Organizational Change: the Effect on Employee Morale and Motivation

Dynamic News of employment misfortunes (regardless of whether we mark them as cutting back, cutbacks, or rebuilding) contacts us day by day. Furthermore, now and again the truth hits up close and personal †loss of an occupation of a relative, a dear companion, an esteemed colleague or somebody you direct. As indicated by McKinley, Sanchez and Schick (1995), â€Å"This procedure of intentional faculty decrease has been supported as a cost-cutting measure and as an impetus to expand efficiency. In any case, proof has demonstrated that cutting back contrarily influences worker confidence and efficiency. While individuals who lose their positions can be firmly affected by loss of monetary security, dread for the future, and even diminished confidence, it’s essential to perceive that individuals who endure work cuts face their own arrangement of negative results. This gathering of â€Å"survivors† may encounter worry just as sentiments of nervousness or misery. This pa per analyzes these issues by checking on the various hierarchical and authority changes that have occurred at WellPoint, Inc. inside the last two years.In expansion, a little example of WellPoint partners was reviewed to survey the impacts that the hierarchical rebuilding and administration changes have had on worker resolve in the course of the most recent two years. The aftereffects of that review are introduced in this paper. Presentation What single change causes the most dismay in the work place? The declaration of employment reductions. With all the ongoing staff decrease declarations, this news is very recognizable. With it comes the prompt negative impact on worker confidence, both for the laid-off representatives and the remaining staff.Emotional strife coming about because of an occasion, for example, authoritative change can leave enduring scars on people and associations. Interruption of typical activity can be brief if ordinary sentiments of sadness, misfortune, dread, and even blame and outrage are permitted to be communicated when the hierarchical change is being declared as well as is happening. In any case, if these sentiments are not permitted articulation, they might be showed later in progressively genuine and harming structures, for example, expanded disease; non-attendance and turnover; diminished efficiency and resolve; and isruption in correspondence among workers and among representatives and chiefs (Abbasi and Hollman, 1998). This can prompt monstrous tumult and break in the smooth progression of work exercises? Abbasi and Hollman. (1998) underscore the accompanying, â€Å"There has been an unmistakable change in corporate way of thinking among American firms in the previous two decades. Firms which once saw representatives as long haul resources for be sustained, created, connected with, and enabled by the board, presently consider them to be wares. Laborers are transient nonessential expenses to be casted off at a moment’s n otice when downsizing.The consistent drumbeat of cutbacks as of late has caused numerous specialists to feel that the times of vocation security are away for acceptable, regardless of how committed they might be. † K. Mishra, Spreitzer and A. MIshra (1998) bolster this thought with the accompanying, â€Å"Downsizing has become right around a lifestyle for U. S. organizations. Truth be told, a first round of cutting back is for the most part followed by a second cycle a brief timeframe later. Sixty-seven percent of firms that cut positions in a given year do so again the next year. †The result of these progressions and the subsequent effect on employees’ resolve is examined. This paper surveys writing that tends to corporate scaling back, what it is and why it is significant. The writing survey incorporates books and different articles. To evaluate the impact that these progressions have had on representative resolve, a 15-question review was given to a little exa mple of WellPoint partners to quantify their present emotions that sway their self-assurance. The aftereffects of the review are offered, alongside an examination of the information, including ends. Writing ReviewCurrent business writing underpins the possibility that in spite of the fact that directors actualize cutting back to upgrade gainfulness and profitability, research uncovers that scaling back doesn't generally bring about higher income, improved efficiency and better client support and that workforce decreases regularly antagonistically influence representative disposition and spirit. Abbasi and Hollman (1990) call attention to that all through the mid 1990s, the papers and wireless transmissions were loaded up with accounts of significant American organizations reporting cutbacks of a few thousand extra employees.Companies enormous and little were eliminating positions at a rate never found in American financial history. The pattern toward scaling down is so unavoidable, and its effect so significant, that it actually shapes the business system of numerous organizations. In an investigation by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, it was accounted for that less than half of the organizations it overviewed after the 1990 downturn met benefit objectives subsequent to scaling down. Moreover, a great many examinations has tested and frequently negated the drawn out advantage of staffing reductions as a way to come back to profitability.However, as indicated by Carol W. Garnant, â€Å"The number one issue that organizations promptly face when scaling back is worker assurance. † She includes that â€Å"prompt goals of staffing and hierarchical issues is fundamental to the initial phase in change. The more drawn out the procedure takes, the more agonizing it becomes, and the more prominent the possibility of losing key representatives in the problematic condition. † Abbasi and Hollman (1990) battle that today’s associations no longer give laborers a safe and stable workplace.It’s a temperamental situation where laborers work for administrators who regularly discover their sympathy and worry for laborers in sharp clash with the weights of persevering rivalry and financial specialist desires. Throughout the years, numerous representatives remained in their association in light of the fact that the trusted it was a decent work environment. They had confidence in the association, were faithful to it, and had desires for intermittent boosts in salary and normal open doors for progression. Their inclinations were lined up with those of the executives. The old worldview is presently gone.The legend that foundations will deal with their workers has been broken. Of late, each round of authoritative rebuilding brings about more bodies on the corporate garbage dump. Abbasi and Hollman (1990) concur that probably the most serious issue emerging from workforce decrease concerns the staggering effect on representative resolve and men talities. A feeling of premonition typically plagues the work environment where scaling down is being examined or is in progress. Representatives regularly feel that their long stretches of work and commitment to the organization are not reciprocated.They may see themselves as casualties of some theoretical administration practice which is beyond their ability to do anything about and past their ability to understand. Cutting staff doesn’t consistently work; truth be told, it as often as possible has the contrary impact. The American Management Association studied 700 organizations that had scaled down somewhere in the range of 1989 and 1994. Representative assurance dove in 83% of the organizations. Representatives who endure