Analysis and discussion of non-markt and market behaviours, economic Term Paper

Analysis and discussion of non-markt and market behaviours, economic analysis of behaviour - Term Paper Example Its impact on RBC and various strategies adopted by the company because of those economic impacts on the organization has also been discussed in this study. The role of cooperative and political behaviors in relation with the market based behaviors of RBS has been studied. Different strategies and policies that have been employed by RBC or are planning to employ have also been included in this study. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Canadian Economy – An Overview 5 Financial Sector in Canada – An Overview 6 Royal Bank of Canada 7 Stakeholders of RBC 8 Clients 8 Employees 9 Shareholders or Investors 9 SRI Community 10 Suppliers 10 Governments 10 Environmental NGOs 10 Economic and Regulatory Environment of RBC 11 Canada 11 United States 11 Europe 12 Financial Markets 13 Regulatory Environment 13 Economic Impact 14 Corporate Strategies by RBC 15 Corporate Governance 15 Risk Management 17 Policies and Procedures 17 Mutual Funds and Governance 18 References 19 Canadian Economy – An Overview The economic system of Canada is very much similar to that of United States of America. The industrial society of Canada is high tech in nature and is quite affluent in its resources. The standard of living of the people is quite high. There has been a significant growth in various industrial sectors of Canada like mining, manufacturing, services sector, etc. after the end of World War II in the year 1945. It has resulted in the transformation of the Canadian economy which was rural in nature into an urban and industrial economy. United States serves as the main trading partner of Canada. There have been various trade agreements between these two countries recently like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This has helped in the development of economic integration and trade between the two countries to a considerable amount. Three-fourths of the exports generated from Canada are accounted through a sub stantial amount of surplus in trade with US. Canada is amongst one of the largest supplier of oil, gas, electrical power and other energy sources for United States. Canada managed to have a significant growth in its economy during the period of 1993 to 2007 because of its varied natural resources, modernized plants and labor forces which are highly skilled in nature. At the end of the year 2008, Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had an adverse effect on the Canadian economy and it went into economic recession. In 2009, the country experienced fiscal deficit for the first time in 12 years time. However the major banks in Canada have managed to recover for the ill effects of recession because of its tradition of having strong capitalization and lending practices which are highly conservative in nature. There has been a marginal growth of Canadian economy in the years 2010-2011. By 2005 it is supposed to be able to balance its budget. The petroleum sector of the country is growing at a rap id pace because of the discovery of many new natural oil reserves in Canada. Canada is ranked in the third position in the world with regards to the volume of oil reserves present in the country (CIA, 2012). Financial Sector in Canada – An Overview The financial services sector of Canadian economy consists of banks, loan companies, trusts, insurance companies, credit unions, securities dealers, companies of mutual funds, leasing companies, insurance agents, financial advisors, different types

An Overview of Antonal Music

An Overview of Antonal Music Kenneth Laino I. What is Atonality? Unfamiliarity is the basis of atonal music; a musical genre whose foundation deprives the wired human minds desire of a tonal resolution. In a sense the whole movement can be seen as anarchical expression. For generations it has been ingrained in our western culture for music to stay in a particular key or to develop the idea of tonality, where music plays at the constant ebb and flow of resolution and tension yet such principles that seemed inherent to the very existence of enjoyable music are cyclically toyed, abandoned, and reinvented. The modern era was prime for such radical changes in philosophy. In order to avoid an era of resignation, leaps of defiance were stated and claimed to achieve a sense of progress and identity. As such we can view the experiment of atonal music as characterized by the occurrence of pitches in novel combinations, as well as by the occurrence of familiar pitch combinations in unfamiliar environments (Forte 1977, 1). Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center or key, it refuses to conform to a system of tonal hierarchy, where pitches focus on a single, central tone, and instead retorts with mastery of independent function for the creation of new roots- thus atonality is inspired.   