A Notional Model of Creation, Maintenance, and Enrichment of Human Capital

Abstract

Systems engineering approaches to complex socio-technical systems need good models to represent the variety of human components of the complex system. Human systems integration (HSI) is the set of systems engineering processes that ensure all human-related technical issues are properly identified and addressed during system design and development. Thus, HSI applied to complex socio-technical systems needs a generalized model of all the human components of the system. A primary construct useful in this context is human capital; that is, the durable assets of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that humans possess that enable the production of goods and services in an economy. These same capital assets also consume the goods and services produced by that economy. Overall, the human capital is maintained by a healthcare system throughout the lifespan, and in-demand KSAs are created by an educational and training system. Enrichment of human capital can occur throughout the lifespan. Key criterion measures are the subjective well-being (SWB) and standard of living (SOL) of the population, the cost of producing KSAs that are in demand, the reduction in productivity due to health and safety problems, and the goodness of fit of KSAs of an individual with the KSAs demanded by their job. This model expands the traditional concerns of human factors to a socio-technical scale. Each of the seven domains of HSI can be expressed in more general terms across a broader organization. Examples of system performance measures that are used by this model include number of lost work days (due to health problems), disability adjusted life years, cost of producing a degree from an accredited school, and utilization of the available workforce.