the agitating and troublesome impact of cutting back additionally will in general experience a lopsided measure of issues. They feel that administration has put them at the exceptionally base of its need list.According to Abbasi and Hollman, they feel d ouble-crossed, endure ebbing assurance, become disheartened and self-retained, present a bigger number of pressure incapacity claims, become fixated on cutbacks and inner governmental issues, and show different social issues. Numerous specialists are compelled to battle with heavier remaining tasks at hand and become overburdened to the point of burnout. Others experience elevated tension as they wonder who will be close to go and on the off chance that they will have the option to make it securely to retirement before being constrained out in an ensuing downsizing.After all, cutting back appears to bring forth additionally scaling back. Three out of four firms that cut back in one year intend to do it again in the following year. With a portion of the enduring representatives experiencing difficulty getting the opportunity to chip away at time and going through their day simply making an insincere effort, done appreciating what they do, organizations are finding that these workers are experiencing work environment melancholy. Corporate therapists instituted this adage to portray the sentiments of smothered annoyance and tension that are across the board in today’s workplace.According to Marjorie Whigham-Desair (1993), â€Å"The manifestations run structure a general absence of energy and low efficiency to high non-appearance combined with a low pace of intentional worker turnover. â€Å" This outcomes in delays in anticipated cutoff times and dull representatives. Clinicians concur that the ongoing rush of corporate cutbacks has negatively affected the nation’s workforce. At the point when organizations dispense with huge quantities of laborers, the individuals who remain experience nervousness, says Therman Evans (1993), MD. , president and CEO of Whole Life Associates, a pressure the board firm situated in Elkins Park, PA.This prompts higher workers’ pay claims and incredibly jumpy representatives. â€Å"As organizations cut back, du ties move to the individuals who remain, this can bring about dissatisfaction, peevishness, weakness and eventually burnout, includes Michael D. Cox (1993), Ph. D a clinician at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. As creators and human asset advisors Kenneth N. Wexley and Stanley B. Silverman (1993) call attention to in their book, Working Scared: Achieving Success in Trying Times, associations that cut back disregard two key factors that propel laborers; the requirement for security and the longing for justice.Not just do enduring representatives doubt the organization, they additionally become progressively careful. Accordingly, advancement and innovativeness are smothered. Individuals stress over the obscure and need time to get ready for it, says Cox. â€Å"They don’t like to be given awful news suddenly; they don’t need to feel wild. † Those supervisors who must execute cutbacks endure t

Reflection Essay Essays

Reflection Essay Essays Reflection Essay Reflection Essay Reflection Essay Name: Course: Date: Reflection Essay Presentation The web today assumes a key job in the everyday existences of larger part of the world’s populace. This is on the grounds that it has encouraged the joining of a few significant enhancements in a single spot, the web. Obtaining such data is currently simple and reasonable not overlooking a lot quicker than perusing books for example. How might the world be without the web? What level of improvement will it have accomplished? In the cutting edge world, absence of the web, for instance, in the work environment may influence the running of the spot. The web has included such highlights like the web journals, wikis, long range informal communication destinations and social book checking devices. Such highlights have energized simpler correspondence and access of data through the web. Conversation Online journals are very noteworthy particularly on account of correspondence. This is on the grounds that the bloggers go data through their sites and their perusers can air their perspectives relating to the subject of conversation. Individuals in various nations convey paying little heed to any boundaries. Wikis are a gathering of useful locales in the web that give data on basically every theme possible. On account of understudies, wikis have improved their data base of understudies by the arrangement of a wide scope of educational material that they can use in their exploration. Long range informal communication destinations are likewise amazingly well known locales in the web. They make a stage for individuals from different nations to associate and make companions. Associations have likewise started promotions by exploiting the enormous number of individuals who get to the systems (Levine Young, 2010). Social book stamping has likewise increased a great deal of notoriety on account of its proficiency. It empowers its clients to spare a great deal of time by giving on the web bookmarks that guarantee that whenever they require the data, they can without much of a stretch procure it. The advancement of the web has presented a great deal of potential that was not considered previously. For example, proficient learning networks can utilize the web to team up with different organizations. As I would see it, this will be momentous, and it will upgrade the nature of instruction gave in these organizations. Foundations offering comparable instructive open doors can utilize the web to work together with different schools. This will be helpful to both the understudies and teachers in the establishment. For the understudies, they will connect with individual understudies who will open them to different strategies for learning they use; this will decidedly impact their instructive experience. For the educators, they can share new strategies for encouraging that will guarantee that their understudies to acquire the most significant level of instruction. Online joint effort can likewise assume a vital job on account of research, they will have the option to share data relating to their regions of research, and this will build the chances of the accomplishment of the exploration venture. Online cooperation will give a substantially more propelled degree of learning for the understudies in question (Rovai, 2009). This course has been agreeable just as educative. A preferred position of the course is that it has empowered me to comprehend the effect the web has had on the world. This is on the grounds that it has clarified in detail how the various viewpoints and segments of the economy are influenced by the web. This has empowered me to comprehend the elements engaged with their activities. Finding out about the web has additionally opened my psyche to new thoughts that the web may encourage in different parts of our lives. So as to improve the course more, I would recommend the production of a more understudy situated course that will empower understudies to partake more in the course. On the off chance that this is actualized, the general execution and understanding will show signs of improvement. End The web is an exceptionally critical piece of our lives in this advanced world. Instructing understudies about it is urgent as it makes them mindful of the various open doors related with the web. This course has completely secured the web and its use in various limits. Along these lines, the understudies have gotten the essential information relating to the web and its belongings.

