This section concludes the work in this course. The learners are expected to measure and report the intellectual capital for an organization and also apply these to educational institutions. I decided to finish up what I have started with NOUN and did the IC measurement and reporting for NOUN. I decided to use the balanced scorecard because it has a template for public and not-for profit institutions which will suit NOUN well. This assignment will cover the whole of chapter 4 of the main textbook. However, to use the balanced scorecard, I need to study very well about it and the approach it would take. Thus I had to download a lot of materials on the balanced scorecard and they paved they way for the assignment.
I mus confess that it was a very difficult but a rewarding experience. Though I am not good at graphics and tables using the computer, this assignments and the others have been a tremendous help for me. I had good feelings of satisfaction having done the assignments myself. This was the last assignment in this course and I also have a very good grade. The assignment can be viewed here:
Measuring NOUN IC through the Balanced Scorecard
The main problem I had here is deciding which out of the 43 valuation approaches I had listed would be suitable for the valuation of human capital in NOUN. The first thing I did was to negate all the approaches that were specifically suitable for for-profit organizations because they would not be suitable for NOUN being a public and not-for-profit organization. After reading about all these approaches, either from their website or literature written on them about others, and taking a look at their templates, I began to strike out those that I felt would not work. At the end of this process, I was left with only 4 approaches: the Danish Guidelines, the Skandia Navigator, the Value Chain scorecard and the Balanced Scorecard.
Though the main textbook used the Value Chain scorecard, I rejected it because it made use of many graphics that I know I cannot cope with. The choice was then left between the Balanced Scorecard and the Danish Guidelines. On comparing the templates of the two approaches, I settled for the Balanced Scorecard.
Another problem is that I needed to get some information that the university authority would regard as classified and since I did not secure an official permission for this assignment, I had to get the information through personal relationship with the human resources department.
Specifically here, I have learnt about the valuation approaches and actually how to do human valuation.
Monday 26 December 2011
Relational Capital's Contribution to Overall Productivity
This is one of the most interesting sections of the course. Relational capital is what one have been involved in really without knowing the technical name for it. The online discussion forum for every member of the class was thus a robust and interesting one. Most people are glued to a particular company not because their product is better than others but because a friend works there-and this is relational capital at work.
You can get a gist of the discussion from here:
Relational Capital Online Forum Discussion
I must confess that I did not have much problem in this section as it was mainly reading of related materials and relating the experienced that had taken place into the pictures being painted. Nevertheless, I learnt the theoretical approach to relational capital and I was able to place previous activities into their theoretical framework.
You can get a gist of the discussion from here:
Relational Capital Online Forum Discussion
I must confess that I did not have much problem in this section as it was mainly reading of related materials and relating the experienced that had taken place into the pictures being painted. Nevertheless, I learnt the theoretical approach to relational capital and I was able to place previous activities into their theoretical framework.
Identifying Organizational Intellectual Capital Resources and Putting it to Use
As at this point in the course, we had gone midway and was at the most difficult part of the course. This was based on chapters 2 and 3 of the main textbook which gave us a total of over 60 pages. It was a breaking experience as my instructor asked specifically that we should follow the step-by-step presentation as was done in the main textbook to produce power-point presentation that would produce an intellectual capital statement for any organization of our choice.
Naturally, I choose to continue with the use of NOUN no matter how difficult it would be and at the end, I found it very very rewarding. I must also confess that at this point, my office work began to interfere and my health also went to a low ebb. I actually asked for a week of grace in order to do a good work. I read the main textbook over and over again to see all the nuances involved in the task. At the end, I was able to get a clue to use. I must also confess that I was not good at figures but I determined not to allow anybody to help me do the work. I was glad that I did the work by myself and that it was also successful.
The following steps were followed:
Step 1: Creating a resource distinction tree (this would give a view of the institution's resource portfolio)
Step 2: Giving value judgement on the resources
Step 3: Creating the Intellectual Capital Navigator (ICN) to help identify, map and evaluate the institution's deployment of resources to create value.
Step 4: Producing the Normalized and Cleaned Transformation Matrix
Step 5: Creating the Effector Plot.
