Business process management: Exploring social capital within processes

This paper explores evidence of “social capital” within the service delivery process of a large telecommunications company. It considers the extent to which a specific business process exhibited structural, relational and cognitive features of social capital, which enabled social credits to be traded and status to be conferred across operational boundaries. Through a textual analysis of interview data, the research generates an understanding of how certain groups within business processes – often utilising informal structures – created, maintained and exchanged social credits. This framework of analysis is then applied to address the function of social capital within the process. Evidence is presented to suggests that credits shared across functional boundaries informed upon employees ability to deal with emergencies, recover services and to cope when things went wrong. The paper concludes by making a range of propositions that may enable managers to identify, build and maintain social capital within processes.