Workplace social capital and relational coordination – how are they associated?

Abstract

The approach of workplace social capital has received a considerable attention in Denmark within the latest decades. Recently, the concept of relational coordination has further been introduced in the Danish work environmental context. But how are the concepts of social capital and relational coordination associated? To what extent is there agreement between the measurements of the one and the other? The overall purpose of this article is to qualify the discussion of the practical application of measurements of social capital and relational coordination in the creation of change and development at the worksites. Specifically, we examined the extent to which employees’ responses to questions about relational coordination was associated with their answers to the questions of social capital, and to what extent the two concepts were associated with some key factors related to the psychosocial work environment, namely job involvement, perceived quality of work and psychological well-being. Finally, we examined whether the results could support a mediating effect of social capital between relational coordination and the three outcomes. That is, whether relational coordination contributes to social capital which in turn contributes to job-involvement, perceived quality, and psychological well-being. The article is based on survey data reported by care workers as part of the project Relational Coordination in everyday rehabilitation. This project was conducted between 2012 and 2013 in five Danish mu-nicipalities, all in different phases in a process implementing everyday rehabilitation. As part of the project, we conducted an adaptation of the questionnaire to measure relational coordination in a Danish context. In summary, the results showed a moderate agreement between measurements of social capital and relational coordination, respectively, and between each of the two factors and the three outcomes. Further, they supported the assumption that the relationship between relational coordination on the one hand and psychological well-being, involvement and quality of work were mediated by social capital. In relation to practical experience the results make sense. The social capital issues of trust, justice and collaboration seem to function as key markers of the quality of working relationships. They can give overall corrections of the direction of development, but they are not concrete action oriented. The answers to questions about relational coordination characterize the quality of specific relationships and the nature of the communication that carries them. They can more or less give some “handles” to the development of the relationships or point to elements of communication that can be expected to have the greatest impact on improving cooperation.