The purpose of diversity initiatives is to help groups that face disadvantage in society achieve better outcomes in organizations, but they do not necessarily work as intended. To advance ...understanding of the effects of diversity initiatives, I develop a typological theory of their unintended consequences. I propose that diversity initiatives produce four unintended consequence types: backfire (negative diversity goal progress), negative spillover (undesirable effects on outcomes other than diversity goal progress), positive spillover (desirable effects on outcomes other than diversity goal progress), and false progress (improved diversity metrics without true diversity goal progress). I then adopt a signaling perspective to identify mechanisms underlying the four types and the diversity practices most likely to produce them. The resulting typological theory not only provides an organizing framework for prior work on the unintended consequences of diversity initiatives but also specifies new unintended consequence types, identifies signals that serve as their root causes, and suggests that the unintended consequences of diversity initiatives are interrelated and multidetermined. Collectively, these contributions advance a broader conceptualization of diversity initiative effectiveness, in which a wider range of mechanisms and outcomes, as well as the relationships among them, must be considered. More comprehensive theory regarding their unintended consequences provides a foundation for increasing diversity initiative effectiveness.
With the advent of effective tools to study lipids, including mass spectrometry-based lipidomics, lipids are emerging as central players in cancer biology. Lipids function as essential building ...blocks for membranes, serve as fuel to drive energy-demanding processes and play a key role as signaling molecules and as regulators of numerous cellular functions. Not unexpectedly, cancer cells, as well as other cell types in the tumor microenvironment, exploit various ways to acquire lipids and extensively rewire their metabolism as part of a plastic and context-dependent metabolic reprogramming that is driven by both oncogenic and environmental cues. The resulting changes in the fate and composition of lipids help cancer cells to thrive in a changing microenvironment by supporting key oncogenic functions and cancer hallmarks, including cellular energetics, promoting feedforward oncogenic signaling, resisting oxidative and other stresses, regulating intercellular communication and immune responses. Supported by the close connection between altered lipid metabolism and the pathogenic process, specific lipid profiles are emerging as unique disease biomarkers, with diagnostic, prognostic and predictive potential. Multiple preclinical studies illustrate the translational promise of exploiting lipid metabolism in cancer, and critically, have shown context dependent actionable vulnerabilities that can be rationally targeted, particularly in combinatorial approaches. Moreover, lipids themselves can be used as membrane disrupting agents or as key components of nanocarriers of various therapeutics. With a number of preclinical compounds and strategies that are approaching clinical trials, we are at the doorstep of exploiting a hitherto underappreciated hallmark of cancer and promising target in the oncologist's strategy to combat cancer.
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Initiatives aimed at fostering diversity in organizations have become an increasingly common means for combatting inequality among demographic groups. There is growing recognition that the success of ...diversity initiatives is a function of not only the relatively concrete policies they include but also less visible factors, such as the diversity cognitions held by organizational members. Diversity cognitions—and particularly beliefs regarding how to approach diversity and its effects—have received significant scholarly attention and a variety of literatures conclude they are invisible, yet powerful, drivers of diversity, inclusion, and other desirable workplace outcomes. Nevertheless, different diversity cognitions are often studied in isolation of one another, which prevents a full understanding of their nature and outcomes. We review and integrate research on different cognitions regarding how to approach diversity and its effects, with the goal of identifying synergistic opportunities for guiding future research. To this end, we focus on three diversity cognitions: diversity ideologies, diversity beliefs, and diversity climates. We review similarities and differences in how these constructs are conceptualized and studied, as well as in their nomological networks of outcomes and antecedents. We then use our review to identify gaps in current understanding and generate recommendations for guiding future work. Our recommendations focus on enhanced construct clarity, nuance with regard to dimensionality, and understanding of outcomes and antecedents. Deeper understanding of beliefs regarding how to approach diversity and its effects is likely to provide new insight into strategies for fostering workplace diversity and inclusion and thereby help combat inequality.
The present research builds theory regarding the consequences of work unit ethnic diversity by advancing a status-based, multilevel model of when ethnic diversity is likely to constrain work unit ...performance. In contrast to past work unit diversity research, which has largely ignored the varying degrees of status ascribed to members of different ethnic groups, I propose that ethnic diversity is most likely to constrain work unit cohesion, and in turn work unit performance, in work units composed of two ethnic subgroups that are separated by large differences in status (i.e., ethnic status subgroups; ESS). Furthermore, and consistent with evidence that the consequences of work unit diversity are contingent on the broader social contexts in which work units are embedded, I predict that the presence of ethnic status subgroups in the community exacerbates the detrimental consequences of ethnic status subgroups in work units. Findings from a multisource, field-based data set (N = 743 employees nested within 131 bank branches) support the study hypotheses. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Abundant research has documented a gender pay gap; women earn less than men, all else being equal. Against the backdrop of an overall female penalty, we propose that the widespread adoption of ...diversity goals in organizations creates a female premium for certain women. We integrate the economic principle of supply and demand with theory from the field of strategic human resource management and theorize that individuals perceive high-potential women—who have the abilities needed to reach the upper echelons of organizations, where women remain underrepresented—as more valuable for achieving organizational diversity goals than high-potential men and, in turn, reward them with higher pay. Two field studies (Studies 1 and 3) and two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 4) reveal a female premium that is unique to high-potential women (Studies 1 and 2), driven by perceptions that high-potential women have more diversity value than high-potential men (Studies 2 and 4), and larger in contexts where diversity goals are stronger (Studies 3 and 4). Our theory and findings challenge the assumption that the gender pay gap uniformly disadvantages women and offer new insight into why and when the female penalty reverses and becomes a female premium.
