Stuck in the waiting room: Why women and minority groups are still underrepresented in top management

Whether in Canada or the United States, the proportion of women in top management in large organizations still hovers around five per cent. Can we expect this percentage to increase over the next few years? Will today’s pool of up-and-coming female talent ensure a substantial increase in the number of female CEOs, or will other strategies be required to change the game?

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The Warped Side of Our Universe: A Painted Epic Poem about the Dazzling Science of Spacetime

The first English use of the word space to connote the cosmic expanse appears in line 650 of Book I of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost: “Space may produce new Worlds,” he wrote, and grow rife with…

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What Is Disruptive Innovation?

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the “disruptive” label has been applied too carelessly anytime a market newcomer shakes up well-established incumbents.

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What Managers Everywhere Must Know About Caste

Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.As globalization and workforce mobility make many organizations more multicultural, managers find themselves having to broaden their understanding of workplace discrimination’s possible forms. In particular, issues of bias related to caste identity are making headlines around the world more frequently, and maintaining a healthy and productive culture will require leaders to be able to identify, prevent, and mitigate caste-based discrimination.

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'Christmas creep': Why holiday candy hits shelves so early

For retailers of all types, the winter holidays are the most wonderful time of year. In 2023 alone, the National Retail Federation (NRF) expects shoppers will spend around $900 (£743) each on purchases for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and other end-of-year festivities. That includes candy – arguably the cornerstone of any good party.Candy manufacturers and the retailers who sell it both bank on the winter holidays as major earnings seasons. At Hershey, the largest chocolate manufacturer in the world, the winter holidays, along with Halloween and Easter, drive a quarter of its business. Months before Wham!'s Last Christmas dominates the airwaves, retailers and holiday confectioners have signed agreements to produce and sell mountains of candy. It's an all-in bet – anything that isn't sold is an expensive loss for both sides.

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Taylor Swift's 1989: The real meaning of the song Slut

As expected, when Taylor Swift released a re-recorded edition of her album 1989 last week – the latest in an ongoing project to take back ownership of her old material – it shot straight to the top of the streaming charts. The record, originally released in 2014, is her masterpiece, featuring pop classics like Blank Space, Style and Out of The Woods. But it was one of five new "from the vault" tracks – songs written at the time that never made the original edit – that fans were most eager to hear. Ever since Swift had announced "Slut!" as one of 1989 (Taylor's Version)'s bonus tracks back in September, anticipation for it had mounted. On release, the song debuted at No. 1 on Spotify in the US with 5.2m streams.More like this: - Why the British are obsessed with footballers' wives - The return of a pop music masterpiece - The greatest reality TV show never made

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South Africa power outages: some improvement but a long way to go before the grid is stable

University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.Over the past few months, South Africa’s power generation sector has performed better than expected. Four factors explain this: an acceleration of solar power installations, less frequent breakdowns at power stations, a less restricted supply of diesel and the return to operation of some units at Kusile coal fired power station.

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From India and Taiwan to Tibet, the living assist the dead in their passage

Many people see death as a rite of a passage: a journey to some new place, or a threshold between two kinds of being. Zoroastrians believe that there is a bridge of judgment that each person who dies must cross; depending on deeds done during life, the bridge takes the deceased to different places. Ancient Greek sources depict the deceased crossing the river Styx, overcoming obstacles with the help of coins and food.But the dead cannot make this transition alone – surviving family or friends play key roles. Ritual actions the living perform on behalf of the dead are said to help the deceased with their journey. At the same time, these actions give the living a chance to grieve and say goodbye.

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Workplace discrimination saps everyone's motivation - even if it works in your favor

When people work for discriminatory managers, they put in less effort. That’s true both when managers are biased against them and when they’re biased in their favor, according to a new paper that Nicholas Heiserman of Oklahoma State University and I have published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. In some experiments, we had participants complete number searches – by counting how many times “3” appeared in a large table of numbers, for example. The more searches a participant completed, the higher their effort was rated. Participants, working in pairs or in small groups, were told that their manager would award a bonus to one person based on how many number searches the workers completed.

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Young, female voters were the key to defeating populists in Poland's election - providing a blueprint to reverse democracy's decline

The results of Poland’s parliamentary elections held on Oct. 15, 2023, have been lauded as a blow against populism – and they may also hold important lessons for reversing democracy’s decline. In the vote, the conservative and increasingly autocratic Law and Justice Party (PiS), which has ruled since 2015, still received the largest number of seats (35%) in Poland’s Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.

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Are journalists serving Virginia's voters well? Election could offer insights on media on national level

As Virginia holds elections on Nov. 7, 2023, to fill all 140 seats in the state legislature, the results will likely offer insights on the nation’s political pulse. Voters’ preferences for Democrats or Republicans may well reflect how they feel about Joe Biden or Donald Trump – and about key issues such as abortion, the economy and public education.The election also will hold important lessons for the nation’s journalists as they gear up for the 2024 presidential race.

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Trump's violent rhetoric echoes the fascist commitment to a destructive and bloody rebirth of society

Former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric has regularly bordered on the incitement of violence. Lately, however, it has become even more violent. Yet both the press and the public have largely just shrugged their shoulders. As a political philosopher who studies extremism, I believe people should be more worried about this.

