ORIZZONTI INTERNAZIONALI
93, 2012
A networked approach
to HR development
Getting the best from educational
processes that involve different
cohorts of workers
di Sergio Sangiorgi*
Il recente dibattito sulla durata della vita la-
vorativa rende necessaria una riflessione sugli
aspetti legati all’uscita dal mondo del lavoro,
alla perdita di conoscenza per le organizzazio-
ni, alla necessità di trovare modi e forme di
continuità intergenerazionale.
Se il quadro socio-economico non lascia mol-
te risorse per affrontare questi temi, quali pos-
sono essere le strategie per conservare e sfrut-
tare nella competitività il patrimonio di cono-
scenza accumulato negli anni dalle organizza-
zioni?
Considerata la creazione di conoscenza come
un processo sociale, cosa succede quando chi
ha contribuito a crearla e a svilupparla diviene
in breve tempo un “ex”? Quali possono essere le
azioni più efficaci per valorizzare al meglio le
risorse disponibili e, soprattutto, come indivi-
duarle cogliendo sia le singole caratteristiche,
sia le relazioni ne possono facilitare lo scambio
e lo sviluppo?
La riflessione che l’articolo propone parte da
un approccio relazionale che offre alcuni spun-
ti interessanti su come gestire questi processi,
* Psicologo - Università di Bologna.
A networking approach to HR development
n.
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anche in chiave formativa e di accompagna-
mento di carriera, in una prospettiva interna-
zionale.
C.B.
A challenge for HR
The need to approach HR matters in a more
“networked” perspective is one of the “hot top-
ics” in academic research and discussions about
HR challenges: moving the focus from “within-
employee factors” to “between-employee fac-
tors and to give value to the connections that
combine to create new processes, products and
services.
What seems to challenge every day many HR
managers, facing nowadays hard times for orga-
nizations (and people’s employability), is how to
get the best (and hopefully more) from the few
resources they have (leaving to academics the
pleasure to debate on networked organiza-
tions). Unfortunately, in most cases, what could
have been enhanced about the management of
human capital (individual characteristics and
resources) has already been pursued by in-
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spired (and even less inspired) HR depart-
ments.
Traditionally, personal resources (knowl-
edge, work habits, personal and social identi-
ty); personal skills set and organizational con-
text demands (expected working behavior,
working conditions, environment and organiza-
tion, in order to activate and modulate individ-
ual’s professional competences) are the main fo-
cus of HR function interventions. But today’s
economic constraints and market crisis seem to
make quite hard to find new solutions to com-
petitiveness with less resources (in other words,
doing better with less).
And there’s another issue that in the last few
years seems to worry HR managers and profes-
sionals: aging (of workforce..).
Retirement plans and performance, career
plans, substitutions (or, better, no substitu-
tions) and talents retention are some of the key
issues that often knock on the doors of HR’s
depts.
So, to take care of our HR professional’s prob-
lems we may leave aside for a while the fascinat-
ing discussion on networks and social capital.
Age, career and performance
Workforce is aging worldwide.
Career patterns of older workers and their
possible drivers are one of the current hot top-
ics in HR research. In a labour market that of-
ten polarizes between younger and older work-
ers some stereotypes still remain (e.g. older
workers less motivated, flexible, able to learn).
Current research tells us that realities may be
quite different from what people think about
older – and younger – workers.
Though age is perceived as a key determinant
of performance, facts show that it is less impor-
tant than individual skills. The stereotype that
claim older workers to perform at a lower level
than younger workers to date hasn’t been sup-
ported by research (Ng & Feldman, 2008).
From an applied point of view, it’s always
useful to remind managers that there is more
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skill and performance variation within age
groups than between age groups. Older workers
may be focused on issues other career advance-
ment, such as maintaining their skills and inter-
personal aspects of work (Bertolino, Truxillo,
& Fraccaroli, 2011).
A meta-analysis of age and job performance
(Ng & Feldman, 2008) examined the effects of
age on some key performance dimensions and
results on actual job performance of older
workers show that they:
• appear just as motivated as younger workers;
• may work to compensate for any cognitive de-
clines; wisdom (crystallized intelligence) may
compensate;
• show a more positive work performance in
terms of a number of key dimensions.
Following the reasoning about older worker’s
performance, another key topic is about their
career transitions and the role of social net-
works (left aside for a while and promptly
back!).
Recent studies have shown that retirement
quality seems to be associated with retirees’ at-
tributes and environmental features that may
be referred to the contextual “embeddedness”
of life transitions and interdependence of life
spheres.
For those who are working longer, recent
works emphasize older worker’s motivation to
build and maintain relationships with col-
leagues (Bertolino, Truxillo, & Fraccaroli,
2011).
Among many others (physical, cognitive, fi-
nancial etc.) social resources (e.g., social sup-
port) seem to play a key role for those who are
about to retire (Kim, & Feldman, 2000). Social
support, the mechanism by which interpersonal
relationships presumably buffer one against a
stressful environment (Cohen et al., 1984),
plays an important role in career transitions.
Research on age and career patterns takes
advantage of including a network approach
(Borgatti et al., 2009) to better understand the
possible effects of people’s social resources on
their career patterns and quality of life. Peo-
A networking approach to HR development
 ORIZZONTI INTERNAZIONALI
ple’s ability to perceive, manage and modify the
web of relationships in which they are embed-
ded is considered a competence that gives value
to social capital accumulated during working
life.
