SOCIOLOGY

Social Capital and Interagency Operations



Social Capital and Interagency Operations

Introduction

Social Capital is said to be a sociological concept that can be defined as the degree of cooperation and confidence that can enhance the value of the social relations in an organization to produce effective and efficient results. Interagency operations can be termed as one or more agencies of the government working in collaboration. The agencies work in an absolute planned and formal way. There is no room for informal networking in interagency operations although informal networking can be a source of bettering the formal way of working. Such work mode is required at a strategic as well as at an operational level (Falk, 1999).

Importance

The importance of the concept of social capital can be supported by the literature along with numerous empirical studies conducted to present the vitality of social capital with respect to socioeconomic phenomena. Social Capital plays a vital role in interagency operations. A strong connection between social capital and interagency operations can serve many advantages. Firstly, it boosts the probability for cooperative action in solving a problem or an issue in times of crisis. It can also facilitate in combined decision making process to solve a problem. Secondly, it can facilitate the organizations in sharing innovations by enhancing the inter-linkages amidst the individuals. This can further aid in achieving smooth flow of work process. Thirdly, it can aid in reducing the data imperfections or error and can further aid in the expansion of the variety of enforcement oriented mechanisms. It consequently results in increased transactions in terms of output, land, credit as well as labor markets.

It is argued that the concept of social capital cannot be implemented on a short term basis. This can be proven by numerous empirical studies. For example, with respect to an organization if there is a structural change as well as a composition change then it would consequently require higher level of employee involvement which will in turn aid in building up social capital. Another example of it could be the design or change of the composition of school related activities. Bringing about a change in school curriculum would require higher parental as well as teacher involvement in order to cope up with the change. Bringing about a social change needs a lot of preplanning and hence it is very time consuming.

It is also argued that the accession of the concept of social capital ...