Childhood cancer burden: a review of global estimates Bhakta, Nickhill; Force, Lisa M; Allemani, Claudia ...
Lancet oncology/Lancet. Oncology,
January 2019, 2019-01-00, 20190101, Letnik:
20, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
5-year net survival of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer is approximately 80% in many high-income countries. This estimate is encouraging as it shows the substantial progress that has ...been made in the diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer. Unfortunately, scarce data are available for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where nearly 90% of children with cancer reside, suggesting that global survival estimates are substantially worse in these regions. As LMICs are undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition, with a shifting burden from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases, cancer care for all ages has become a global focus. To improve outcomes for children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer worldwide, an accurate appraisal of the global burden of childhood cancer is a necessary first step. In this Review, we analyse four studies of the global cancer burden that included data for children and adolescents. Each study used various overlapping and non-overlapping statistical approaches and outcome metrics. Moreover, to provide guidance on improving future estimates of the childhood global cancer burden, we propose several recommendations to strengthen data collection and standardise analyses. Ultimately, these data could help stakeholders to develop plans for national and institutional cancer programmes, with the overall aim of helping to reduce the global burden of cancer in children and adolescents.
Work-life scholars have devoted considerable attention to understanding the relationship between work and life but surprisingly little attention to understanding how individuals think about the ...relationship between work and life. We propose that individuals hold three worklife ideologies, which we define as beliefs about how work and life are related: a fixed (versus expandable) pie ideology, a segmentation (versus integration) ideology, and a work (versus life) priority ideology. Beliefs about the world come, in large part, from the world itself. We therefore advance propositions regarding the contextual antecedents of work-life ideologies; exposure to contexts that prime scarcity, boundaries, and market forces increase the extent to which individuals hold fixed pie, segmentation, and work priority ideologies, respectively. For each prime we also provide four examples of objective contextual features-one each at the family, organizational, community, and societal level of analysis-that make the relevant prime salient and shape the associated work-life ideology. Finally, we propose that work-life ideologies are consequential because they affect individuals’ work-life preferences and how they make sense of demands and resources, which, in turn, affect work-life conflict and enrichment. Our research advances understanding by expanding theory regarding the critical role of cognition in navigating work and life.
In recent years, organizations have expanded the number and types of work-life policies they offer in an attempt to attract and retain talent. We challenge the assumption that work-life policies ...uniformly signal personal-life support and elicit favorable employee attitudes by investigating a relatively new work-life policy: egg freezing coverage. We theorize that, relative to other work-life policies, egg freezing coverage is more likely to send signals that evoke negative employee attitudes; although framed as intended to support employees' personal lives, employees interpret egg freezing as signaling that personal-life sacrifice and work prioritization are encouraged, which in turn decrease policy support and organizational attraction. We test these ideas in six studies, including an archival study, a qualitative survey study, a scale development study, two quantitative survey studies, and an experiment. We find egg freezing coverage evokes more negative attitudes than a range of other work-life policies (in vitro fertilization IVF, on-site childcare, paid parental leave, flextime) as well as no policy at all. More negative reactions to egg freezing than to other policies are driven by perceptions that the policy sends a stronger signal that personal-life sacrifice is encouraged, as well as perceptions that it offers fewer benefits to employees and is more costly to organizations. In all, this work expands understanding of the signaling effects of work-life policies and demonstrates that reactions to a range of work-life policies are both more variable and driven by a larger number of underlying factors than prior theory can account for.
The present research builds theory regarding how use of flexible work practices (FWPs) affects employees' career success. We integrate theory on signaling and attributions and propose that managers ...interpret employees' use of FWPs as a signal of high or low organizational commitment, depending on whether managers make productivity or personal life attributions, respectively, for employees' FWP use. Managers' perceptions of employees' commitment, in turn, shape employees' career success. Field- and laboratory-based studies provide strong support for the hypothesis that FWP use results in career premiums when managers make productivity attributions and some support for the hypothesis that FWP use results in career penalties when managers make personal life attributions.
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