Managing Human Capital in Not‐for‐Profit Organizations

Abstract

Human capital in not‐for‐profit organizations encompasses skills and knowledge volunteers and employees use for the purpose of creating economic and social value. It is seen as a critical resource often generating the highest costs and revenues. Thus, human capital management, through its elements of analysis and reporting that improve decision making, is of special relevance to human resource management. While the concept of human capital is credited to have emerged out of Adam Smith's work, the 1960s have been recognized as its peak period of development. The view that human capital produces a triple impact at the individual, organizational, and societal levels is a dominant one in the field. Some of the important conceptual and theoretical differentiations are those between human, intellectual, social, and organizational capital. So far as its training is concerned, human capital is categorized as: general on‐the‐job training, specific on‐the‐job training, schooling, and other knowledge.