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Blog Glob: "Legal Sector Loses 5,800 Jobs in October"

Excerpt:

According to a monthly jobs report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation lost 190,000 jobs in October as the unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent, its highest point since 1983.

The legal sector wasn't spared. When data is seasonally adjusted, the legal field shed another 5,800 jobs in October. When not seasonally adjusted, the legal industry actually gained 1,500 jobs, but that’s likely a result of summer associates being weaned from law firm payrolls. (Click here for the BLS report, The Employment Situation: October 2009.)

In September, seasonally adjusted BLS data showed the legal sector losing 2,000 jobs.

After flat-lining for a few months, law firm layoffs continued apace in October ... .

Click to read the rest of "Legal Sector Loses 5,800 Jobs in October" (American Lawyer).

Blog Glob: "Women with male names do better in legal careers: study"

Excerpt:

What's in a name? A lot if you're seeking a legal career, with a U.S. study finding that women with male names are more successful lawyers and judges than those with more traditional, feminine names.

The study, led by economist Bentley Coffey of Clemson University in South Carolina, looked at the relationship between a person's success in the legal profession, and their ultimately becoming a judge, and how masculine their name is.

The study found by hypothesizing and using a series of equations that a female "Cameron" is about three times more likely to become a judge than a "Sue," while a female "Bruce" is five times more likely.

Click to read the rest of "Women with male names do better in legal careers: study" (Reuters).

Blog Glob: "Kellogg study: outsiders effective leaders"

Excerpt:

A study by Kellogg Prof. Adam Galinsky challenges the notion that promoting from within is the best option ... .

Galinsky said his research shows a failed course of action by business leadership is often perpetuated by new leadership that shares a “psychological connection” to its predecessor.
...

“The idea of an insider versus an outsider depends on the current state of the organization,” he said.

...

Galinsky’s study, “Vicarious entrapment: Your sunk costs, my escalation of commitment” will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Galinsky said his research centered on the idea of “escalation of commitment,” a theory that was pioneered in the 1970s by former NU Psychology Prof. Barry Staw.

Escalation of commitment is “throwing good money after a bad initial decision,” said Brian Gunia, a fourth-year Kellogg doctoral candidate who assisted Galinsky in his research.

“We were looking at cases in which the initial decision-maker has done something wrong,” Gunia said, “And you, as second decision-maker, are stepping into the decision.”

Gunia said their research showed when the second decision-maker had some sort of “psychological connection” to the first decision-maker, he was “more likely to escalate on (the initial decision maker’s) behalf,” even if it meant following a failed course of action.

Click to read the rest of "Kellogg study: outsiders effective leaders" (Daily Northwestern).

Blog Glob: Do Law Firm Associates Fear Rainmaking?

Excerpt:

So what about rainmaking — or “client development” in the more antiseptic law-firm parlance — is so risky? We’re not entirely sure. But here’s a thought: Bringing in business — at least in its rawest form — involves a bit of gladhanding and salesmanship, which, yes, isn’t always going to work. So the risk is that such efforts will fail, something that lots of lawyers just don’t have the stomach for.

Click to read the rest of Do Law Firm Associates Fear Rainmaking? (Wall Street Journal Law Blog).

Blog Glob: Run for Your Life: New Studies Show Benefits of Exercise on the Brain and Body

Excerpt:

Mounting evidence shows the benefits of exercise on both the brain and body, according to new research released today. The research focuses on the effects of physical activity on brain health and, more specifically, underscores the positive influence of regular physical activity on Parkinson’s disease, depression, premenstrual syndrome, and memory. These findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Exercise benefits many aspects of life. However, the National Center for Health Statistics estimates that only 31 percent of all adults, and 22 percent of adults older than 65, engaged in regular physical activity in 2006, giving these new findings particular relevance.

Today’s new research shows that:

Click to read the rest of "Run for Your Life: New Studies Show Benefits of Exercise on the Brain and Body" (Society for Neuroscience new release).

Blog Glob: When Listening to Music, Your Brain Is 'Moving' Even If You Are Not

Excerpt:

Recent findings have uncovered that when listening to a rhythmic sound, the motor region of our brain is active even if our body isn't.

...

While you listen to music, the areas of your brain that enable your body to move are active, even if you are not. Recent research shows that you don't have to think about the music's rhythm or tap your feet to the beat to engage your brain's motor control areas.

"This finding goes against the traditional view that the brain's motor regions are involved only in executing body movement," says Robert Zatorre, PhD, of McGill University in Montreal.

Does this research help explain the irresistible urge to dance, or at the least, to tap your fingers, when music is played? "Research carried out in our laboratory and in others have already shown that

Blog Glob: Are You Ready to Manage Five Generations of Workers?

Excerpt:

The chart below shows that Baby Boomers will cede the majority of the workforce by 2015 to the Millennials. (Due to their smaller size, Gen X will never have the majority spot in the workplace — and so in essence, we will have skipped an entire generation by 2015.) When you consider the changes in the amount of knowledge available at our fingertips, the advent of social technologies, and the expansion of the global economy over those two generations, a workplace chasm could be emerging. What will this mean for how employers attract, develop and engage employees across multiple generations?

Click to read the rest of Are You Ready to Manage Five Generations of Workers? (Harvard Business Publishing blog).

Blog Glob: "Does the Brain Like E-Books?"

Excerpt:

Writing and reading — from newspapers to novels, academic reports to gossip magazines — are migrating ever faster to digital screens, like laptops, Kindles and cellphones. Traditional book publishers are putting out “vooks,” which place videos in electronic text that can be read online or on an iPhone. Others are republishing old books in electronic form. And libraries, responding to demand, are offering more e-books for download.

Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium?

Click to read the rest of "Does the Brain Like E-Books?" (New York Times).

Note: More on the topic from Jonah Lehrer: Reading, E-Books and the Brain (The Frontal Cortex).

Blog Glob: "Correcting a Style Guide"

Excerpt:

Scholars turn to style manuals for guidance in authoring error-free manuscripts, but what happens when the manual itself is laden with errors?

Users of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association are trying to answer that question now, after the APA last week released dozens of corrections to the first printing of the book’s sixth edition. In addition to being used in psychology, the manual is also used in sociology, economics, business, nursing and justice administration, among other fields.

“It’s egregious,” said John Foubert, an associate professor of education at Oklahoma State University, who bought two copies of the book – one for his office and one for home – when it was released in July. “These are the standards for how we write our manuscripts and how our students write their papers …. The irony is so thick.”

Click to read the rest of "Correcting a Style Guide" (Inside Higher Ed).

Blog Glob: "Peers are key in stopping school bullies"

Excerpt:

Violence, in human history, has an instinctual impulse. Societies find ways to redirect those feelings, creating acceptable outlets and ways to deal with aggression. Many sports, such as football, hockey and boxing, are ritualized, acceptable violence.

But gratuitous violence is pervasive and glorified in our culture, from music to video games to television and movies. Some students have either lost or never developed the ability to recognize the damage that real-life violence can inflict. They are numb to it.

In that moment when a showdown erupts, the surrounding students instantly decide with which side they identify: the bully or the victim. “For some of the bystanders, cheering the aggressors on provides them safety. It’s a way to protect themselves from becoming a victim,” Sege said.

And the key is the reaction of the bystanders.

“The crowd is not incidental,” Sege said. “It’s an active participant.”

Click to read the rest of "Peers are key in stopping school bullies" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).