Electronic monitoring of employees

The Strange New World of Virtual Reality Augmented Reality is a making of an exceptionally intuitive PC based interactive media condition in which the client turns into a member with the PC in a for all intents and purposes genuine world. We are living in a time portrayed by 3D virtual frameworks made by PC designs. In the idea called Virtual Reality (VR), the augmented experience engineer is consolidating PC, video, picture handling, and sensor advances so a human can go into and respond with spaces produced by PC illustrations. In 1969-70, a MIT researcher went to the University of Utah, where he started to work with vector created illustrations. He fabricated a transparent cap that pre-owned TV screens and half-silvered mirrors, with the goal that the earth was noticeable through the TV shows. It was not yet intended to give a general domain. It was not until the mid '80's that computer generated experience frameworks were getting increasingly characterized. The AMES contract began in 1985, thought of the primary glove in February 1986. The glove is made of slim Lycra and is fitted with 15 sensors that screen finger flexion, augmentation, hand position and direction. Associated with a PC through fiber optic links. sensor inputs empower the PC to produce an on screen picture of the hand that follows the administrator's hand developments. The glove additionally has scaled down vibrators in the fingertips to give input to the administrator from got a handle on virtual items. Along these lines, driven by the correct programming, the framework permits the administrator to cooperate by getting and moving a virtual article inside a reenacted room, while encountering the vibe of the item. The computer generated experience line incorporates the Datasuit and the Eyephone. The Dtasuit is an instrumented full-body piece of clothing that empowers full-body communication with a PC built virtual world. In one use, this item is worn by film on-screen characters to give practical development to vivified characters in PC created enhancements. The Eyephone is a head mounted sound system show that shows a PC made virtual world in full shading and 3D. The Eyephone innovation depends on a trial Virtual Interface Environment Workstation (VIEW) structure. VIEW is a head-mounted stereoscopic showcase framework with two 3.9 inch TV screens, one for each eye. The showcase can be a PC produced scene or a genuine situation sent by remote camcorders. Audio cues conveyed to the headset increment the authenticity. It was planned to utilize the glove and programming for such thoughts as a careful recreation, or 3D virtual medical procedure for clinical understudies.

Why and in what ways did the Oxford Movement make an impact on Essay

Why and in what ways did the Oxford Movement have an effect on strict life in England - Essay Example Their persuasions were felt in the otherworldly and doctrinal levels.1 The Oxford development brought to the bleeding edge a portion of the issues inside the Church of England. One of the significant powers that caused the development happened in the year 1832 where there was the entry of the Reform Act. This Act necessitated that ten Irish priests be disposed of from the Church. One of the significant members of the development was John Keble. He voiced his protests against that change and even depicted it as a type of renunciation by the country. He voiced these protests in a Sermon at Oxford during the year 1833. The pioneers of the Oxford development felt that disciples to the Anglican confidence were not as given as they ought to be to the congregation and the pastorate. Gauges of love had declined and something should have been done so as to change this. They likewise felt that custom not, at this point framed a focal piece of love and there was a need to come back to that. The development challenged inclusion of the administration in issues of the Church. This was featured in the renowned message of 1833. Newman declared that the congregation was a heavenly organization and as such ought to be left to run its own issues without breaks from outer bodies. He likewise criticized the manner in which the administration had demolished the biblical progression standard which necessitated that diocesans ought to be prevailing in a strict and not a political manner.2 Pioneers of the development were additionally instrumental in causing the individuals of England to understand that there were sure linkages between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. These convictions caused the detailing of the Branch Theory wherein The Orthodox, Anglicans and Roman Catholics were named as parts of the genuine Catholic Church. These movement’s pioneers looked at certain components of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church to demonstrate the last reality. They attested that the 39 articles of their congregation and the Council of Trent were one

What has been great with other colleges - UGA Undergraduate Admissions

What has been great with other colleges - UGA Undergraduate Admissions What has been great with other colleges? Throughout the year, while we read files, attend college fairs, match documents, review transcripts, visit schools, answer emails and phone calls, and generally just work with students and parents, we also look around and see what other college admissions offices are doing to help students know more about themselves. As such, here is your chance to let us know what has impressed you when working with other colleges (please no negative stories!), so that we can look at it and see if we can do our jobs better at UGA. Understand that our office has a limited budget and limited staff, so we cannot do everything in the world. But if a certain program, mailing, contact, event, or action from admissions struck you as impressive, I would love to hear about it! Thanks, and Go Dawgs!

