what is on hand”). Bricolage is particularly important for new technology ventures, where the resource at hand is the technological skills of employees. Human asset evaluation – knowing what the firm has at hand – is the first step to employing human capital bricolage as a means to overcome human capital constraints.