Intellectual capital and maintenance of work ability: The wellbeing perspective

The well-being perspective of the employees’ is only seldom connected to the discussion on intellectual capital. This paper analyses expert interview data on intellectual capital with maintenance of work ability (MWA) as frame of reference. The framework includes employees’ health but also competencies, work community and work environment. This paper shows that the most essential change caused by intellectual capital has taken place in relation to competence because the focus is shifting from individual’s competencies to collective competence. Changes in work environment, work community and employee’s health are shown to be underlying processes behind this development. Employees’ wellbeing, which is the prerequisite for successful knowledge creation, is determined by successful management of all these four processes.