Ã‚   II. Origins: The Development of Impressionism and Expressionism The early 20th century was a culmination of an artistic endeavors, experimenting in different styles both in the visual and audial mediums. The main proponents explored in this musical era would be the inclusion of impressionism and expressionism. For a brief look into the musical scene of impressionism there was leading figures, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, both of whom were dissuaded by their labels given by critiques, that imbeciles call impressionism, a term employed with the utmost inaccuracy. An aesthetic and philosophical term borrowed from the parallel, artistic revolution; a vivid analogy to painters who would focus on the audience perception to achieve an overall impression. Simply put, the key goal was to arouse emotion and convey moods, and as such various composers in Western classical music followed suite arriving at the defining characteristic of the entire impressionism movement: color or in musical terms, timbre. Displaying landscapes through orchestration, harm onic usage, and texture. Other elements developed included the general use of new chord combinations (that were unresolved such as the 9th, 11ths, 13ths), ambiguous tonality, extended harmonies, parallel motions, extra-musicality, and relishing on top, the use modes and exotic scales. In order to capture a sense of detached observation, the normal syntax is usually disrupted and individual styles are carry through to maintain that integrity of the works meaning. Already essential themes to the era including experimentation for the mediums progress, the destruction of well established systems, expressing the individual, and moving away from the tonal key. As the mostly French focused on Impressionism, the corresponding movement of their rivals, the Germans, are going to focus on music differently; thus Expressionism is in existence. The underlying construct in Expressionism is psychological rather than artistic. With the advent of influential psychoanalysis studies, such as Sigmund F reud, making people think about the reasons why they behave in certain ways, drawn out the more oppressed, twisted side of the human psyche. Expressionism had a dark, intense color and unlike Impressionism were generally not solely instrumental, in fact operas were a hallmark of these styles in order to reciprocate the story of peoples actions. In the 20th century there is finally variety in the ways of expression. In order to truly create tension or the sense of a person loss, Atonality is an excellent tool to convey that. The music lacks focus and doesnt have a sense of direction as were dependent on patterns and repetition to guide us thus we move away from a tonal key and instead builds an exuberant amount of tension in the perspective of possibly someones personal strife and the general mental condition. The leaders of this movement would be Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Alban Berg would use structures well-known and prey on them. For example an opera by him, Wozzeck is common in it having three-acts labeled as Exposition, Development, and Catastrophe. He leads us into the thought of a sonata cycle where the end is a typical tragedy. Staying faithful to tradition, each act has 5 scenes familiar to a balanced classical style. However these characteristics are just for surface appeal theyre twisted each act is a set of variations, placing it under new context. It attempts to drive the listener it away a sense of tonality. And he uses Sprechstimme, a compositional technique similar to modern day improvisation where the score for the singer would be specified rhythms but intentionally be left without the notes which created a structured eery sound where the pitches arent specified and lost a direction of key, and possibly amplified with the abandonment of lyrics for spoken words. Techniques and styles that were the byproduct of expressionism and impressionism were vital to evolution of atonality in the 20th century split in music. III. Writing Atonal Music : 12 Tone Technique After the deaths of Mahler (1911) and Debussy in (1918) the world was open to pushing the limits of western harmonies. In fact a small 20th century split developed between tonal composers, lead by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, saw over a gradual evolution of the tonal system, expanding on musical ambiguity but still remained in the confines of the well-established tonal system. Eventually this process would lead to a point of no return which serial or non-tonal composers would turn to, such as Arnold Schoenberg, whom dove straight to a convulsive transformation of the tonal system to a complete new language of music. Of course disputes of which side truly represented modern music were brought up, Stravinsky almost switching tonality on and off versus Schoenberg who declared a complete break with tonality and symmetric syntactic structures. Yet they shared the motivation; to increase expressive power in music. Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer and conductor who migrated to America during WWII. During his time, he focused on promoting new music to the world to advance a sense of progress, and thus supported new ideas and impressionist movements in his works. In 1905 he composed Pelleas and Melisande a popular story at the time which importantly introduced the first use of a trombone glissando in an art music. Gradually, we sense pleas to escape the chains of tonality, with his development of Quaternary Harmonies (building chords on fourths) in pieces such as Kammersymphonie (which means chamber symphony) in 1907 as influenced by the impressionists who would use these quartal chords because it didnt lead anywhere. Eventually he would have dissonance that never resolve a lingering tension. In 1909 he would abandon writing key signatures at all! His first piece resembling any form of atonality would truly be his Opus 11. A string quartet with a soprano voice rejecting tonality would sing Ich fà ¼hle Luft von einem anderen Planeten (I feel the air of another planet) And thus breath was finally spoken, which lead to the idea of free atonality (which would not be until his Opus 25, the first use of his 12-tone technique). Atonality at the time seemed to fulfill the condition of progress and continue romantic expression from Mahler and it seemed to be the next logical and inevitable milestone; however, by reaching a dead through the abandonment of all the rules and absolute freedom from constraints made it difficult to listen to. Even with the intuitively brilliant syntax of these works, unfortunately, it was hard for the composer and listener to avoid the innate drive for atonality. The experiment to get away from tonality sadly ended with the burdening sense for a resolution, without a working structure, and without any cues or clues for general memorability. In the end if you listened to Atonal Music you would know why its never used again. (Luthye, 2017) In order to begin writing atonal music like Schoeneberg, lets focus on the most basic compositional strategy in writing for the serial method (which is to use all 12 tones all the time but without any tonal relationship). The goal of atonality is to move away from a certain key. Tonality is developed through the repetition notes and thus notes must equally used without a specific relation. In the Twelve-Tone System or Dodecaphonic Technique you develop a tone row, however unlike Debussy who always stayed with in the key, it must use all 12 tones before it can repeat any of the tones. After writing a tone with 12 different tones the goal is avoid repetition to maintain interest and avoid making that tone row the new tonal center. Common variations include, a retrograde, playing all notes in the tone row backwards and an inverse, playing all notes in intervals of the opposite direction (notes go equidistant in half-steps but in the opposite direction.) Keep in mind however a tri-tone interval would remain the same as theyre equidistant. From there the music can be simply written with personal variation; with multiple applications such as an inverse-retrograde and retrograde-inverse, variety of rhythms, and having many different tone rows the possibilities are endless, so get creative! Atonality takes its roots in being a product of a period of extreme artistic progress. Though its inability to be defined as art, or even appealing lead to its downfall its experimentation wasnt in vain. Though not fully used, it showed us the limits of music and expanded musical expression in pure variety; allowing for full control of chromaticism and modulation still seen today in Jazz. Sources: Beach, David (ed.). 1983. Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal Music, Aspects of Schenkerian Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. Forte, Allen. 1977. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02120-2. Kostka, Stefan and Payne, Dorothy (1995). Tonal Harmony. Third Edition. ISBN 0-07-300056-6. Schoenberg, Arnold. 1978. Theory of Harmony, translated by Roy Carter. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press. Zimmerman, Daniel J. 2002. Families without Clusters in the Early Works of Sergei Prokofiev. PhD diss. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Death and the Maiden Essay -- Ariel Dorfman

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Ââ€"Oscar Wilde Death and the Maiden discusses Princess Diana, her media, and her public from the point-of-view of Maureen Dowd. Was Diana the “spendthrift of her own celebrity”? Is the media a market of vultures feeding off of Diana? Does the public actually have any remorse for the Princess? There is no right or wrong answers for these questions because they are merely opinionated. Whether or not Diana was a victim of celebrity culture or the creator of her own demise is debatable, and even though Dowd thinks the coverage of DianaÂ’s death was awful she felt she brought on a lot of the other attention herself. She implies that DianaÂ’s celebrity led to her making careless, irrational decisions. Dowd states “The Princess of Wales was the queen of surfaces, ruling over a kingdom where fame was the highest value and glamour was the most cherished attribute.” Here she insinuates Diana is superficial and did things on purpose for the fame, she then goes on to say “she rode the...

