Tuesday, January 28, 2020

The Piano History Essay Example for Free

The Piano History Essay In the 1700’s the piano was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Florence, Italy first introduced to the world as the pianoforte meaning â€Å"Soft loud†. â€Å"In the last quarter of the 18th century the piano had become the leading instrument of the western art of music that still lives on till today as an exotic instrument played by talented people in the world.† (Wendy Powers, 2003) Music has lived on from the beginning of time by all cultures and races for decades. Music is known to make the heart, soul, and brain one. Without this invention Beethoven would have not made the music that lives on till today and many other talented famous throughout the world. The piano reaches out to the most inner deepest soul all the way to keys that charge up chakras for well-being. A piano has 8 white keys c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c and 5 black known as the Chromatic scale which is 13 including next count which correlates with the 8, 11, 13 chakras. Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4 on 1655 and passed away in 1731. Bartolomeo Cristofori’s occupation was a harpsichord maker and a designer. By 1688, Prince Ferdinando de Medici of Florence, son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany got Bartolomeo Cristofori because of his talent and reputation. The princes owned forty harpsichords and spinets, and hired Cristofori at the age of 33 to both curate the collection, and build new ones. Cristofori became the custodian of the instruments in the court in starting from 1690. Around 1700, he began to work on an instrument on which the player could achieve changes in loudness just by changing the force with which the keys were struck. Instead of the quill jacks used to pluck the string on the harpsichord, Cristofori’s innovation was to devise a way in which the strings were struck from below by individual hammers covered in deer leather. He had created the first two harpsichords with the first real escapement mechanism. When Italian Renaissance spread throughout Europe, the upsurge of innovation in art, culture and science was developing todays known as culturally rich. The 17th and the 18th centuries, decades from when the piano was invented the history of Italy is considered part of the early modern period. However this period, at least the first half, is often closely associated with the dominant artistic and architectural movement known as Baroque. The era of Italian Baroque was the birth of opera as a major form of entertainment. Unlike the plays popular up to this time, opera combined music and theatre into a spectacle that was designed to be a feast for the senses (Chakras). The origins of opera are credited to a Late Renaissance group of poets, musicians and humanist known as the Florentine Camerata, thanks to Bartolomeo Cristofori invention. This time also was marked the beginning of long foreign domination of Italy in the aftermath of the Italian Wars of the 16th century. After these wars were over, the Italian landscape was peaceful for a long time, expression with art talks during these time periods. The Renaissance in Italy was over by 1600 but Italy still made up a large portion of the European economy. However, the economic power of the country as a whole declined and none of the various Italian states did anything concrete to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution but they did however make other history in humanities. From the 14th century until the late 17th century, Italy grieved a very high death rate from many outbreaks of the plague. They are known as the Black Death and associated with medieval times; this plague did not come even come to a near end in the 13th century. The largest death toll had been in the early 1600s when an estimated 1,730,000 people died due to plague in Italy. Perhaps the pianos were some kind of good thing in the survivor’s lives’ to expression and create music. This was almost 14% of the population of the country at that time and also the time the piano had come around. There was an Economic decline; the powerful Habsburgs of Spain had dominated most of Italy in one form or another starting 1559 to 1713, and music and art continued to speak freely. In developing the piano Bartolomeo Cristofori had been working on getting a feel for the harpsichord to respond to touch. He developed a mechanical action that made it possible to sound simultaneously as many notes as one had fingers and do to this to be able to produce any work in the entire literature of Western music with variations of loud and soft according to the players touch at the keyboard. It included a complex mechanical action with a hammer that rose towards a string four times as fast as the finger, an escapement to allow the hammer to rebound from the freely vibrating string, a check for the hammer to prevent bouncing, and a shift so the hammer would play only one of the two strings to reduce volume. Cristofori’s hammer mechanism was so well designed, that no other of comparable sensitivity and reliability was developed as known for another seventy-five years. The highly compound accomplishment of the modern piano may be sketched directly to his original concepti on. Todays the piano sustains pitches in a lyrical fashion, creating all musical styles and moods and is universal all because of Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invention of the great musical instrument. This popular instrument has changed over the years (except for its hammers), and how its flexibility and expressiveness have inspired composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, and Bartà ³k. It’s been