A Complexity Framework for Understanding Intellectual Capital
摘要
The purpose of this chapter is to search for a possible answer to the future of intellectual capital by considering a complexity framework, able to reveal new aspects of both the content and the structure of it. Thus, the chapter will challenge the linear thinking of the canonical paradigm, its static nature, its rational content, and its mono-scale structure. Furthermore, the canonical model of intellectual capital, composed of human, structural, and relational capital, was designed for a generic organization. When it is applied at the level of individuals, it collapses to human capital, and when it is applied to ecosystems, it needs to be extended with new components. The canonical paradigm represents a static intellectual capital. We would like to demonstrate that intellectual capital is a dynamic entity, and it is transforming from a potential form into a kinetic form through the work performed by knowledge management. The final idea of this chapter is based on the multiscale representation of intellectual capital. At the microscale level, the structure of intellectual capital should consider the theory of knowledge fields, according to which we distinguish between rational knowledge, emotional knowledge, and spiritual knowledge. Thus, we will have rational intellectual capital, emotional intellectual capital, and spiritual intellectual capital. These components can be combined and scaled up to obtain any other model, including the classical one.