All these were done using NOUN as the organization and the assignment was completed in a total of 25 slides.
That the presentation would be done over Skype was a new and interesting experience for me. I was able to discuss with my instructor by voice (instead of texts that has been the medium of instruction since the commencement of the course) and I think it was worth the experience. My grade also was very motivating. Below is the link to the power-point presentation:
Power-point Presentation on NOUN's ICN
In this section, I came to know about all the terms that are listed above (as they were unknown to me before coming to this course) such as, the resource distinction tree, the intellectual capital navigator and the transformation matrix that grew out of the intellectual capital navigator. I did not only come to know what they mean, I also got to know how to create them. The following are the problems I encountered at this point:
As a person, I am not good in using figures and statistics. I also need to gather information from the head office and other staff in order to do proper weighting of the elements of the resource distinction tree. After the weighting of the RDT, I needed to study how the transformation matrix was created from the ICN. It took me a lot of time before I can get how the figures were calculated to also from the matrix and the cleaned matrix and also to that of the effector plot. I must also confess that on the first trial of the matrix, I got my calculations wrong and I did not know until when the effector plot added up to 114 instead of 100. I had to go back to the matrix to begin my calculations all over again before I got to the ones that were wrong and I corrected them and the effector plot added up to the correct figure.
I also had problems drawing tables and the matrices on the power-point slides, so I had to enter the table on the Microsoft Word and then copied it to the power-point from there.
Naturally, I choose to continue with the use of NOUN no matter how difficult it would be and at the end, I found it very very rewarding. I must also confess that at this point, my office work began to interfere and my health also went to a low ebb. I actually asked for a week of grace in order to do a good work. I read the main textbook over and over again to see all the nuances involved in the task. At the end, I was able to get a clue to use. I must also confess that I was not good at figures but I determined not to allow anybody to help me do the work. I was glad that I did the work by myself and that it was also successful.
The following steps were followed:
Step 1: Creating a resource distinction tree (this would give a view of the institution's resource portfolio)
Step 2: Giving value judgement on the resources
Step 3: Creating the Intellectual Capital Navigator (ICN) to help identify, map and evaluate the institution's deployment of resources to create value.
Step 4: Producing the Normalized and Cleaned Transformation Matrix
Step 5: Creating the Effector Plot.
All these were done using NOUN as the organization and the assignment was completed in a total of 25 slides.
That the presentation would be done over Skype was a new and interesting experience for me. I was able to discuss with my instructor by voice (instead of texts that has been the medium of instruction since the commencement of the course) and I think it was worth the experience. My grade also was very motivating. Below is the link to the power-point presentation:
Power-point Presentation on NOUN's ICN
In this section, I came to know about all the terms that are listed above (as they were unknown to me before coming to this course) such as, the resource distinction tree, the intellectual capital navigator and the transformation matrix that grew out of the intellectual capital navigator. I did not only come to know what they mean, I also got to know how to create them. The following are the problems I encountered at this point:
As a person, I am not good in using figures and statistics. I also need to gather information from the head office and other staff in order to do proper weighting of the elements of the resource distinction tree. After the weighting of the RDT, I needed to study how the transformation matrix was created from the ICN. It took me a lot of time before I can get how the figures were calculated to also from the matrix and the cleaned matrix and also to that of the effector plot. I must also confess that on the first trial of the matrix, I got my calculations wrong and I did not know until when the effector plot added up to 114 instead of 100. I had to go back to the matrix to begin my calculations all over again before I got to the ones that were wrong and I corrected them and the effector plot added up to the correct figure.
I also had problems drawing tables and the matrices on the power-point slides, so I had to enter the table on the Microsoft Word and then copied it to the power-point from there.
Human Capital Valuation Methods
After having gone through the basic introduction to the course, it is only naturally to begin building the blocks on this foundation. The next section of the course has to do with organizational aspects and valuation of human capital. To further build on the first assignment wherein I used the National Open University of Nigeria, Lagos,(NOUN) as my example organization because it my my own context and because it will always help me to apply whatever I am learning to my context, I decided to continue using NOUN as my organization of choice.
