Combining mental health treatment with education for preschool children with severe emotional and behavioral problems

With increasing poverty among families with young children, increasing violence in cities, and increasing stress in families, the needs of preschool children with emotional and behavioral problems are growing more complex. Although policy mandates services for these children, their needs are not adequately met. Well-integrated, collaborative, interdisciplinary, child- and family-centered programs are required. This article reviews the characteristics of preschool children with emotional and behavioral problems, discusses existing models of service delivery, and presents a collaborative model for services that integrates mental health treatment and education. Combined mental health and education service models can lead to improved outcomes for at-risk preschool children

Human Resource Management in Microenterprises: Gateway for Success

Micro enterprises, businesses with five or fewer employees, represent about 75% of all small business, and are often the starting point for successful firms. Why then is there a paucity of research on human resource practices in small businesses? Micro businesses are almost ignored in studies regarding human resources in business. Researchers have assumed that all small firms have the same human resource practices; however, we know this is not the case. What impact does Human Resources Management have on small businesses? Human resource shortages can negatively impact business growth in the areas of high tech employees, sales staff, and professional workers. This study explored key human resource practices in micro businesses, especially on the relationship between sales, benefits, training opportunities and hiring expectations within micro enterprises. Our findings on human resources management showed that only 25% of responding micro entrepreneurs provided paid vacations, 12.9% offered health benefits, and 10% offered some type of retirement plan. Also, organizations with higher sales provided more benefits and training opportunities than other micro businesses

The planned decision to transfer an entrepreneurial company

We expand and test Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain the transfer of an entrepreneurial venture upon exit. Our results confirm TPB: transfer intentions and perceived control over the transfer are the main drivers of the likelihood to transfer. In addition, contextual business characteristics complement TPB in explaining transfer outcomes. While intangibility of firm assets directly impacts transfer outcomes, business viability is partially mediated via transfer intentions. These results shed more light on the role of implicit planning in transfer decisions and help to better understand contextual factors impacting the process of entrepreneurial exits

HRM inside UK e-commerce firms : innovations in the ‘new’ economy and continuities with the ‘old’

The e-commerce approach to people management (i.e. HRM) is popularly believed to be radically new and an innovative rewriting of the ‘old’ rules of employment. Yet little is known about which HR practices are used by such companies, and what might explain these companies’ policy selections in the realm of HR. Exploratory survey data based on a sample of 30 small-medium UK e-commerce firms reports use of employee involvement in decision-making, internal communication, financial participation and reward schemes, performance evaluation, training and provision for employment security. Insights from interviews with five senior managers from the sample augment the survey data with qualitative evidence on e-commerce firms’ approach to HR. The findings suggest that this approach falls somewhere between radical ‘new’ innovations and enduring continuities with ‘old’ people management techniques, and that this has parallels with the experience of small-medium enterprises generally