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3 reasons the House GOP is not any more dysfunctional than the Democrats - even after the prolonged speaker chaos

For many observers, a key takeaway from the recent leadership struggle in the U.S. House is that Democrats skillfully manage their caucus while Republicans are uniquely dysfunctional.This claim is based in large part on a comparison between Republicans’ perceived disloyalty in removing their speaker, Kevin McCarthy, during the current Congress and Democrats’ apparent loyalty toward their speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in previous Congresses.

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Language induces an identity crisis for the children and grandchildren of Latino immigrants

A young Latina mother I was interviewing once laughed uncomfortably as she described her sons’ embarrassment when put on the spot by older Latinos. They would speak to her sons in Spanish, before quickly adding in the same language, “How awful! You don’t understand me in Spanish?” Her sons would then sheepishly reply – in Spanish – “Yes, I understand. But I don’t speak it.”

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Interest rates: if central banks don't start cutting them soon, it could actually increase inflation

What next for interest rates? The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is widely expected to leave them unchanged when it meets on November 2, despite the fact that UK headline inflation is still at 6.7%. If so, it will mark the second monthly freeze in a row, following 14 consecutive hikes dating back to late 2021. The main argument for pausing when inflation is still high is that each rise takes time to have full effect. It’s possible that the brakes have already been pressed far enough, and that any further rate rise could push the economy into recession. The MPC said as much in its rationale for the September hold.

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Kids are exposed to violent war images: trauma expert sets out how you can protect them

In today’s screen-filled world, many children and teens have nearly continuous access to media. Estimates from the United States suggest that school-age children spend four to six hours per day watching or using screens. Adolescents spend as much as nine hours a day on screens. While media can open the door to learning and connections for children, it also carries the risk of exposure to violence.

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Kenya's courts were under political pressure: how a constitutional reform empowered judges

Changes to Kenya’s constitution in 2010 on the independence of the judiciary created room for judges to act as guardians of the electoral process. Before this, the law gave Kenya’s presidents considerable influence over courts’ actions. Historically, the judiciary was not an independent branch. It was categorised as a governmental department working under the authority of the attorney general. The president was responsible for appointing judges.

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Castlevania: how the video game was inspired by classic Dracula horror films

If you’re one of the talented few who have completed Konami’s 1986 gothic horror action-adventure game Castlevania then you’ve seen the game’s unusual closing credits. Instead of a list of the names of people who worked on the game, it is instead an homage to those involved in classic horror cinema. Among the names are the actor Christopher Lee (written as Christopher Bee) but also the much more obscure name of Terrence Fisher – director of British horror film company Hammer’s 1958 Dracula. Bram Stoker’s 1897 popular novel has been adapted in countless ways, and the vampire has appeared on screen in about 400 different incarnations from all over the world. The Castlevania video game series is deeply influenced by the vampire’s filmic outings and across the 30 or so games you can find references littered throughout.

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Books on toddler sleep can give inflexible advice - parents should be reassured that one size doesn't fit all

Toddlers often wake frequently during the night. Sleep deprivation is a real problem for parents. And parents are often asked – and judged – about how their child is sleeping. It’s no wonder that there is a healthy industry providing parents with books of advice on how to get their children to sleep for longer. But these books also often offer contradictory advice.

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Great Fire of London: how we uncovered the man who first found the flames

If you had been in London on September 2 1666, the chances are you’d remember exactly where you were and who you were with. This was the day the Great Fire began, sweeping across the city for almost five days.The Museum of London is due to open a new site in 2026. And in preparation for this, curators of the Great Fire gallery decided to examine the stories of everyday Londoners.

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Why converting office space into flats won't solve the housing crisis

The UK government is proposing to further relax planning rules as part of its long-term plan for housing. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities aims to extend what are known as “permitted development rights” (PDR) in England. This would widen a previous relaxation of planning rules to encourage developers and builders to convert empty commercial spaces into housing. It is being seen as a response to multiple councils across England which have declared bankruptcy (or are warning they might). The housing crisis in England is increasingly being singled out as the most serious threat to local government solvency.

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UK newspaper coverage of the 1967 six-day Arab-Israeli war foresaw decades of conflict in Middle East

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, describes his country’s war against Hamas as Israel’s “second war of independence”. The first was fought in 1948, but the war that gave Israel control of Gaza took place 19 years later.The six-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbours in 1967 was fought amid intense superpower tension and vivid international fears that it might spread.

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Farming tuna on land heralded as a win for sustainability - but there are serious concerns around animal welfare

Atlantic bluefin tuna used to be caught only relatively rarely, mainly by sports fishermen in North America. But this all changed in the 1950s when consumers of sushi, particularly in Japan, developed more of a taste for the species. Historically, Atlantic bluefins have either been caught directly from the ocean or caught while young and fattened in large offshore cages called “ranches”. Both wild fishing and ranching pose sustainability issues since they involve taking fish from the wild. The surge in demand resulted in excessive fishing pressure. By 2006, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas warned that the Atlantic bluefin stock was close to collapse.

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Why it's so hard to be young in Britain right now

If you’re taking the first steps in your career right now, you’re doing so in the face of a high cost of living and an increasingly inaccessible housing market. You may well be facing the reality that you will be worse off than your parents’ generation.The UK’s youth (15-24) unemployment rate fell from almost 15% in September 2020 to 9% in August 2022, but is now rising again reaching 12.7% in July this year. This is higher than the average for developed economies and much higher than the likes of Germany and Japan.

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