ECONOMISTS are of the view that capital today is embodied less in land, factories, tools and machines. Instead it is increasingly relying on the knowledge and skills of workers. Many argue that in addition to skills and knowledge, a great portion of human capital has to do with people’s ability to co-operate with each other. This is critical not only to economic life but to all other aspects of society’s existence and functions.
The need for every individual to co-operate in his or her economic undertaking for example, will greatly depend, in turn, on the degree to which communities share norms and values that are positively supportive. They must be able to influence individual inclination to those of the community’s interests.
Out of such shared values comes trust. Trust is a belief in and reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, et cetera, of a person. Indeed these values of trust have an important economic significance for present day economic performance. To Francis Fukuyama, trust is the social virtue and the creation of prosperity.
To Fukuyama, law, contract, and economic rationality provide a necessary but not sufficient basis for both the stability and prosperity of post-industrial societies; they must as well be leavened with reciprocity, moral obligation, duty towards community, and trust, which are based on habit rather than rational calculation.
Luckily in our religious tradition these values of trust are significantly highlighted. Islam teaches that man from the beginning has been created in the best of moulds. He needs others by nature and he can improve himself by working together with others. That requires man to consult his affairs by mutual consultation. This requires the presence of trust in human dealings.
Islam insists that human relationship should be based on convenant relationship. These convenant relationships are developed through feelings, trust in one another, intimacy or brotherhood. The more trust we build among ourselves, he more intimate we are with one another. This will strengthen teamwork in organisations and society.
Unfortunately in our present social condition, man is becoming very materialistic and individualistic. It is materialistic because our world view is being influenced and rooted in the realm of economic factors.
We are very committed that our individual success and welfare can only be achieved through accumulation of wealth for our own bigger consumption. This approach to life is very disturbing because it can never lead to social cohesiveness and eventually can contribute to declining economic performance.
On top of that, we are also highlighting the significant position and role of a person as an individual in society. The rationalism on this individual in economic activities is to bring the most out of his economic conduct.
This contribute towards the individual becoming very calculative. Most of his actions are for his own personal benefit. Subscribing to these values has contributed significantly to our declining degree of trust in our individual
relationship.
In order to strengthen trust in society, this perception of ours has to be transformed in line with our religious belief. It is not good for society as a whole to be self-centred as it will demoralise people to work together for common purposes in groups and organisations.The concept of human capital as widely used and understood among economists thus should not be restricted to individual advancement in knowledge and skills but should also include the ability of individuals to associate with others for common economic advancement.
Towards strengthening the feeling of trust among individuals in our economic activities, a number of principles have to be inculcated in our economic organisations. These principles are the following:
Leadership should practise what it preaches: Good leadership contributes significantly to an organisation’s success. Leadership by example is the best policy. In order to achieve this objective, our religious belief, world view and values system should be as closely integrated into our work lives in the organisation as they are integrated into our families and our other activities.
Enhancing the spirit of consultation: This begins with an understanding of the diversity of human strength. Everyone in the organisation comes with certain gifts–but not the same gifts. Strong co-operation will allow these gifts to be expressed in different ways for the good of the organisation. In this respect, the spirit of consultation before undertaking any responsibility is a very basic requirement.
Everybody is important for the organisation: Each of us, no matter what our rank in the hierarchy may be, has the same rights: to be needed, to be involved, to have a covenant relationship, to understand the organisation, to affect our destiny, to be accountable, appeal, to make a commitment.
Relationships are more important titan structures: We know that structures, systems and even procedures are important to organisations. They are important as far as providing necessary guidelines especially to the new staff, the means of achieving uniformity, avoiding or reducing arbitrariness, and even avoiding embarrassment.
Whatever structures, systems or procedures we have, we still need individuals with the right attitude to effectively use them. Groups are formed on the basis of trust which can only come about through good relationship between people. Structures do not have anything to do with trust. It is people who built trust.
In our march to present and future success, one cannot but give great concern about the need to instill trust in our organisations. This can strengthen teamwork within organisations and can address declining sociability in our present society.