Example of report Essay

â€Å"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.† Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832) Looking back at the lecturer career, the important of critical thinking to success in the career thinking skills is real, students may not know how to actually apply the information that receive to real world application culture, or lives a life that demands them to talk, read or write to prove proficiency? Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the: understand the logical connections between ideas, identify, construct and evaluate arguments, detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning, solve problems systematically, identify the relevance and importance of ideas and reflect on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values. Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what student knows, and will knows how to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform. Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions. Start from the week two, first exercise has started. On the second week,  student required to buy the materials such as artline pens 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8, butter pad, layout pad, technical pen, regal bond, cutting mat and etc. In the first exercise, a student has to draw a box of 6x6cm with a title Visual Element of Form. For the first time, the very 1st sketch was using numbers to determine the dots, line, shape and volume. First time and the second time have been rejected and required to improve the artworks. The third time has accepted and it was four different types of flowers. In week three, the second exercise were introduced and the title is Encounter of Form. On the third week, before starting the second exercise, students required to study the samples which were given on the assignment briefing. Students have to draw the same boxes on the layout pad or butter pad or regal bond. Encounter of Form is about the positive and the negative under seven rules which is detachment, union, intersect, overlap, touching, interpenetration and subtraction. The first artwork was failure and required to improve. For the second artwork was complete success. In week four, the third exercise of the assignment one has given by the lecturer and the title is Space and Depth. Before starting the exercise, students have to understand what to draw and how to draw, how to start. For the first part of the exercise, student has to do boxes with four instruction which is increase, playful, congested and tension. And as for second part, students have to do A3 size artwork with four themes which is peace, war, hope and struggle. With these four themes was hard to choose but ended up with hope. The first artwork was failure and required to improve. For the second artwork was complete success and accepted. At the lecture class which held on week five, the lecturer play a video named Three Idiots which is interesting and funny, some moral values and the way to show critical thinking to argue the logic point. The last exercise of assignment one was called Orisimstylization, and inquire student to get a sample of the existing man-made object, animal and human model. The last exercise strictly follows back the exercise in the second box while the third was rather interesting due to use student’s style and the originality. For the last exercise, the first artwork was failure again and required to  improve again. The second artwork was the different advertising models and has been accepted. In week six, students have to hand in the assignment one along with the front cover and back cover. But because a lot of student have fail to show a good and presentable assignment, whole of the exercise along the cover have to improve and the deadline was postponed to the week 9 with along assignment two. In week seven, the lecturer introduces the assignment two which consisting two part, one was to do Repetition: Unit and Flat Plan while the another were Application. The Unit and Flat Plan, requires student to draw one selected image over on internet or any media that can be used to inquired an image. Then on the 1Ãâ€"1 inch small boxes over 9 x12 grid, student have to draw on it to show the repetition. As for the Application, using the same size of the 9Ãâ€"12 inch over the layout pad, draw an image of the selected material of object to describe the repetition. Example, a t-shirt was used and draw at layout paper, then by applying the selected sample on the Unit and Flat Plan it will show the texture inlayed on the selected application. Around week eight and nine was the week where the lecturer giving opportunity to student to seek and given advice to for their assignment progression. With some feed back by the lecturer, student then improve student artwork while along learning some of the creative and critical thinking over several sample of video given by the lecturer. Within at week nine the student has to do their final makeup before hand in the assignment one along the current second assignment to the lecturer at office around Friday at 12.00 to 12.30pm sharp. With this, the whole assignment one and second has done and hand in by that day.

