Hop, step, jump! Building social capital by learning through bridging, bonding and linking

Studies on social capital have produced major evidence for the contention that a firm's social capital has an important implication on organisational performance and innovation (Leana and Van Buren, 1999). More recently, there is research that suggest that there are highly significant links between people's network and their learning (Van der Krogt, 1998). Utilising individual knowledge and skills is increasingly becoming a core task in the field of Human Resource Development (HRD). Herein, the skills and knowledge that is created within organisations can be seen as created through groups rather than by isolated individuals (Field, 2005). The premise of this study was that within the organisational context, the ability for an individual to acquire new skills and knowledge depends on different types of connections between organisational members. In turn, this is effected by the composition of social capital. The underlying reason of this premise is that individuals construct their own organisational context in which the acquirement of skills and knowledge takes place. The more connected employees are with others in the organisational context, the more likely they will be knowledge productive or innovative. These inter-person connections in organisations prove to be a major vehicle to organise and to understand work-related learning processes.