To be successful in this second part, it became necessary to master at least chapters 1 and 2 of the main textbook that has to do with role of human capital in the organization and the valuation methods. I also went on the web for more articles in this area to supplement my readings in this area. From my readings it becomes clear that the importance of human capital can be seen in 2 areas:
i. the investment in equipment is useless if there is no human skill to drive it
ii. the human capital is a major key to the success of any organization as they determine the organization's social capital.
Valuation of human capital also have 2 approaches:
i. cost of production approach
ii. capitalized earnings approach
In establishing the valuation method for NOUN, I came to crossroads because there is apparent lethargy among academic institutions to measure its human capital. At the end, I worked on the paper from Jones and others to get the key valuation indices for academic institutions and I adapted this to NOUN context since the context of an open university is different from that of a conventional institution and that of Nigeria as a developing country is clearly different from open universities in developed countries. This work was submitted as an assignment to my instructor and is shared below:
Human Capital Valuation Methodology for NOUN
The grade on this assignment too was very encouraging and the feedback too proved to be a motivation for further learning. I had learnt a lot on human capital management at this point from being a novice to one who would develop indices to measure human capital for his own institution.
I must confess that there was a lot to learn in this section including the importance of human capital and the history of human valuation from biblical terms when valuation was based on age and gender. At this point I began to learn about the various methods of valuation of human capital from the two approaches listed above. The main problem I had here was how to apply the human valuation method to the university environment. This became more acute as literature in this area was very scanty because as stated above, it seems that scholars are not interested in the valuation of the university staff. After several readings and downloading of materials, I got one article written specifically on human valuation in the university. I had to digest this article. It has to be noted that though the article I read recommended the Danish Valuation Model because according to the author, the Danish model is highly applicable to public organizations. After several study of the Danish model, I felt I cannot use it for NOUN, thus I decided to use the Balanced Scorecard. However, what I have read about the Danish model is not lost!
To be successful in this second part, it became necessary to master at least chapters 1 and 2 of the main textbook that has to do with role of human capital in the organization and the valuation methods. I also went on the web for more articles in this area to supplement my readings in this area. From my readings it becomes clear that the importance of human capital can be seen in 2 areas:
i. the investment in equipment is useless if there is no human skill to drive it
ii. the human capital is a major key to the success of any organization as they determine the organization's social capital.
Valuation of human capital also have 2 approaches:
i. cost of production approach
ii. capitalized earnings approach
In establishing the valuation method for NOUN, I came to crossroads because there is apparent lethargy among academic institutions to measure its human capital. At the end, I worked on the paper from Jones and others to get the key valuation indices for academic institutions and I adapted this to NOUN context since the context of an open university is different from that of a conventional institution and that of Nigeria as a developing country is clearly different from open universities in developed countries. This work was submitted as an assignment to my instructor and is shared below:
Human Capital Valuation Methodology for NOUN
The grade on this assignment too was very encouraging and the feedback too proved to be a motivation for further learning. I had learnt a lot on human capital management at this point from being a novice to one who would develop indices to measure human capital for his own institution.
I must confess that there was a lot to learn in this section including the importance of human capital and the history of human valuation from biblical terms when valuation was based on age and gender. At this point I began to learn about the various methods of valuation of human capital from the two approaches listed above. The main problem I had here was how to apply the human valuation method to the university environment. This became more acute as literature in this area was very scanty because as stated above, it seems that scholars are not interested in the valuation of the university staff. After several readings and downloading of materials, I got one article written specifically on human valuation in the university. I had to digest this article. It has to be noted that though the article I read recommended the Danish Valuation Model because according to the author, the Danish model is highly applicable to public organizations. After several study of the Danish model, I felt I cannot use it for NOUN, thus I decided to use the Balanced Scorecard. However, what I have read about the Danish model is not lost!
Basics of Intellectual Capital
Being the first part of the course, this was meant to be an introductory session. The students were expected to read and understand the concepts of Intellectual Capital (IC), Knowledge Management (KM), Intellectual Property (IP) and the differences between the tangible and the intangible assets. Apart from this, students are expected to relate these concepts to their own context, basically to show whether they understand these concepts or not.
