High-Potential Employees in the Pipeline: Maximizing the Talent Pool in Canadian Organizations

This report is based on data from 1,574 high-potential employees in Canada. Research suggests that although Canada has seen progress in the experiences of women in the workforce, there is still much room for improvement -- and this improvement is a business imperative. The "Consider This" sidebars present findings as well as questions that are intended to deepen the conversation about the advancement of high-potential employeesThe questions posed throughout this report incorporate insights gained from a panel of thought leaders from the academic, public, and private spheres in Canada and convened by Catalyst to get reactions to the report's findings. The goal in including these thought leaders' perspectives is to further stimulate discussion about how organizations can strategically manage high-potential talent

Ask for It: The Impact of Self-Esteem, Situational Characterization, and Gender on the Propensity to Initiate Negotiation

This study analyzes the impact of self-esteem (high vs. low), situational characterization ( negotiate vs. ask ), and gender (men vs. women) on the likelihood an individual initiates negotiation (n = 140). Self-esteem was primed with a prompt and the participants were told they could either negotiate or ask for more money after completing two tasks. A main effect of situational characterization was found such that negotiation was more likely in the negotiate condition than in the ask condition. Neither self-esteem nor gender produced significant results. A significant interaction showed that men were more likely to negotiate in the ask condition, but there were no gender differences in the negotiate condition. Finally, gender differences in anticipated future earnings were found. Men held considerably higher expectations for average salary 5 years after graduating from college than women. These results have important implications for training students to negotiate for the salaries they deserve and moving closer to closing the gender wage gap

Retrieval-induced NMDA receptor-dependent Arc expression in two models of cocaine-cue memory

The association of environmental cues with drugs of abuse results in persistent drug-cue memories. These memories contribute significantly to relapse among addicts. While conditioned place preference (CPP) is a well-established paradigm frequently used to examine the modulation of drug-cue memories, very few studies have used the non-preference-based model conditioned activity (CA) for this purpose. Here, we used both experimental approaches to investigate the neural substrates of cocaine-cue memories. First, we directly compared, in a consistent setting, the involvement of cortical and subcortical brain regions in cocaine-cue memory retrieval by quantifying activity-regulated cytoskeletal associated gene (Arc) protein expression in both the CPP and CA models. Second, because NMDA receptor activation is required for Arc expression, we investigated the NMDA receptor dependency of memory persistence using the CA model. In both the CPP and CA models, drug-paired animals showed significant increases in Arc immunoreactivity in regions of the frontal cortex and amygdala compared to unpaired controls. Additionally, administration of a NMDA receptor antagonist (MK-801 or memantine) immediately after cocaine-CA memory reactivation impaired the subsequent conditioned locomotion associated with the cocaine-paired environment. The enhanced Arc expression evident in a subset of corticolimbic regions after retrieval of a cocaine-context memory, observed in both the CPP and CA paradigms, likely signifies that these regions: (i) are activated during retrieval of these memories irrespective of preference-based decisions, and (ii) undergo neuroplasticity in order to update information about cues previously associated with cocaine. This study also establishes the involvement of NMDA receptors in maintaining memories established using the CA model, a characteristic previously demonstrated using CPP. Overall, these results demonstrate the utility of the CA model for studies of cocaine-context memory and suggest the involvement of an NMDA receptor-dependent Arc induction pathway in drug-cue memory interference