Embrace social capital to improve wellbeing

Today, it’s a big question on whether health can be solely determined by income or wealth. But available information shows that social networks are good capital and ingredients in improving our health and wellbeing.

Social capital refers to networks and ties, which deliver support, information, and trust for the members.

David Halpern, in Summary of social capital,  proposed that social capital exists at three different levels; the micro level (family), the Meso level (neighborhood), and the macro level (nation).

The key feature of social capital is its focus on the relationships among individuals. Unlike human capital, (which focuses on individual abilities) and economic capital (which refers to possession), social capital addresses the networks and ties, in which individuals are interwoven.

The three known forms of social capital as defined by Putnam include bonding, bridging, and linking. Bonding refers to strong direct links between individuals in a similar socio-demographic and socio-economic or socio-cultural environment. Bridging pertains to comparatively weak horizontal connections between different groups, which originate from a similar social class that we see on WhatsApp platforms.

Linking refers to vertical links between privileged and less privileged groups like the Rotary clubs and other such social associations around us.

In today’s society, businesses are under pressure to show that their profits do not come at the expense of the people and planet. More often, shareholders and stakeholders are challenging organisations on their nonfinancial impacts and to show that their purpose benefits society.

To meet this expectation, organisations are trying to measure their nonfinancial impact and measure their intangible value like goodwill, image, and intellectual property. This intangible value has been realised through engagement in several corporate social responsibility activities. While managing social and human capital requires investment and resources, it can help create long-term business value by revealing key dependencies and risks and can also help facilitate meaningful communication and engagement with a broader range of stakeholders.

Being a member of a network gives the person the advantage of obtaining information, support, access and trust. These, in turn, improve life satisfaction and wellbeing.

Andreas Klocke and Sven Stadtmüller from Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences investigated the impact of social capital on the health of children in their developmental process. The study revealed that health status and behaviour are strongly linked with both well-being and quality of life, as documented in the worldwide population studies.

However, determining how to improve health in individuals and societies is more uncertain. In general, there is a likelihood that the degree of social capital contributes to the sense of cohesion and connectedness, a concept that has become increasingly studied within the social sciences.

Thus, if organisations and institutions effectively managed their social and human capital, they would achieve outcomes including engaged stakeholders, enhanced communication, improved risk management, value chain market resilience, improved decision making, increased value creation for resilience and purposeful proposition, sustainable investments and increased shareholder discernment.

The citizens and organisations in Uganda need to launch Social & Human Capital Coalitions as part of their redefining of the value programme that involves developing a protocol for recognizing the value of people and communities.

The protocol provides a consistent process for measuring, valuing, and managing social and human capital, as well as a framework for collaborative action.

Patrick Kagaba Kajuma, MPA Scholar, Uganda Management Institute