By Dr Syed Monirul Hossain, Lecturer
Department of Management,
Sunway University Business School
In today’s world, the need for creating social capital is vital for developing a sustainable relationship with corporations to increase the employability of new graduates. The rise of unemployment is viewed globally as a massive obstacle for graduating students. One of my research projects also found that lack of collaborations between universities and corporations lead to significant network gaps that result in unemployability for them. Building interpersonal relationships are deemed as the essence of social capital theory in creating collaborative networks. The theory also describes the environment as embedded with goodwill, trust, and rapport, yielding positive outcomes through the development of stronger connections within social networks. Social capital is instrumental in shaping relationships to make organizations work effectively. In this light, two perspectives have been suggested, namely bridging and bonding relationships utilizing norms and informal values that drive group members to be subjectively obligated to share in their networks. Thus, it may be presumed, at least rhetorically, that universities do not significantly facilitate resources in terms of building bridging and bonding relationships with corporates for employability. For this reason, many scholars of social capital reiterate that such absence of bridging and bonding relationships between universities and corporations are persistent, this would adversely affect the students’ employability for the long term.
Ostensibly, bridging and bonding issues of social capital have a crucial impact on the social life and career goals of the students in every sphere. Education should not only be the centre for knowledge acquisition but also a platform that connects students and academics with the corporate world. This should be a mandate rather than a choice for creating social capital that would dilute network ties with corporations. However, a University can build bridging and bonding relationships which is not simply an innate capability. It is an organizational asset inherited from social relations that shape through norms and informal values to establish collaborative networks.
University authorities should have a vision of creating bridging and bonding relationships with corporations. This is immensely necessary not only for our students’ employability but also for addressing industry problems through research. Universities should facilitate resources to develop collaborative networks and nurture graduates in a way that shapes their competence and behaviour so that they can build connectivity with corporations through social capital. Interestingly, Sunway University, one of the emerging and most successful Private Universities in Malaysia, has set such an instance. Its network base is profoundly robust. Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah, the visionary and charismatic founder of the Education Group is committed to developing worldwide networks through bridging and bonding relationships with other organizations for creating a value-based education system that is conducive to producing young leaders for tomorrow’s corporations. The founder already set up Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development in collaboration with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Association and the Centre for Asia Leadership in partnership with Harvard University. This is a milestone initiative taken by Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah to create bridging and bonding relationships with its partners towards sustainable development for our students’ employability and growth for future expansion.