Psychological Testing to Assess Motivation in the Workplace

Every employer seeks to find new employees that are a perfect match for the available position in their company. Many employers are now leaning towards organizational psychologists to assist them in finding the â€Å"perfect† employee. Organizational psychologist are able to assist companies in screening possible employees for personality traits that are necessary for the person to be successful at the potential job. Employers have also started to integrate psychological testing into the interview process to assist psychologists in picking out potential candidates who hold these desired traits. In addition, psychological testing is used to test current employees to determine what company improvements are needed to improve overall success. A largely researched topic in this area of psychology is motivation and reasons for motivation in employees. Article Summary The ability to measure factors that energize, channel, and sustain work behavior over time is essential for capturing employee motivation and for developing interventions aimed at enhancing motivation, job satisfaction, and performance (Tremblay, Blanchard, Taylor, Pelletier, & Villeneuve, 2009). Tremblay et al. (2009) suggests that self-determination theory (which focuses on why a person is motivated) applies to activities which people find interesting, challenging, or pleasing. This type of motivation is called intrinsic motivation. In addition, activities that are not experienced as interesting or pleasing are unlikely to get accomplished, unless there is an instrumental reason in doing so. This is called extrinsic motivation. The self-determination theory states that intrinsic motivation leads to the most positive outcomes, whereas extrinsic motivations lead to more negative outcomes such as counterproductive performance and employee withdraw (Tremblay et al. , 2009). Low work motivation has been linked to depression in employees, higher turnover rates, and job burnout (Tremblay et al. , 2009). Since better job performance, employee engagement, and employee retention as all considered vital for overall success of a company, it is important that research be conducted on tests that are able to determine otivational characteristics in company employees. The Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS) The WEIMS is a 18-item self-report scale that was developed by Tremblay et al. (2009) to measure both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in employees. The scale is also theorized to determine successful job performance based on six types of motivation determined by the self-determination theory. Partic ipants were asked to provide their answers to the 18 items on a Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (does not correspond) to 5 (corresponds exactly) (Tremblay et al. , 2009). The researchers then created a formula to assess the scores of the scale. The total score derived from the formula reflects the individuals’ level of self determination. This research was conducted to determine the accuracy of using the WEIMS in different work environments to determine levels of motivation in employees. The WEIMS was hypothesized to predict positive and negative motivators based on the self-determination scale and to determine psychological ideas related to work motivation (Tremblay et al. , 2009). In addition, this research aimed to gain reliability and validity of the WEIMS scale. Three separate studies were conducted in an attempt to support the proposed hypotheses Effectiveness of the WEIMS In the first study, the WEIMS showed mid to high correlations for each type of motivation. Researchers indicated that this represents an indication of construct validity (Tremblay et al. , 2009). This study also determined that results indicated that extrinsic motivation was the main reason why employees were involved in their work. In study number two, results again indicated extrinsic motivation as the main motivation for employees (Tremblay et al. 2009). Results also indicated that a positive work environment leads to higher levels of self-determination, which in turn leads to the employee being more engaged in their work and a higher level of job satisfaction (Tremblay et al. , 2009). In addition, organizational support and positive work environment also showed a positive correlation with four of the types of motivation. In the third study, results were identical to t he first two studies. This indicates that the reliability and validity of the WEIMS measure is positive (Tremblay et al. , 2009). In addition, the original hypotheses that the WEIMS predicts positive and negative motivators based on the self-determination scale was supported (Tremblay et al. , 2009). The overall effectiveness of the WEIMS measure, as used in an employment setting, was positive. â€Å"The WEIMS has construct, content, and criterion validity for organizational settings† (Tremblay et al. , 2009, p. 221). In addition, results of all studies were consistent with the hypothesis that as self-determination increases, job satisfaction and commitment rises as well (Tremblay et al. , 2009). This study also supports that the WEIMS has the ability to predict positive and negative work experiences based on extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Tremblay et al. (2009) did specify that although the found results are promising, further research is needed in order to determine if the WEIMS is useful in predicting future motivational behaviors based on this evaluation. Conclusion The use of psychological tests, such as the WEIMS, are able to provide employers with information that could potentially be used for improvement of overall work settings and ultimately the improvement of work performance. The use of the WEIMS by employers can contribute to a better understanding of of employee motivation and overall organizational functioning (Tremblay et al. , 2009). Increased motivation of employees is a critical asset in maximizing company profits in the current economy. With increased motivation of employees comes a more sufficient means of production, resulting in better quality and quantity of company products. Overall, psychological testing is able to assist employers in determining weaknesses in employees and the company. Using the results of testing to develop training strategies and programs to counteract negative feedback is vital in the improvement of any work setting. Psychological testing can also be used for positive feedback for the company, by using testing results to determine which employee traits work well for the success of that specific employer. The WEIMS, specifically, shows promising influence in determining both positive and negative aspects of employee motivation. This tool, if used correctly, has the potential to have a large impact on the way employers address overall motivation in the workplace.