Introduction to Musical Theatre Essay

Introduction to Musical Theatre Essay An Introduction to Musical Theatre The concept of musical theatre combines the drama and plot of a stage play with a musical component; the extent of this musical collaboration has changed over the years, from operas to orchestras to full-fledged plays. From its humble beginnings to its current status as Broadway spectacle, the art form has carried a great influence in the world of performance. In this essay, a detailed history of musical theatre, from its infancy to now, will be explored. Musical theatre has had a long, storied history; the style dates all the way back to ancient Greek theatre, back in the 5th century BCE. In that time, Greek comedies and tragedies almost always had a musical component; songs and dance were common to the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, who acted as composers and choreographers to their own works. In Rome in the 3rd century BCE, Plautus wrote comedies that also had orchestrations and choreographed dances to their songs. Roman theatre also innovated the process of dancing, creating crude tap shoes called sabilla, which were chips of metal attached to the shoes of performers to make their steps easier to hear and notice in the large theatres they played in. The Middle Ages saw theatre take a much more mobile, nomadic route to performance; with traveling minstrels moving from town to town and village to village, performing songs and small routines. Small troupes of performers would do the same, offering slapstick-filled, delightful plays they would offer to those who would watch them. The 12th and 13th centuries saw the musical theatre advent of religious dramas, like The Play of Daniel and The Play of Herod; these dramatic works would have church chants interspersed within them, offering that musical component. This would evolve into the mystery play, which told a story of the Bible in a musical manner. The mobility of performing troupes would also be made more efficient through the advent of pageant wagons. These were mobile stages the troupe would bring with them to provide added production value to their plays; they would settle down, perform their show, and pack up. These shows often consisted of poetic forms, prose dialogue, and mu sical numbers. In the Renaissance, musical theatre took a giant leap forward with the development of commedia dellarte, a type of musical theatre where well-known stories were improvised by actors using the art of clown to create broad humor throughout. Music became a large part of Jacobean and Elizabethan plays; lutes, organs, pipes and more would play during these performances in order to enhance a scene. Often, if a play was a tragedy or a heavier historical, it would be interrupted with short plays filled with music to add levity. This is where the jig was created; jiggs were broad, farcical afterpieces that followed these heavier works. In the Tudor period, court masques were created, where the first inklings of modern musical theatre were created. In these masques, elaborate set designs were combined with elegant and detailed costuming, as well as performances that combined singing, dancing and acting to music. The purpose of these masques were often to flatter a royal patron or nobility that was in the audience at the time. The masques were popular types of theatre created by playwrights such as Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare. Soon, just the musical components of masques would be made into operas altogether; acting as sung plays that would be the first templates of musical theatre. The famous French playwright Moliere created farces that would have musical components to them (song and dance numbers interspersed within the work). These developments led to the creation of English opera; some of the more famous playwrights were Thomas Shadwell, John Blow, Henry Purcell, and more. By 1685, however, English opera started to lose its luster. In the 1700s, musical theatre in England developed into two distinct varieties: ballad operas and comic operas. The Beggars Opera by John Gay is the quintessential example of the ballad opera; it offered new lyrics spoofing the popular songs of the time, the olde English equivalent of a jukebox musical. Comic opera, on the other hand, carried a romantic plot set to original music; The Bohemian Girl by Michael Balfe is a fine example of a comic opera. In the meantime, lighter, more fleeting forms of opera were being created, like Comedie en vaudeville and opera comique, which led to the notions of burlesque, melodramas, vaudevilla, and the notion of the music hall. Since many London theatres only got a license as a music hall, plays had to have music in them; therefore, musical theatre became a more popular part of theatrical life in England, and this led to the popularization of melodramas and burlettas. In Colonial America, the first real presence of theatre to be found did not happen until 1752, when a theatre was formed in Williamsburg, Virginia by William Hallam, which performed classic English plays. Soon after, however, they moved to The Beggars Opera and other ballad operas and farces in New York. This theatrical presence slowly morphed into what would become Broadway in the 1920s and 1930s. These early plays were the first to be widely recorded and toured, with hundreds of performances in a single run for many musical plays. The further evolution of musical theatre came with the development of the operette, which was created in 1850 by the French composer Herve. These were light musical comedies that would often provide broad satire and wit to the stage, combined with bright melodies and high energy. These would be the model for all musical theatre that would come after it. After Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss II would develop the style further, it would become popularized in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, Irving Berlin and Rodgers and Hammerstein. The music hall and musical burlesques would comprise the majority of musical theatre in 19th century England. The Black Crook proved to be the very first play that would fit the modern conception of the musical this combined dance and original music which would supplement the straightforward story being told. In 1866, this play premiered in New York and became a staggering success. Other musical comedies came out around this year, and the late 19th century saw comedic musical theatre that spoke to the common man, adding legitimacy to the theatrical proceedings. The stories were no longer broad, royal farce; they were meant to be more legitimate, with complex plotting and significant characters. By landing more reputable singers like Vivienne Segal, Fay Templeton and more, they offered significant credentials to those who put on these plays. Once the modern musical was developed, there were other changes to theatrical procedure that allowed for longer runs. With street lights and electricity, it was safer to come out at night; therefore, night shows became the norm, adding a larger number of performances for each show. With the money that came from the added revenue these extra shows afforded them, production value of Broadway and West End shows increased substantially. Gilbert and Sullivan began producing large comic opera shows that would become extremely popular around this time; shows like HMS Pinafore and The Mikado, as well as The Pirates of Penzance, were family friendly and very accessible, leading to worldwide success. Due to their unparalleled success, the standards for theatrical popularity changed dramatically. Gilbert and Sullivan also pioneered several conventions of the modern musical as well; in their shows, the dialogue and the lyrics were combined to make the story more understandable and sensible, even with the integration of music into the performance. P.G. Wodehouse, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Andrew Lloyd Weber and more would take this particular style of comic opera and develop it further. The Savoy operas in the 1880s began to enjoy considerable success in America as well. Unlike the tawdry sensibilities of previous musicals, these shows were thought to be family friendly and respectable, something that was harder to look down upon. Before these developments, musical theatre was often