Reading and understanding the main textbook for the course at the beginning was a nightmare. I was not making any headway because most of the language and the approach was strange to me. After having wasted about a week and a half, I decided to go and read journal articles on the subject and I did this though Google search and OUM library. It was a rewarding exercise as I had series of articles to read and were easier to understand. after this, I went back to the main textbook and I was able to comprehend this time around.
The evaluation for this section was to be done through online forum discussion and a 2 page summation assignment. The following is the link to both the assignment and the discussion forum:
Pillars of Intellectual Capital and their Roles
HMIC5503-Discussion Forum 1
I must confess that the prompt discussion forum feedback from my instructor and his encouragement were part of the factors that made me to go through successfully through this course. At the end of this first section, I had a very good grade in the summation assignment and it gave me enough confidence to carry on.
Specifically, I learnt here the definition of intellectual capital and the three pillars of intellectual capital, namely structural, human and social capital. I also came to know that structural capital is the supportive infrastructure that allows the human capital to function and it can be sub-divided into organizational, process and innovational capital. I also got to know the definition of human capital itself and what social capital means. It was my understanding of these concepts that allowed me to apply these to NOUN.
As I had said earlier, the major problem I had here was reading and understanding the main textbook and I overcame by going through smaller works like journal articles that made me to know most of the technical languages I encountered in the main textbook. When I came back to the textbook, it became easier for me to handle it.
Reading and understanding the main textbook for the course at the beginning was a nightmare. I was not making any headway because most of the language and the approach was strange to me. After having wasted about a week and a half, I decided to go and read journal articles on the subject and I did this though Google search and OUM library. It was a rewarding exercise as I had series of articles to read and were easier to understand. after this, I went back to the main textbook and I was able to comprehend this time around.
The evaluation for this section was to be done through online forum discussion and a 2 page summation assignment. The following is the link to both the assignment and the discussion forum:
Pillars of Intellectual Capital and their Roles
HMIC5503-Discussion Forum 1
I must confess that the prompt discussion forum feedback from my instructor and his encouragement were part of the factors that made me to go through successfully through this course. At the end of this first section, I had a very good grade in the summation assignment and it gave me enough confidence to carry on.
Specifically, I learnt here the definition of intellectual capital and the three pillars of intellectual capital, namely structural, human and social capital. I also came to know that structural capital is the supportive infrastructure that allows the human capital to function and it can be sub-divided into organizational, process and innovational capital. I also got to know the definition of human capital itself and what social capital means. It was my understanding of these concepts that allowed me to apply these to NOUN.
As I had said earlier, the major problem I had here was reading and understanding the main textbook and I overcame by going through smaller works like journal articles that made me to know most of the technical languages I encountered in the main textbook. When I came back to the textbook, it became easier for me to handle it.
HMIC5503-Managing Intellectual Capital
This course was designed to enable the learners to understand the contemporary concept of intellectual capital and open our eyes to the enormous opportunists intellectual capital holds for the organization and how the academic institutions can leverage on intellectual capital and create a competitive edge for themselves in the ever widening field of educational industry.
The facilitator for this course is:
The facilitator for this course is:
Dr.R.Shriram, Director – Faculty Training Academy and Professor – Department of Computer Science and Engineering, B.S. Abdur Rahman University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
The objectives for the course are as stated below:
At the end of the course, you should be able to explain:
- How IC has enhanced corporate competitiveness as a result of the integration of Information and communication technology (ICT) into business practices
- The methods and approaches related to management and measurement of knowledge-based assets
- The different elements of intellectual capital and how value can be derived from them
- The key points of various intellectual capital, intangible assets and management approaches that contributes in the success of knowledge management initiatives and strategies
- The role of educational institutions in fostering the thinking process.
Pre-HMID5503 Thoughts
When this course started, I was a total novice in the area of intellectual capital. The only related term that I was used to was the term ‘human resources’ which is a general term to depict the personnel department in many organizations today even when most of them to do not understand the concept of human capital. For us in the developing countries, these change in designation are due more to the current fad rather than an understanding of the modern concept of human capital.
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