Social capital and leadership development

Purpose As organizations face volatile and virtual environments there is a growing need to equip emerging leaders with skills to generate, utilize and maintain social capital. This paper aims to examine five recent, large leadership studies to clarify the role that human capital or social capital capabilities play in present day and future leadership. Design/methodology/approach Researchers review five recent large leadership studies, assessing the human capital and/or social capital orientation of identified leadership capabilities. Findings The analysis indicates that, although there is a primary focus on human capital capabilities, social capital skills have begun to receive more attention as components of a leader's skill set. Research limitations/implications The review focused on five published studies and does not reflect the comprehensiveness of a meta‐analysis. Hence conclusions may not apply to all situations. Further exploration and longitudinal study of the efficacy of various developmental approaches and the differential impacts of human and social capital approaches on leaders' effectiveness is suggested. Practical implications The growing value placed on leadership social capital capabilities is further addressed here through the presentation of specific social capital skill development initiatives that may be implemented within an organization. Originality/value The paper suggests that social capital skills have received more attention recently, yet remain undervalued compared with human capital as important leadership components and offers suggestions for enhancing leadership development initiatives through specific foci on social capital skill development including adopting an open‐systems organic mindset, leveraging relational aspects of leadership development, and building networking and story‐telling skills.