thought to be for perverts, a much seedier audience; now, theatre was for everyone, especially musical theatre. Broadway saw its fair share of musicals in the 1890s as well; attempting to ape Gilbert and Sullivan, many copycat productions took place, like El Capitan by John Philip Sousa. Ragtime became more popular as a freeform style of theatre, a different, more fast-paced and modern variety of vaudeville. Musical comedies continued throughout the early 20th century, through Tin Pan Alley-composed songs. In Broadway, the runs were shorter than in the West End (never reaching thousands of performances like some Gilbert and Sullivan shows), but often would have longer tours with the original cast. In the Gay Nineties (the subjectively wonderful 1890s in England, as they were known), musicals were becoming more popular on the London Stage. George Edwardes took over the Gaiety Theatre, seeking to change it from the bawdy burlesque show that it was and providing a straightforward, light musical alternative to the heavy, absurdist and politically charged Savoy operas that were the flavor at the time. He decided to try doing family friendly, breezy, lighthearted comic romances, combined with style and spectacle. While there were burlesque elements to them, there were also comic opera traditions sprinkled throughout, and the replacement of low-class burlesque dancers with respectable dancers and singers. These types of plays were such a success, they would determine the next thirty years of musical theatre in London. Many of these plays, like The Shop Girl and A Runaway Girl, followed the tropes of romances where the poor maiden falls in love with royalty, and faces many obstacles before finally winning him. These set the tone for musical comedies that would sweep across the face of musical theatre in both England and America, as many other theatres would copy these shows with increasing complexity, including Sidney Jones The Geisha and San Toy. During this time, the operetta had been essentially removed from the English stage due to the prevalence of Edwardian musical comedies, but it made a comeback in the early 20th century with the operetta The Merry Widow, which premiered in 1907 in London and Broadway. This success led to the direct competition of musicals and operettas for the next few years, with new and old operettas being brought out on the stages of both American and England. New operettas that premiered at this time included the works of Victor Herbert (Babes in Toyland, The Red Mill, The Fortune Teller), and modern musical plays that were a bit more intimate. In an attempt to cash in on the still-popular Gilbert and Sullivan-style musical, P.G. Widehouse, Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton all came out with Princess Theatre shows, which offered light entertainment while remaining continuous with its songs and plot, offering a complete, detailed and complex story throughout. Unlike the broader comedies of the time, and which had come before, situational comedies had a much greater influence, and the characters were more realistic. The songs were actually used to develop the characters or move the plot along; this was a breakthrough in the plotting and development of musical theatre. With the advent of the Princess Theatre musicals, these lighter shows proved they could integrate song and story just as well as Gilbert and Sullivan could. The theatre experienced a boom in business with the start of World War I; given the devastation of the battlefield and the front, audiences flocked to the stages in order to get some escapism. Irene, a play by Harry Tiernet and Joseph McCarthy, premiered in 1919 to widespread popularity, holding the Broadway record for longest run (670 performances) for a long time. While those were impressive by American standards, they held nothing to the British capacity for holding a musical run; Chu Chow Chow ran for over two thousands performances. Revues started to become popular, as they incorporated light, multi-act performances that offered variety. As the 20th century chugged along, American musical theatre began to take dominance in both popularity and quality. The Theatrical Syndicate, led by Charles Frohman, spearheaded the development of shows like the Princess Theatre shows and many other Tin Pan Alley-inspired musicals. Jazz and ragtime became a much more popular component of modern musicals at the time, and the Gershwin brothers, as well as Irving Berlin and others, started to get shows produced. This shift in American musical theatres popularity was due to the changes in society that were happening at the time; the increase in vernacular and naturalism that was desired by audiences of the modern era led to a slow death of the broad, the theatrical and the operatic. Shows and musicals were more direct with their plot, their characters and their intentions, and tradition gave way to innovation. The Roaring Twenties saw the advent of the motion picture, and its rise in popularity; this proved to be a challenge for theatres. Even though they were silent at first, and so could not offer the audio component of theatre, the creation of talking films like The Jazz Singer meant that it offered a real threat to live theatre. Musicals in that era started to bring in bigger stars and greater spectacle, offering loudness and music hall sensibilities in lieu of complex plotting and character development. Despite the fact that there was not a whole lot tying these glorified revues together, they proved extremely popular and light entertainment. Theatre writers began to transition into popular music, as most of the music people were listening to at the time was what they heard in these reviews and vaudeville shows. Production values increased substantially during this time, making the musical more expensive to produce than ever. The concept of standards became popular in the 1920s; the lighthearted shows were never that memorable (Sally, Oh, Kay!), but their songs would stick in the publics mind. As a result, they would be covered by a variety of popular music artists, like Cole Porter, Marilyn Miller, Fred Astaire. Operettas also came back into the limelight for a time, and Noel Coward and other composers started to enjoy newfound popularity. Show Boat in 1927 proved to be one of the most complex mixes of score and book that there had been to date; even the Princess Theatre musicals lacked this level of sophistication. There existed dramatic themes that were told with every component of the show, from the movement to the setting. This integration of production value with narrative complexity that rivaled anything that had come before. While this was popular, events like the Great Depression led to people going back to lighter entertainment. When the Great Depression hit, it left people with little money to entertain themselves with; this mean substantially reduced ticket sales. It was also cheaper to go to the talkies than see a show, making it even more challenging for theatres to find an audience. Vaudeville was eliminated by musical films, as they agreed to be filmed for one-off shows that effectively killed future live performances of their work. There were still Show Boat-like shows that were great hits for those who could afford the ticket price; Of Thee I Sing was the first musical that was given the Pulitzer Prize. Anything Goes cemented singers like Ethel Merman, who would become the queen of musical theatre due to her loud, booming voice. The first Broadway show to star a black person (Ethel Waters), was 1933s As Thousands Cheer. Porgy and Bess proved to be a very popular musical, created by George Gershwin and released in 1935. Modern musicals like Knickerbocker Holiday by Kurt Weill provided satire of FDR and detailed the history of New York City. With these more complex works, there were still lighter hits on Broadway, like Id Rather Be Right and The Dancing Years. Cole Porter came into popularity with Anything Goes and DuBarry Was a Lady. All of these contributions led to the overall success and survival of musical theatre, which was a miracle in a time when economic destitution was the worst this country has ever experienced. The evolution of musical theatre at this time allowed for fast-paced music, staging, choreography and more naturalistic dialogue, a far cry from the overt theatricality and melodrama