The ability to share knowledge and contacts
keeping the network alive after their retirement
is an important “heritage” from older workers
to be appreciated.
What role for educational processes in help-
ing people’s transition in their late career, and
organizations to retain valuable and “net-
worked” knowledge?
On social capital and other stories..
If social capital is what connects human capi-
tal, and these patterns of connections may pro-
duce advantages, some types of individual net-
working behaviors (such as acquiring or shar-
ing knowledge through ties built with people
within and outside the organization) may bene-
fit both the individual and the organization it-
self.
How to encourage and guide these networking
processes and through which perspective is it
possible to capture both individual and organi-
zational development benefits? Is there any way
to design educational programs focused on Hu-
man Capital development and Social capital de-
velopment?
Given that social capital flows, lives and
changes over social networks, which kind of
networks are more effective in helping creativi-
ty and knowledge sharing processes?
Two italian researchers built up a theory that
points to a mechanisms by which social net-
works affect individual creativity (Ferriani &
Cattani, 2008).
Their map of “who worked with who” analyz-
ing a sample of Hollywood films allowed to dis-
play people’s position (either near the core or
the boundary of the network) and to calculate
some social network analysis statistical indexes.
Results showed that in film industry (as well
as other types of organizations), the “new”
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tends to lay on peripheral positions whether in
the (or fairly near) the core stands the power
(and therefore resources).
The relationship between the person and the
social system, between new ideas and their legit-
imation, lies at the core of author’s social net-
work perspective on individual creative perfor-
mance.
Back to “our” older workers, is there any-
thing noteworthy about their possible bridging
role between the core and the periphery? Defi-
nitely this could be an interesting perspective to
look at, for people that have (or may have) ac-
cumulated precious social capital and will soon
leave the organization.
But sometimes network position itself isn’t
enough.
An up-to-date research on social network and
knowledge sharing (Reinholt & Pedersen, 2011)
points out some interesting aspects about peo-
ple’s behavior in organizations.
Author’s basic argument is that “although an
employee’s network position represents the op-
portunity to engage in knowledge sharing with
colleagues, the employee needs adequate moti-
vation and ability to fully exploit this opportu-
nity”.
In many organizations, facilitating knowledge
sharing through networks has become an in-
creasingly important part of management prac-
tice. Though social networks are often promot-
ed and supported by the management (e.g., on-
line communities of practice, expert network
groups), managers should be aware that such
initiatives only create opportunities for knowl-
edge sharing. For example, workers that have a
valuable experience and may be about to retire
may not automatically feel in charge of sharing
their valuable social capital.
A strategy that could help in eliciting people’s
prosocial behaviors is giving feedback on indi-
vidual employees’ knowledge-sharing perfor-
mance. According to Grant (2007) this is likely
to support autonomous motivation to engage in
knowledge sharing. Employees who are aware
of the positive impact their behavior has on oth-
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ers (e.g., colleagues’ improved performance
and/or career success) are more motivated to
make a prosocial difference.
A dynamic approach
What’s challenging HR managers nowadays
seems to be the need to manage careers and per-
formance in times of economic and staffing con-
straints.
Focusing on individual characteristics and
human capital may not be the only way to get
out of troubles.
Using a network perspective to find new ways
to social capital enhancement seems to open new
solutions. One of these “formula” might take
advantage of older workers characteristics and
strengths, matching their motivations with
proactivity, knowledge provision and, poten-
tially, well-being.
Let’s see how older workers may represent,
once more, a valuable asset for organizations.
A strategy to combine all (or at lest a signifi-
cant number of) the above mentioned topics can
be represented by mentoring processes.
Mentoring is multidimensional including psy-
chosocial support, career and job advice, and
information about the organization and its his-
tory, especially informal aspects. Recently, re-
search has focused on the relationships between
mentoring and social capital. Seibert and col-
leagues (2001) note that social capital consists of
mentorships and network resources and
Bozionelos (2003) consider that mentoring can
play a direct role in building network resources,
which in turn influence career success.
The key dimension of a recent research
(Feeney & Bozeman, 2008) is the social capital
aspect of mentoring, and how mentors enhance
protégé social capital resources through the
conveying of contacts, personal introductions,
and network ties. The assumption is that en-
hanced network ties are beneficial in terms of
career development and job opportunities.
Accepting that ‘Better connected people en-
joy higher returns’ (Burt, 2000: 347), mentor-
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ing can potentially increase network ties and ul-
timately individual and perhaps organizational
effectiveness.
One interesting aspect, according to Feeney
and Bozeman, is the likelihood that the protégé
will enhance the prestige of the mentor. This
can represent a positive effect in an older work-
er’s social support and well being perspective.
Author’s investigation of mentoring and net-
work ties seems to confirm the assumption that
more ties are better. That is, those who have
more extensive social capital, network ties both
inside and outside the organization, will have
the most positive outcomes.
Although the “network approach” doesn’t
pretend to be a panacea, it may offer new possi-
bilities to match today’s organizational con-
straints and resources.
Mentoring processes could represent a field
in which older and younger workers may play
with reciprocal advantages, developing their ca-
reers (through different steps) and helping or-
ganizations to get out from “troubled waters”.
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