Get the most from your most important asset: A conceptual and managerial model for harnessing the value of strategic human capital

In this chapter we complete our analysis regarding the development of human capital as a resource at the unit/firm level, and subsequently we provide a conceptual model for harnessing human capital and helping scholars and managers to understand in detail how this highly relevant resource contributes to firms’ success. First, we focus our contribution on the importance of the meso-managerial level in human capital management and deployment and clarify why its neglect by extant studies is a critical fallacy by observing that the two major disciplines interested in this important resource (that is, strategic management and human resources/organizational behavior) failed to understand how this main component (individuals’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics – KSAOs – at the unit/firm level) is actually conveyed to the collective, higher-order level, which constitutes a major area of inconsistency. Subsequently, we advance a conceptual framework describing how human capital evolves from a collection of individuals’ KSAOs into a collective, higher-order resource at the unit/firm level, thanks to the introduction of a meso level in the conceptual framework of human capital resources.