of previous eras. Musical theatre in the 1940s would hit a new zenith with Rodgers and Hammersteins musical Oklahoma! Continuing the Show Boat tradition of having complex plotting and serious storytelling amongst musical numbers, the show offered dream ballets and integrated the music more cohesively into the story, rather than providing dance as an excuse for men to see barely-dressed women. Agnes de Mille was the choreographer for this show, and it revolutionized the format of musical theatre by providing a decided lack of tawdriness and an earnest desire for storytelling that was not present at this level before. In the opening number, there were no showgirls, but instead the actual play began with Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'. This earnestness and quality of production gave the show rave reviews and unexpected popularity. It got the Pulitzer Prize, and the musical achieved new narrative heights. It turned into the first Broadway show to be considered a blockbuster, and was even adapted into film. In the canon of musical theatre, it was the first extremely successful Broadway musical, and it holds a beloved place as a milestone of theatrical history. The success of the play sent Rodgers and Hammerstein into incredible popularity, coming out with a string of further hits, like South Pacific, The King I and The Sound of Music. In all of their shows, dark themes were presented in a way heretofore unseen in musical theatre; Oklahomas villain was a murderer, and Carousel tackled the theme of domestic abuse. Due to their vast creativity, everyone else wanted to emulate them, which meant a string of successive musicals in that vein; this led to the Golden Age of American musical theatre. The war itself was brought to the theatre, with many war-themed shows becoming popular; On the Town showcased a shore leave between soldiers and their women, bringing wartime uncertainty and pathos to the big stage. Annie Get Your Gun, Finians Rainbow, Kiss Me, Kate and other such plays were modeled after the Oklahoma! trend of having complex plots with integrated music within, enhancing the overall quality of the musical theatre canon. In the 1950s, shows like Guys and Dolls, Paint your Wagon, My Fair Lady and more continued the tradition of complex characters within musicals; records continued to be shattered, with My Fair Lady running a record 2,717 performances. Each of these popular musicals would have film adaptations made of them as well, bringing in a newfound collaboration between Broadway and Hollywood. Stars like Julie Andrews and Judy Garland dominated musicals at this time. Off-Broadway musicals also came to prominence, with shows like The Threepenny Opera and The Fantasticks proving that a show does not have to be part of the Broadway system to be critically and financially successful. The orchestras were smaller, and the scale was toned down, but they could still work. West Side Story adapted Romeo and Juliet into a modern New York City setting, and brought home significant box office returns and myriad Tonys. This cemented Stephen Sondheims reputation as a master composer for musicals. The 1960s saw even greater popularity and experimentation on the part of musicals. More blockbusters, such as Fiddler on the Roof, Hello Dolly!, Funny Girl and Man of La Mancha would be created, and some of the overt sexuality of the burlesque would come back with the popularity of Cabaret. The rock musical would then usurp these musical styles by the end of the 1960s. Stephen Sondheim and Jerry Herman would significantly shape the pattern of musicals in this decade and the next, through the darker themes that he would explore in works like Sweeney Todd and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. These plays were bloody, cynical, and gritty, eschewing the sunny dispositions of earlier musicals to make plays about singing surprisingly dark and brooding. Into the Woods and Assassins explored these themes further, showcasing a sophistication in lyrics and music that belied the overall exclusiveness of some of the plays themes. Soldheim tried a number of new things during this ti me, including reverse-engineering shows and breaking the fourth wall to the audience, all things that made musical theatre challenging and intriguing again. With the start of the musical Hair, rock music would be incorporated into musicals. Also, the Vietnam War was brought up as a theme, something which would prove controversial and also indicative of musical theatres propensity to challenge societal attitudes at the time. Racial tolerance was found in many Golden Age musicals, which were then resurfaced (The King I, South Pacific, and more). Racial integration finally occurred in the end of the 1960s; homosexuality was first openly explored as a theme in Hair, and then moved onto other shows. In the 1970s, with the advent of the rock musical, The Rocky Horror Show, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell and more started to bring in this rapidly popular style of music to the theatrical realm, bringing with it an added edge that was never before seen onstage. Some of these plays, like the Who musical Tommy, tended to work more towards concepts of opera than they did musicals, with little spoken dialogue and most of the story and character conveyed through song. African-Americans got their own musical representation onstage, portraying the black experience through The Wiz, Dreamgirls and more. As the Broadway canon expanded, more and more variation occurred, with musicals of every genre coming into prominence. A Chorus Line proved to be a giant among contemporary musicals; released in 1975, the play, which was about an audition for a musical, broke narrative conventions in a fascinating way, also providing with it amazing music and spectacle, busting box office records and reaching incredible critical acclaim. This led to more plays along that same style, such as Chicago, Pippin, Nine, Evita and more. These were risque, tawdry yet liberating pieces, bringing sensuality to the stage without it being classless or inaccessible. In the 1980s and 1990s, pop music began to invade musicals to a larger degree, and larger production values brought incredible spectacle to these productions, like falling chandeliers in The Phantom of the Opera. Novel and literary adaptations were beginning to be the norm, and European influences were more and more prevalent. Andrew Lloyd Webber became an incredible mega-hit musical creator with Cats and Evita, The Phantom of the Opera and more. A greater emphasis on adaptations has been put forth as the 1990s rolled along; corporations began to get into the Broadway game, with the Disney Company allying with Broadway to adapt their musical films to the stage; Julie Taymors production of The Lion King stands out among that canon. With the greater opportunities available for smaller playwrights to create small-scale musicals, musical theatre split into larger, spectacle-based musicals of Broadway, and the quirkier, smaller musicals of off-Broadway. Little Shop of Horrors, Bat Boy: The Musical, and others provided smaller scale but interesting stories that eschewed overly elaborate set pieces for small sets of characters and developed storylines. Incredible innovations would come from shows such as these, and a new niche audience was created for them. In order to attract younger audiences, Rent was released on Broadway and the West End, a dramatic tale of New York bohemia, rock music, and AIDS. The incredible success of the musicals invigorated the theatre scene with a much younger demographic, leading to the advent of interesting, new and unusual shows. Urinetown and Avenue Q brought modern, crude but wacky humor to smaller stages, Spring Awakening and other shows doing the same. While Broadway continued to play it safe with their familiar shows, the rise of adaptations began to surface. Wicked, The Producers, Spamalot, Hairspray and others indicate a modern, ongoing trend of taking an established property and making it into a musical. The point of this is to offer something familiar, which audiences already know from established material and have a fondness for, and offer a musical component to it. The jukebox musical, exemplified by Mamma Mia! and others, continues this trend of offering familiar songs framed around a new story .

