Social capital literature

Lee has just published in the International Journal of Management reviews, a comprehensive review of the literature on social capital. The article is called Social capital and business and management: Setting a research agenda.

This is a comprehensive and systematic review (it indicates an audit trail) of relevant literature on social capital. There's an emphasis on the three dimensions that Napahiet & Ghosal write about, but with a comment on the dearth of understanding of cognitive social capital.

Lee argues (page 258):

"social actors that share meaningful communication attain synergy. Efficient use of co-operative language, codes and narratives among social actors creates such a synergy."

Mixed method research is recommended to establish links between social networks and something... - "agents acting out relational and cognitive actions"

Implications for research include looking at the linkages between structural, relational and cognitive social capital. In particular "cognitive social capital and the overall impact of shared language, codes and narratives remain neglected."

Useful stuff if you're researching social capital, which I'm not. I'm using the dimensions of social capital as a framework to understand how engagement might happen.

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LEE, R. (2009) Social capital and business and management: Setting a research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11, 247-273.
NAHAPIET, J. & GHOSHAL, S. (1998) Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of Management Review, 23, 242-266.

Dimensions of accountability

Romzek & Dubnick's 1994 model is a book that I haven't managed to get hold of, so I can only go by what Dicke & Ott say. They indicated that accountability has at least four competing dimensions: bureaucratic or hierarchical, legal, professional and political. To that they add a moral or ethical accountability quoting Dwivedi & Jabbra.

I'd guess that there'd be a match to Bovens types of accountability. For instance, his social accountability might match moral accountability.

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• Bovens, M. 2007. Analysing and Assessing Accountability: A Conceptual Framework. European Law Journal, 13(4): 447-468.
• Dicke, L. A., & Ott, J. S. 1999. Public Agency Accountability in Human Services Contracting. Public Productivity & Management Review, 22(4): 502-516.
• Dwivedi, 0 . P., & Jabbra, J. G. (1988). Public service responsibility and accountability. In J. G. Jabbra & O . P. Dwivedi (Eds.), Public service accountability (pp. 1-16). West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.
• Romzek, B. S., & Dubnick, M. J. (1994). Issues of accountability in flexible personnel systems. In P. W. Ingraham & B. S. Romzek (Eds.), New paradigms, for government (pp. 263-294). San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.