pasted down for decades and artist today become best friends with the piano as they have the talent to sing and play with the piano. People have talents and a musical part in their life because of the invention that was lead down for decades starting from Beethoven. Pianos have improved from the 1700s of course from sound, shape and functionality since Bartolomeo Cristofori’s invention but he was the Italian that brought a different sound of music into our world. We went from having 88 keys on the piano 36 black and 52 white to high performance grand pianos with 92 keys as of today. From 1790 to the mid-1800s, piano technology and sound was greatly improved due to the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, such as the new high quality steel called piano wire, and the ability to precisely cast iron frames. The tonal range of the piano increased from the five octaves of the pianoforte to the seven and more octaves found on modern pianos. Around 1780, the upright piano was created by Johann Schmidt of Salzburg, Austria and later improved in 1802 by Thomas Loud of London whose upright piano had strings that ran diagonally. In 1881, an early patent for a piano player was issued to John McTammany of Cambridge, Mass. John McTammany described h is invention as a mechanical musical instrument. It worked using narrow sheets of perforated flexible paper which triggered the notes. A later automatic piano player was the Angelus patented by Edward H. Leveaux of England on 27 February 1879, and described as an apparatus for storing and transmitting motive power. John McTammanys invention was actually the earlier one invented (1876), however, the patents dates are in the opposite order due to filing procedures. On March 28, 1889, William Fleming received a patent for a player piano using electricity. Although before all these important beings and Bartolomeo Cristofori a man named Johannes Spinctus made the Spinet when later followed Bartolomeo Cristofori and his invention of the Spinettone which means â€Å"Big Spinet†. Not all of the piano elements where invented by Bartolomeo, but he did built the first piano and made great improvements in his time. Musicians that we still listen to their creations to including Bach and Beethoven first played on Bartolomeo Cristoforiâ₠¬â„¢s Harpsichord and liked to do so because of the higher pitch! Bartolomeo Cristofori put the pieces of the puzzle together for the invention of the piano. â€Å"The modern piano keyboard was first established during the 13th century of Medieval Europe with black and white wooden keys as it was later invented by Cristofori.† N/A (Unknown) Title Of Source: Piano History: The Complete Story. For decades the piano has become part of a business and career, and great talent of musical art. My boyfriend is a producer and he plays the piano and it is also a proven fact that music is the best medicine, specially hearing a piano play, and it was all because of the invention of the original piano back in time that lead to improved ones as of today. People evolved and became smarter and had the sources to build improved pianos. The piano is something that can be passed down for decades to come, just as Bartolomeo’s pieces have and changed the universe. Looking deeper into the Piano, it was created as corresponding to the flower of life. The flower of life is the original perfect geometric cemetry that created the universe. It is not only the root of mathematical proportions but also the source of shape, light of photonic solids and the source to every musical system in the world both known and unknown to humans, yes the dearest piano too. Isn’t it just phenomenal to know that music notes are separated by 90 degrees so are our chakras. So we can thank the flower of life that gave us the piano. The piano is a beautiful instrument that makes harmonic music and good for the soul. Now, what I came to conclusion is the piano might has not been able to change the world because wars, starvation and injustice continued. In the world of musicians and music lovers the piano was an improvement over the harpsichord which was only able to play loud of soft when levers where pushed. Many people try to push their dreams, because of their piano perfection and that opens doors to the talented! It’s nice to have a piano around; it’s a different feel every time, a great field of sound. Today 3 creations of Bartolomeo Cristofori from the years 1720, 1722, and 1726 remain in Museum’s around the world, but are too old and not playable. References Arkenberg, Rebecca. (October, 2002) Title of Source: Music in the Renaissance† Retrieved From: 2000http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/renm/hd_renm.htm Bellis, Mary. (Unknown) Title of Source: The History of the Piano Bartolomeo Cristofori Retrieved From: http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/piano.htm Cipolla, Carlo M. (1981) Title of Source: Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy. Retrieved From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_plague_of_1629%E2%80%931631 Duchnycz, Jordan. (May, 2012) Title Of Source: Spirit Of Science 1-15 full movie series Retrieved From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaDOkMEK4ukfeature=related Powers, Wendy. (October, 2003) Title Of Source: The Piano: The Pianofortes of Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) Retrieved From: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cris/hd_cris.htm N/A. (Unknown). Title of Source: Who Invented the Piano? Retrieved From: http://www.piano-play-it.com/who-invented-the-piano.html N/A (Unknown) Title Of Source: Piano History: The Complete Story Retrieved From: http://www.get-piano-lessons.com/piano-history.html

Monday, January 20, 2020

