Machines and buildings are not the only assets of an organization. The talents of employees also belong on the ledger, increasingly so in a knowledge economy. While it will require creativity to change the standard accounting principles, it is possible for us to restore the concept of human capital and to identify the means by which this capital can be assessed and assigned a value. When we take this stance, the appreciative perspective acquires some muscles. It moves beyond the softer dimensions of appreciative inquiry. The appreciative perspective becomes something more than a vague statement regarding the important role people play in organizations. Appreciative consultants assist their organizational clients embrace strategies and frameworks that put human talents and machines on an equal financial footing and that place people at the heart of the enterprise rather than in a peripheral position.
We use the term human capital for a third reason. We use this term to honor the insights offered by Hernando De Soto. He doesn’t use the term appreciation, nor is he likely to be aware of appreciative inquiry. However, his commitment to finding and securing the wealth that is to be found among the poorest people in the world is among the most disciplined and humane form of appreciative analysis to be offered during the past two decades. We hope that our own analysis of hidden human capital in contemporary organizations does justice to De Soto’s illuminating analysis of capital in underdeveloped countries.
