The effects of leadership change on team escalation of commitment

Although teams benefit from developing plans and processes that boost efficiency and reduce uncertainty, they may become too attached to these plans and escalate commitment when an alternative response is needed. Drawing on theories of team leadership, team processes and escalation of commitment, we propose that a change in leadership can help the team reduce commitment to outdated plans and avoid further escalation over time. Across two studies, we tested and found support for our hypotheses and provide evidence that leadership change can break the cycle of escalation by enhancing leader-driven team reflection and refocusing the team on error correction instead of additional investment. We discuss how the results of these studies extend existing theory and add to our understanding of the important role leaders play in enhancing team adaptation and preventing team escalation.     

All‐Pay Contests

This paper studies a class of games, “all‐pay contests,” which capture general asymmetries and sunk investments inherent in scenarios such as lobbying, competition for market power, labor‐market tournaments, and R&D races. Players compete for one of several identical prizes by choosing a score. Conditional on winning or losing, it is weakly better to do so with a lower score. This formulation allows for differing production technologies, costs of capital, prior investments, attitudes toward risk, and conditional and unconditional investments, among others. I provide a closed‐form formula for players' equilibrium payoffs and analyze player participation. A special case of contests is multiprize, complete‐information all‐pay auctions.     

Medication Abortion Within a Student Health Care Clinic: A Review of the First 46 Consecutive Cases

Abstract

Objective: Medication abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol has been available in the United States since 2000. The authors reviewed the first 46 medication abortion cases conducted at a university-based student health care clinic to determine the safety and feasibility of medication abortion in this type of clinical setting. Participants: Female patients presenting for medication abortion at a student health care clinic between October 1, 2006, and April 1, 2009. Methods: Retrospective consecutive case review. Results: Successful completion not requiring uterine aspiration occurred in 85% of the cases that were not lost to follow-up. Six cases (15%) required uterine aspiration for completion: 3 underwent uterine aspiration only; 3 had aspiration after failing an additional dose of misoprostol. Only 1 patient visited the emergency room. There were no hospitalizations. Conclusions: Medication abortion services in a student health care clinic are safe and feasible. However, additional treatment may be required with some patients.     

Trial and Lifetime Smoking Risks Among African American College Students

Abstract

The authors surveyed 614 African American university students to determine the magnitude of cigarette use, identify risk factors, and develop models to predict smoking. More than half (58.3%) of the participants had smoked at least once, and 9.3% of that group were lifetime smokers. Among the lifetime smokers, 71.3% had smoked during the 30 days preceding the survey. More women (66.8%) than men (56.1%) had tried smoking and were classed as lifetime smokers. Residence, parental, and peer smoking (current and childhood) were associated with trying smoking; age, race/ethnicity, and marital status were additional factors for becoming a lifetime smoker. The risk of being a lifetime smoker was reduced when neither friends nor parents of the student smoked and the student viewed spirituality as important. The results of this study add to the growing understanding of health risk behaviors among African Americans and can be useful in reducing smoking.     

Five-year all-cause mortality rates across five categories of substantiated elder abuse occurring in the community

ABSTRACT

Elder abuse increases the likelihood of early mortality, but little is known regarding which types of abuse may be resulting in the greatest mortality risk. This study included N = 1,670 cases of substantiated elder abuse and estimated the 5-year all-cause mortality for five types of elder abuse (caregiver neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial exploitation, and polyvictimization). Statistically significant differences in 5-year mortality risks were found between abuse types and across gender. Caregiver neglect and financial exploitation had the lowest survival rates, underscoring the value of considering the long-term consequences associated with different forms of abuse. Likewise, mortality differences between genders and abuse types indicate the need to consider this interaction in elder abuse case investigations and responses. Further mortality studies are needed in this population to better understand these patterns and implications for public health and clinical management of community-dwelling elder abuse victims.     

The International Migration of Nurses in Long-Term Care

This article describes five major factors that are affecting patterns of international migration among nurses who work in long-term care settings:

• Demographic drivers–The aging of the populations in developed countries and the low to negative growth in the working-age population will increase the demand for international workers to provide long-term care services.

• Gender and race–A dual labor market of long-term care workers, increasingly made up of women of color, is becoming internationalized by the employment of migrating nurses from developing countries.

• Credentialing–The process of credentialing skilled workers creates barriers to entry for migrating nurses and leads to “decredentialing” where registered nurses work as licensed practical nurses or aides.

• Colonial history and geography–The colonial histories of many European countries and the United States have increased migration from former colonies in developing countries to former colonial powers.

• Worker recruitment–Efforts to limit the recruitment of health care workers from some developing countries have had little effect on migration, in part because much of the recruitment comes through informal channels of family and friends.

     

Using an Online Support Site to Extend the Learning to a Graduate Field Practicum in the United States

An online support site was constructed for graduate social work students at San Diego State University in California during their first‐year field practicum. A study was conducted to explore and describe the attitudes of these students toward the usefulness of the site's online features. Students participated in the site through the Blackboard Software Platform by adding discussion threads to asynchronous forums on an online discussion board, receiving information through online announcements, accessing field‐related materials through the site, and engaging in an online network. The most useful forum was related to the learning plan that students were required to complete in planning and organizing their field practicum experience. Students reported that the most useful feature of the site was the ability to access timely information through the online announcements from the Field Education Program.     

Development and accuracy of projections of population and households in the united states

The history of the official U. S. projections of population and house-holds in recent decades is briefly reviewed, with particular attention to methodology and the relation of the methodology to the accuracy of the projections. The introduction of the cohort-component procedure in the 1930’s opened the way for separate analysis of the trend of the components of births, deaths, and net immigration in connection with making population projections. As a further development, the period-fertility method of projecting births gave way in the 1960’s to the cohort-fertility method. Consideration is now being given to various methods involving parity-progression procedures. Some alternative methods and problems of measuring the accuracy of population projections are then considered. The percent “error” in the projected population growth, by components and age, and the range from high to low expressed as a percent should also be examined in addition to the percent “error” in the total population. However accuracy is measured, the projections made in the 1930’s and 1940’s were often wide of the mark, and those made in the 1950’s and 1960’s failed to anticipate the sharp changes which occurred, even though the actual figures usually fell within the range projected. Elaboration of projection methodology has not resulted in any great increase in the precision of the projections, largely because birth rates have fluctuated widely, and the fluctuations have proven difficult, if not impossible, to predict. The projections of households have had a roughly similar history, and the methods and problems of evaluation are somewhat similar. Their development has been characterized by the introduction of alternative and changing “headship” rates and increasing disaggregation of the data and procedures. The paper concludes with some generalizations based on U. S. experience. Although refinement of methods may contribute little to accuracy, accuracy is only one aspect of the usefulness of projections. The need for conditional projections and their analytical usefulness are such that there is no question that we should confidently continue to make them.