Study On Efficient Market Hypothesis Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2096 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is the theory behind efficient capital markets. An efficient capital market is one in which security prices reflect and rapidly adjust to all new information. The derivation of the EMH is mostly credited to the work of Fama. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Study On Efficient Market Hypothesis Finance Essay" essay for you Create order In 1965 the doctoral dissertation written by Fama was republished. In this Fama looks at the current literature on stock price behaviour and examines the distribution and dependence of stock price returns. He concluded that, it seems safe to say that this paper has presented strong and voluminous evidence in favour of the random walk hypothesis. Due to a better understanding of price formation in competitive markets, the random walk model was now seen as a set of observations that can be consistent with the efficient markets hypothesis. This switch began with observations published in a paper by Samuelson in 1965. Samuelson presented his proof in the general form, which helped in the understanding of the notion of a well-functioning market. His paper had the observation in competitive markets there is a buyer for every seller. If one could be sure that a price would rise, it would have already risen. Samuelson stated that arguments like this are used to deduce that competitive pri ces must display price changesthat perform a random walk with no predictable bias. Following on by the work done by Samuelson, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, a paper was published by Fama in 1970. This paper consisted of a comprehensive review of the theory and evidence of market efficiency. He defined an efficient market as one in which trading on available information fails to provide an abnormal profit. This paper was one of the firsts to distinguish between the three forms of market efficiency. The three forms of market efficiency are the weak form, semi-strong form and strong form. He concluded that the results are strongly in support of the weak form of market efficiency and that in short, the evidence in support of the efficient markets model is extensive, and (somewhat uniquely in economics) contradictory evidence is sparse. I will now summarise some papers that have been written on the criticism of the EMH. Although there has been a vast amount of literature published on the development and the support of the efficient market theory, there has also been various studies published criticising the EMH. This criticism comes about due to the fact that the EMH is difficult to test. A number of studies indicate anomalous behaviour, which appears to be inconsistent with market efficiency. Such anomalies include the small firm effect as talked about in a paper by Banz in 1981. Banz analysed monthly returns over the period 1931-75 on shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over this interval, the fifty smallest stocks outperformed the fifty largest by an average of one percentage point per month, on a risk-adjusted basis. After the publication of this paper, many other authors published their own papers examining the subject of the small firm effect. A paper by Ball in 1978 points out that the evidence could equally indicate the shortcomings of the models of expected return. A paper by Fama in 1998 concludes that further study should not be done on developing behavioural based theories of stock markets that take into account the apparent anomalies, but that search for better asset pricing models should take president. There is also the area of behavioural finance that criticises EMH. I will look at this in more depth in the next section. Market Bubble While the EMH is generally regarded as the best theory that can describe the actions of market prices it is not perfect and sometimes events occur that contradict the EMH. One of these events is that of the bubble. A bubble is when a specific industrys market prices do really well, so well that prices seem to rise higher than the EMH dictates. Eventually, the bubble bursts and prices return to a price more in line with EMH. One famous bubble was that of the dot.com bubble. EMH does not explain why this bubble exists in the first place. This is one of the major criticisms of the EMH. Many academics have turned to the relatively new theory of behavioural financ e to explain the bubble. Behavioural Finance One area that has recently undermined the EMH is the work published looking at behavioural finance. As observed by Shleifer (2000) At the most general level, behavioural finance is the study of human fallibility in competitive markets. Behavioural finance incorporates elements of cognitive psychology into finance in an effort to better understand how individuals and entire markets respond to different circumstances. Behavioural finance is based on the principle that all investors are not rational. Some investors can be over-confident, while other less knowledgeable investors might be prone to herding effects. Shefrin (1999) was one such author to talk about behavioural finance. He is one author who argues that a few psychological phenomena pervade the entire landscape of finance. Harrington (2003) agrees with the notion that overconfidence can lead to irrational behaviour. She states that investors can become irrational and their ir rational behaviour affects their ability to profit from owning stocks and bonds. Of course, behavioural finance does have its draw backs. One of which is the fact that using instincts alone can result in a loss. This is due to human error. The person that is using their instincts in determining where to invest might not have the greatest financial knowledge in the first place. Also, this person might be having a bad day or be under a great deal of stress or be distracted in some other way. This could result in the wrong decision being made. Therefore, it is a good idea to use both behavioural finance on top of the traditional theories already in use today. This view is supported by an article by Malkiel (1989) who agrees with the notion that behavioural aspects have a great importance in stock market valuation. He argues that behavioural factors play an important role in stock valuation alongside traditional valuation theories. This is summed up by the following quote, market val uations rest on both logical and psychological factors. The theory of valuation depends on the projection of a long-term stream of dividends whose growth rate is extraordinarily