Salingers Franny and Zoey Essay -- J.D. Salinger Franny Zoey Essays

Salinger's Franny and Zoey It is the consensus of most critics that Seymour Glass is the most important character and the leader of the Glass family. This is a point that is obvious from the stories that Salinger has written about the Glass family. Seymour is looked up to and revered by all the children in the family and is his mothers â€Å"favorite, most intricately calibrated, her kindest son†(Franny 89). When catastrophe strikes in Franny and Zooey, the only person Franny wants to talk to is Seymour. Why is Seymour the most important person in the Glass family? Seymour is the eldest child. Therefore, all will come after him. In a sense, nothing new can be done after Seymour has done it. All that is left is to imitate and learn from the child genius. This is what all the Glass children seem to do. In Franny and Zooey, we learn that Seymour and Buddy educated all of the children. Together, the eldest boys of the Glass family taught their siblings literature, philosophy, and religion. Seymour was also looked up to and relied upon by the children of his family. In Seymour: an Introduction, we learn that Seymour and Buddy were both active in taking care of their younger siblings but there was a slight difference in the reactions of the children to each of them. Buddy says: When Seymour told one of the twins †¦to take off his or her rubbers on coming into the apartment, each and all of them knew he mostly mean that the floor would get tracked up if they didn’t and that Bessie would have to get out the mop. When I told them to take off their rubbers, they knew I mostly meant that people who didn’t were slobs. (193-194) This is an important difference because it shows how bo... ... learn from. He exists to teach us a lesson. This is why he is the family storyteller. He is our teacher, our example, and our leader. What is the lesson we are to learn from him? Maybe only Salinger knows that for certain but I believe Salinger would have us each search out our own â€Å"pieces of holy ground†. He would have us all find our one true thing we are to do, even if it is only to go to teach in a small classroom with less than average writers, as is Buddy’s holy ground, or to live alone and write for only yourself, as is Salinger’s holy ground. He would have us all admit to ourselves what it is we are supposed to do and go out and do it instead of forever complaining and searching for better. Through Buddy, Salinger is trying to give us his version of the meaning of life. The ultimate message: Find your holy ground, there lies happiness and truth.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Motivation and Staff Performance in the Civil Service Essay

The key to motivation is the satisfaction of desires. As long as an individual has an unachieved personal goal, he has the force to motivate him, our behavior consciously or unconsciously, is generally motivate distinctive individual behaviour are to a considerable degree subconscious and therefore not easily susceptible to examination and evaluation. There has been persistent expression of dissatisfaction with the job attitudes and job performance of workers in public sector. This is due to the fact that the job is not attractive to workers. This inadequacy could be traced to the employee’s personal needs, job expectations and or innate states. Employees are usually more productive during a task simply because they want to do it, not because they feel they have to do it. Therefore, it seems evident that people or individuals will be prepared to commit themselves to their job to put in their best effort and loyalty to the job and to work towards the achievement of the organization targets if their goals are met on the job and if they are satisfied with the job. When one is positively motivated, it precipitates positive behavior hence positive erformance. According to Musselman and Hughes (1999) morale affects efficiency of operation. Morale is the result of combination of many complex attitudes, workers personal feelings and biases, their values, economic and cultural environment, degree of security physical health, emotional stability, realization of job expectations and the flow of communication between managemen t and the workers. 3 Many authorities believe that production rates are more sharply influenced by morale of the work force than by any other environmental factor. If employees feel that they are treated fairly well and good working conditions are provided, they are likely to have high morale to do their job. 1. 2 Statement of the Problem The civil service is the instrument through which meaningful development in the country is achieved. This is accomplished when the civil servant uses his acquired skills to formulate and execute government policies geared towards development. However, there is a strong evidence of deterioration about the work standard in the civil service. The behaviours of workers are characterized by such attitudes as laziness, absenteeism, lateness to work, hostility to members of the public; disloyalty and corruption. The expectations of civil servants are not met; hence, there is general laxity and inadequate performance in this sector. It is the general belief of civil servants that their counterparts in the private sector are better off with good standard of living. In view of this, they are not motivated to put in their best. This negative belief has created some problems in the attitude of workers in the civil service which has adversely affected job performance. 