Issues concerning organisations' experts and their expertise

![CDATA[The importance of human capital in contributing to effective organisation performance has been recognised widely by many private sector, public sector and third sector organisations. Bontis (1996) discussed in some depth the importance of human capital to an organisation's successful operation. 'People are our greatest asset' is a statement often included in organisations' annual reports. Paradoxically after stating this, many companies have then initiated major downsizing operations in which a significant proportion of this 'greatest asset' is permanently removed from the organisation. Accordingly, while it would be generally agreed that effective use of human capital allows organisations to achieve strategic objectives such as increase profits, ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks, or improve client satisfaction for goods and/or services delivered, there is limited understanding of the linkages between human capital and these organisational outcomes. One reason for this is that human capital factors exist inside people's brains and the thought processes they perform or the actions they undertake and by being intangible, the linkages referred to above are inherently difficult to comprehend or study. Accordingly, the management of human capital by organisations would seem to be an area in which significant further research effort could be expended. As part of this effort, this paper considers the impact of experts and their expertise on the maintenance and development of an organisation's human capital.]]