Of those who plan: A meta-analysis of the relationship between human capital and business planning

Business planning is a popular managerial practice, especially in the SME context. Yet, literature presents diverging perspectives regarding business planning and the role it fulfills for the individuals leading these organizations. To advance research, we focus on evidence regarding factors that determine whether and how individuals engage in business planning. Drawing on human capital concepts and the theory of planned behavior, we scrutinize how education and different prominent work experience types influence business planning behaviors. We use meta-analysis to aggregate data on 8095 observations leading SMEs from 31 independent data sets. We find critical differences in planning behaviors relating to human capital types, as well as to whether individuals engage in substantive planning processes or the specific preparation of a formal business plan. Implications of our findings for research on business planning are discussed.     

Food safety in the aging population: Qualitative findings on what to communicate and how

The present study investigated older adults’ risk perception, beliefs, and self-perception in the field of kitchen hygiene and food safety. A qualitative study with semi-structured focus groups was conducted. A total of 37 older adults (60–80 years of age) from Germany participated in four focus groups that were stratified by gender. Focus groups covered older adults’ food-handling practices, their perceptions of vulnerability, and their informational needs in the field of food safety. A thematic analysis approach was adopted. The coding categories and subcategories were developed inductively by the researchers based on the data. The coded data were then used to identify overarching themes and subthemes. Main results showed that older adults had confidence in their knowledge and skills with regard to food safety, perceived their post-war generation overall to be resistant and other so-called at-risk groups to be more vulnerable. Moreover, they expressed low informational needs in the area of food safety. The results suggest that age-specific aspects play a role in older adults’ risk perception and highlight the need to develop age-specific risk communication strategies that take into account older adults’ beliefs, knowledge, and informational needs.     

On estimands and the analysis of adverse events in the presence of varying follow‐up times within the benefit assessment of therapies

The analysis of adverse events (AEs) is a key component in the assessment of a drug's safety profile. Inappropriate analysis methods may result in misleading conclusions about a therapy's safety and consequently its benefit‐risk ratio. The statistical analysis of AEs is complicated by the fact that the follow‐up times can vary between the patients included in a clinical trial. This paper takes as its focus the analysis of AE data in the presence of varying follow‐up times within the benefit assessment of therapeutic interventions. Instead of approaching this issue directly and solely from an analysis point of view, we first discuss what should be estimated in the context of safety data, leading to the concept of estimands. Although the current discussion on estimands is mainly related to efficacy evaluation, the concept is applicable to safety endpoints as well. Within the framework of estimands, we present statistical methods for analysing AEs with the focus being on the time to the occurrence of the first AE of a specific type. We give recommendations which estimators should be used for the estimands described. Furthermore, we state practical implications of the analysis of AEs in clinical trials and give an overview of examples across different indications. We also provide a review of current practices of health technology assessment (HTA) agencies with respect to the evaluation of safety data. Finally, we describe problems with meta‐analyses of AE data and sketch possible solutions.     

‘Irrationality’ of managerial judgments: Implications for information systems

Four principal factors affecting rational information processing behavior in organizations are discussed. These are: (1) the nature and attributes of the messages received from the Management Information and Decision System (MIDS); (2) The personal qualities and attitudes of the manager himself; (3) the degree of social interaction; and (4) if a collective is involved, the format and group decision function used in arriving at a group position. Ways in which information specialists and operations researchers can counter, ameliorate, and exploit managers' judgmental biases and inconsistencies are then proposed. Areas for further research are suggested.     

INQUIRY

The following interview with Elise Miller, M.Ed., was conducted in December 2006. Ms. Miller is founder and executive director of the national Institute for Children's Environmental Health. As part of the Institute's programs, she serves as the Collaborative on Health and the Environment's (CHE's) national coordinator for the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative, chair of the CHE Coordinating Committee of national and regional working groups, and chair of CHE-Northwest. In addition, Ms. Miller currently serves on the national board of directors of the Children's Environmental Health Network as well as the professional advisory boards of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, and the Healthy Schools Network, Inc.     

Kann denn Coaching Führung sein?

May coaching be leadership? An analysis of literature on the term coaching. An analysis of the German-speaking literature about coaching shows for what the term Coaching or rather the title coach is used in actual publications dealing with the leading manager as a coach. It becomes apparent, that coaching is not seen as a specialized advisory profession. Instead the term is used as an alternative expression for leadership vocabulary as management style or managerial functions. The elaboration of terms and concepts concludes, that semantically it is meant leadership when it comes to the concept of the coaching manager. To be an exception, the management by systemic approach forms a brand-new perspective about organizations. However, to give respects to the German-speaking coaching community there should be a difference between leadership and coaching as well as notions and titles should be used more accurate among professional management coaches.     

Child‐centric or family focused? A study of child welfare workers' perceptions of ethnic minority children in England and Norway

This paper analyses child welfare workers' perceptions of ethnic minority children in England and Norway based on in‐depth interviews with 52 child welfare workers in 2008. We employ a child‐centric theoretical framework to explore up to what extent workers focus on minority children in their perceptions. We found that about half of our study participants (n= 27) did so, and many more in Norway than England. They perceived many risks and problems for minority children related to their ethnicity, including children's biculturalism and language skills, parenting methods, unequal treatment and racism, lack of social inclusion, and problems in school. Norwegian workers displayed a broad needs perception and embraced a change‐orientated perspective and held parents accountable for their children's educational success and social inclusion. English workers had a narrower approach, focusing on protecting children. We discuss how the cross‐country differences may be related to different welfare state and child welfare paradigms.     

Herausbildung einer akademischen Elite?

Given a tendency to higher third-party funding, the mechanisms of distribution of research money become more and more relevant for individual academic careers as well as for scientific institutions at large. This article focuses on an empirical test of hypotheses on the impact of universities’ size and reputation on the chances of grant approval. Using multivariate analysis of register data provided by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for all applications for single grants from 1992–2004, individual chances of grant approval as well as success rates in departmental grant acquisition are estimated. The analyses detect neither strong context effects on individual chances of grant approval nor a clear tendency towards a higher concentration of research funding on fewer universities. Only scientists working in West German universities with a long standing tradition have a slightly better chance to get research funding. At the level of university departments, higher personnel resources translate into a higher number of applications and approvals only for very large institutions. Regarding funding of single grants, there is no trend of a growing inequality among the universities. Finally, these results are discussed with a specific reference to the recently launched “Initiative for Excellence” – a program designed in order to foster high level research in Germany – and are contrasted to some arguments of Richard Münch.