1. Research Question in view of the problem raised, this study is therefore designed to seek answers to the following questions in line with the aims of the study (1) What are the factors affecting job satisfaction among the Civil Servants un Oyo State? (2) To what extent are the Civil Servant of Oyo State are satisfied with their job? 4 1. 4 Objectives of the StudyTh e objectives of the research study are to (i) examine the factor that motivate the workers of Oyo State Civil Service; (ii) appraise the existing motivating packages for workers in the state ; and (iii) investigate the effects of staff motivation on job performance in he State. 1. 5 Significance of the Study The study will be of immense benefits to decision makers and human resource managers in organization when dealing with human problem such as the menace of low productivity as appropriate policy decisions that affect their personnel would be made. The importance of workers motivation and job satisfaction should not be ignored by government as they promote the corporate objectives of the organization as well as the individual. This research study would therefore serve as a guide to employers of labour as it would give them the understanding of the workers. The study is also expected to provide additional information research in this area and to government for effective efficient performance in respect of task and allocation of scarce resources for a result oriented state. 1. 6 The Scope of StudyConsidering the large population of the Oyo State Civil Service, it will be difficult and time consuming to include all the population of civil servants in the state. Therefore, the study focused on six ministries. The Miniseries are office of the Governor, ministry of Works and Transport, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Lands and Housing. The criteria for selecting these ministries are based on the fact that their programmes and activities are 5 geared towards the development of the state and the fact that they provide extensive services to the largest population of the state, hence, their impact is felt throughout the state. In addition, the population of these ministries is expected to be a representative sample of the characteristics of the whole civil service as the population of the selected ministries represents a larger proportion of whole civil service population. 1. 7 Limitation of the Study The system of records keeping at Oyo state civil service commission made it difficult to collect and retrieve data necessary for adequate analysis of data collected for the study. The time for the research study is not enough for an extensive work to be done. It was not easy to carry out a comparative study of all the Ministries in Oyo state because of fund. Definition of Terms1. 8 Definition of Terms The following terms are defined for the purpose of this studyMotivation The drive to satisfy a want or achieve an outcome. In this study, what motivates the labour to put up certain action and what comes out of it? Job Satisfaction The psychological disposition (attitudes and feelings) of workers towards his job. It refers to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied as a result of a job factor. Morale The collective attitude of workers towards one another, towards their employer, the management, or their work. 6 Job Involvement The enthusiasm and dedication which an individual demonstrates at his job as he gets deeply absorbed in it in a bid to achieve corporate objectives. Management Management is a process by which a co-operative group directs the actions of others towards a common goal (objective). In this case, management is used to mean senior management, except otherwise state. Training The process whereby employees learn the skill, knowledge, attributes and behaviours necessary to in perform their job effectively. Behaviour The general disposition of the management which employees perceive as friendly or hostile, conductive or unconductive and which affect their job behaviour and consequently performance. 7 CHAPTER TWO AREVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL FRAME WORK 2. 1 Introduction Many employers of labour have come to realize that people are the most important of an organization. They concerned themselves with how the workers would be brought together to work for the fulfillment of the corporate of the organization. According to A. K. Ubeku (1975) â€Å"of all the assets of a business organization, people are the most important†. Motivation of workers in an organization is very important as it leads to the development of the individual and improve his job performance. Modern managers in an organization use personnel policy to motivate workers with a view to creating a conducive working situation where workers could attain self-actualization. Motivation creates a sense of success and security in the workers when his/her work is recognized as contributing to the aims and objectives of the organization. The classical approach to motivation has been the â€Å"correct and stick† method. The correct being money and the stick taking the form of physical punishment. The assumption has been that people would work harder and produce more if substantial financial rewards are placed before them or threatened with either dismissal or physical punishment. The classical theorists felt that workers could attain job satisfaction if their productivity and pay are maximized. This was not to be as money could motivate employees to a certain point only. Managers have also come to realize the importance of job satisfaction to workers. This is due to the facts that a worker who is satisfied with his/her works would put up an enhanced job performance while the reverse be the case for the dissatisfied worker. Thus, the success or failure of 8 any organization is a function of how satisfied its employees are with their work. A well-motivated worker could put up a high job performance because of the satisfaction he derived from his work. 2. 