difficult to estimate. Moreover, the appropriate risk premiums for common equities are changeable and far from obvious either to investors or economists. Thus, there is room for the hopes, fears, and favourite fashions of market participants to play a role in the valuation process. Another article from the Banker (2004) also supports the view that behavioural finance has a role to play alongside the traditional views. In this section I will look at literature that tries to see if behavioural finance can explain this bubble. Many authors have argued that bubbles can be caused by over enthusiasm. For example, the new communication technology of the 1990s was exaggerated (causing the dot.com bubble). By this I mean that the new innovation is by some corners, i.e. the media and governments, over triumphed. Th is can lead to irrational behaviour of investors. This can lead to investors becoming over confident in the technology or industry. Another factor of this over enthusiasm is that it could attract herding behaviour. The irrational investor will be more likely to invest in something that is being hyped up as they feel that others are doing the same thing. They will feel that if others are doing it then it must be a good idea for them to do it as well. A factor that will have led to the development of a bubble is that of speculation. One such author that observed the speculation effect on the dot.com boom was Giombetti (2000). Many informed investors would have probably over invested in a specific industry going against market theory. They will have done this on the hope that their investment will pay off. Even if their investment were initially at a loss they would have stayed with it. Authors of behavioural finance outline this behaviour. This behaviour of these investors would have distorted the market conditions for other investors. Also, the herding effect would have been greater due to this. These factors would have led to the stock prices of a certain industry being vastly over priced. This would, therefore, cause the bubble. This bubble that has been created will, in turn, attract other investors. These investors will invest as they feel they are missing out on a good thing. This is another example of herding. This meant that when the bubble burst stock prices would have fell rapidly, causing investors to lose vast sums of money. This would cause them to pull out of the industry, which, in turn, causes the companies themselves to collapse. If it were not for irrational investment then investors might have pulled out earlier, before the collapse. This might have even meant that the collapse would not have happened. Other authors talk about some of the factors that cause investors to become irrational. On such author are Johnsson, Lindblom and P latan (2002). In their masters dissertation they talk about the various factors of irrationality. One of these is the observation that investors will hang on to losing shares longer than market theory dictates. They say that this is because they are waiting for the performance of the share to change for the better. This is referred to as loss aversion. This is an example of a psychological factor that is effecting the investment decision. Back to: Essay Examples Another psychological factor that affects investors, causing irrational behaviour is that of the feeling of regret. Authors argue that past bad decisions cause investors to feel regret and this alters their behaviour in such a way as to become irrational. Another factor that causes irrational behaviour is that of when the investor uses mental shortcuts in investment decisions. These shortcuts usually make investors choose the right decision but occasionally cause the investor to make the wrong decision. Optical illusions are a good example of how shortcuts can cause mistakes. A paper on www.undicoveredmanagers.com is one such paper that covers this point. Of course there are many authors who do not believe in the theory of behavioural finance. These authors argue that traditional financial theory can still be used to explain current market conditions. One such author is the person credited with the idea of the efficient market hypothesis, Eugene Fama. Fama (1998) argues that anomalies can be explained by traditional market theory. He argues that, apparent overreaction of stock prices to information is about as common as under-reaction and he suggests that this finding is consistent with the market efficiency hypothesis that the anomalies are chance events Other authors have argued that behavioural finance is only a study of individual investor behaviour. They argue that this theory has not been proven on a market wide scale. The tradition theories of finance have been. References www.UndiscoveredManagers.com (1999) Introduction to Behavioral Finance Ball R. (1978) Anomalies in Relationships Between Securities Yields and Yield-Surrogates, Journal of Financial Economics, 6, pp. 103-26. Banz R. (1981) The Relationship Between Return and Market Value of Common Stocks, Journal of Financial Economics, 9, pp. 3-18. Fama E. F. (1965) The behaviour of stock market prices, Journal of Business 38 (1), 34-105. Fama E. F. (1970) Efficient capita l markets: a review of theory and empirical work, Journal of Finance 25 (2), 383-417. Fama, E. (1998a). Efficiency survives the attack of the anomalies, GSB Chicago Alumni Magazine, (Winter):14-16. Giombetti R. (2000) The Dot.com Bubble. www.EatTheState.org Vol 4, Issue 23 Harrington C. (2003) Head games: Helping quell investors irrational antics. Accounting Today, v17 i11 p5(2) Johnsson M., Lindblom H. Platan P. (2002) Behavioral Finance And the Change of Investor Behavior during and After the Speculative Bubble At the End of the 1990s Malkiel B. G. (1989) Is the stock market efficient? Science, v243 n4896 p1313(6) Samuelson P. (1965) Proof That Properly Anticipated Prices Fluctuate Randomly. Industrial Management Review, 6, pp. 41-49. Scholes M. (1972) The Market for Securities: Substitution Versus Price Pressureand the Effects of Information on Share Prices. Journal of Business, 45, pp. 179-211. Shefrin H. Beyond Greed and Fear. (1999) Understanding B ehavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing. Harvard Business School Press Shleifer A. (2000) Inefficient Markets. An introduction to behavioural finance. Oxford university Press The Banker (2004) Cover feature: how much risk can you manage? Banks have a huge range of resources available to aid risk managers, but human nature can still result in a bad decision. Behavioural finance and prospect theory lifts the veil on poor investment judgement