This transformation of the invisible to the visible (as, for example, in the monetization of services) is just as appropriate in the realm of human capital as it is in the realm of real property and machines. Yet, in the realm of human capital, the West is often far behind many organizations in other parts of the world. Organizations in North America and Europe are filled with extraordinary human knowledge and skills. Wisdom abounds and craftsmanship is to be found at all levels and in every department in contemporary organizations. Yet, this human capital is often unacknowledged. The process of effective and appreciative organizational consultation can be the conversion process of which De Soto writes. Appreciation is the transformation of invisible talents to visibly acknowledged and engaged knowledge, skills and aptitudes. The Human Resource Bank is a tangible mechanism to bring about this appreciative transformation.
An Inventory of Human Resources
We are not starting from scratch when designing a Human Resource Bank. Any organization of any size or complexity keeps some sort of an inventory of the equipment it owns. Even more sophisticated and information-rich organizations have established extensive management information systems (MIS) that keep track of everything from income and expenses to production schedules and regional sales performance. Only the most exceptional organizations, however, keep systematic record of their most important resources, namely, the competencies possessed by those who work in the organization. We specifically propose that organizational consultants help their clients create a system in their organization that enables their organization to identify and keep a record of the skills, knowledge and aptitudes (SKAs) of their employees—these SKAs constituting the competencies of an organization.
The skills possessed by members of an organization include those behavioral competencies that can readily be observed and usually measured. An employee’s ability to efficiently operate a specific computer program or to polish the floors in our office are based on a cluster of skills—sometimes called a skill set.
On the other hand, knowledge is not directly observable, nor is it easily measured. We only know of the knowledge that an employee possesses through indirect means, such as the employee’s verbalization of the knowledge, or the employee’s use of the knowledge in performing certain functions of in making certain decisions. The knowledge that an employee possesses, for instance, may be evident in her teaching of a specific set of concepts in a corporate training session or in the decisions she makes regarding the use of a particular marketing strategy.