2 The concept of motivation and job satisfaction The word motivation is derived from the Latin word â€Å"movere† meaning to move. Motivation is therefore the process of arousing movement. The movement referred to being behavioural movement. Some theorists had asserted that people behaviour is determined by a complex interaction between the unconscious drives and the environment. Motivation is a predisposition to act in a specific goal directed manner. The term motivation refers to goal directed behaviour. Goal directed behaviour is characterized by the process of selecting and directing certain actions among voluntary activities to achieve goals. Motivation can be defined as the state of an individual perspective which represents the strength of his propensity to exert towards some particular behaviour. The word Motivation is derived from motives. The definitions of motives are as follows: Motives are expression of a person’s needs, hence they are personal and internal. Motives are acquired determinants that regulates the patterns of action and that arouse ore activate behaviour. They are the learned determinant of behaviour. Finally, Eze (1984) defined motivation as â€Å"a psychological process initiated by the emergence of a need in the organism which leads to a goal-directed behaviour/action aimed at satisfying the need†. 9 Davis (1981) defined job satisfaction as â€Å"the favorableness with which employee view their work†. It is an indication of the congruence between the worker’s expectations from his job and the actual rewards offered by the job. Eze (1984) defined job satisfaction as the â€Å"sense of well-being, good feeling and positive mental state that emerge in an individual when he obtains regard, consequent upon his job performance, congruent with or very nearly congruent with his expected equitable reward. According to Kevin J. Russel, job satisfaction is â€Å"a function of the importance attached, by the workers, to the extent to which needs are generally met in the work situation relative to the way in which these workers have ordered their wants and expectations (orientation to work)†. These definitions stated above have one thing in common: a recognition of the fact that an individual’s expression of job satisfaction is an emotional effective personal response as a result of his estimation of the degree to which some facts of job reality is congruent or incongruent with values. In order therefore to understand or describe an individual’s job satisfaction, one needs to have a good understanding of that individual’s total personality and value system. Ejiogu (2009) stated that people’s perceptions of their job situation will be directly related to the values which they place on the various aspects of their job and its environment as sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. From Wikipedia (2010) job satisfaction describes how content an individual is with his or her job. The happier people are within their job, the more satisfied they are said to be. Job satisfaction is not the same as motivation, although it is clearly linked. Other influences on satisfaction include the management style and culture, employee involvement, empowerment and autonomous work position. 10 2. 3 The Relationship Between Motivation, Job Satisfaction and Job Performance As seen above, motivation is quite different from satisfaction. While motivation refers to the drive and effort to satisfy a want of goal, satisfaction rears to the contentment experienced when a want is satisfied. In other words, motivation implied a drive towards an outcome and satisfaction involved outcomes already experienced (Koontz, O’Donnell and Weihrich, 1981). Motivation, therefore, precedes satisfaction. In most work situation in Nigeria and elsewhere, the same factor affect job performance could also affect job involvement, job satisfaction, job attitude and work motivation. 2. 4 The Early Theories of Motivation and Job Satisfaction In the early years of industrial revolution and after, profit maximization triggered the industrialists to search for ways and means of motivating workers for higher productivity. They want to make profits as much as possible through increased productivity. According to this view, the way to attract employee to work is to offer them attractive pay and the way to attract employees to work is to offer their attractive pay and the way to increase productivity is to constantly raise salaries. Motivation of workers through non-monetary rewards was never thought of by these early industrialists. The early industrialist tied motivation to financial reward (increased pay) which would in turn give workers satisfaction. The early theories on motivation and job satisfaction are as follows: 1. Classical Theory/School 11 2. Human Relation School 3. Structuralists School2. 4. 1. Classical Theory/SchoolThe development of modern management started about the beginning of this century with the classical school led by Frederick W. Taylor. This classical school preached Scientific Management, which combines the study of physical capabilities of a worker with an economic approach which views man as being driven by the need to earn his livelihood. The classical school advocated that if material required was closely tied to work efforts, the worker would respond with the maximum performance he is physically capable of doing. Taylor and his followers saw the worker as a functioning appendage to the industrial machine. Following this, the teaching of the classical school had been referred to as the Machine Theory of Organisation. The school assumed that the most efficient organisation would also be the most satisfying one, because it would maximize both productivity and workers’ pay and consequently job satisfaction. However, Taylor never thought off non-monetary regards. 2. 4. 2. The Human Relations SchoolThe excesses of the Classical approach came to be modified by the teaching of the human relations School which was heralded in by Professor Elton Mayo and his associates in the Hawthorne experiments. These experiments were carried out at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne works in Chicago, U. S. A. between 1927 and 1932, were aimed at exploring the relationship between physical environment and productivity. The study was especially aimed at finding out the effect of illumination on productivity in the plant. The researcher discovered that when lighting was 12 illuminated step by step over a period of time, production increased correspondingly. On the other hand, when the researchers decided to decrease the illumination in the plant, production continued to rise and did so until the lighting was no longer brighter than moonlight. The major findings and conclusions of the Hawthorne Experiment are as follows(i) The level of production is set by social norms, not by physiological capacities; (ii) Non-economic rewards and sanctions significantly affect the behaviour of workers and largely limit the effect of economic incentive plans; (iii) Often, workers do not act or react as individuals but as members of groups; (iv) The importance of leadership for setting and enforcing group norms and the difference between informal and formal leadership; (v) The importance of communication, participative decision-making and democratic leadership in an organization. The Human Relations School assumed that the most satisfying organization would be the most efficient and so the organization structure and work should be related to the social needs of the employees. The rationale of the argument is that if employees are made happy, they will co-operate fully with the organization in their efforts and so increase organisational efficiency and productivity. Peter Drucker has criticised the views of the human relations school as being too employee centered. While the Classical and Human Relations Schools differ in their emphasis on either the formal or informal aspects of the organisation respectively, both had failed to see that productivity and workers satisfaction are inherently opposed philosophies. This has been left for the Structural School to sort out. That is the basic contradiction between a company’s quest for relationally and profit and the human search for happiness freedom of action. 13 The Structuralists see the company organization as a large, complex, social unit in which many social groups interact while these groups have common interests like the economic viability of the organization, they also have some other opposed interests like how the gross profits of the organization are to be distributed. The two groups within the organization whose interests frequently come into conflicts are management and workers, although by no means the only group envisaged by the Structuralists. Essentially, rivalry and conflicts between organizational groups are inevitable and, perhaps, occasionally desirable. Peoples’ behaviour is motivated by common basic needs. These needs vary in degree with gender, generation, culture, maturity and other life circumstances. If appropriately structured, a person’s job can help meet these needs, which leads to job satisfaction and job performance. A lot of research has been done in the area of motivation in relation to the area of organizational management. Researchers and authors agree that motivation is very crucial to the issue of job performance but they differ with regard to the things that motivate. Vroom (1964) sees motivation as a process governing choices made by persons or lower organisms among alternative forms of voluntary activity. This implies that motivation propel an individual to prefer one job to another. Some researchers assumed that variables such as amount of reward are motivational variables that directly influence the strength of incentive motivation. The implication of this is that extrinsic motivation has greater influence on one’s (workers) performance. This seems to be in agreement with Skinners operant conditioning principle which states that â€Å"behaviours are governed by their consequences†. This is to say that if the consequence is positive, there will exist a better 14 performance (behaviour) from the worker. In other words, an individual’s willingness to perform and the effort he will be willing to put depend on the reward he will get from the performance of such activity. There are propounded theories which are sophisticated in nature. Some laying credence to or supporting the above viewpoints and others contradicting them. Some of these theories would be discussed since this review cannot comprehensively discuss all of them. In addition, the literature review will include motivation, job performance, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Nigeria Civil Service and Oyo State Civil Service. 2. 5 Maslow’s Theory of Motivation The need theory was originally advanced by Abraham Maslow (1938). According to him, people are motivated to satisfy a hierarchy or sequence of needs. He opined that man is a wanting being and what they want depends on what they already have. Maslow recognizes five (5) different needs that motivate individuals to work. These needs are as follows:2. 5. 1 Physiological Needs:These are considered to be basic biological functions of the human organisms and the most important of all human needs. They include the need for food, water, air, sleep, sex, rest, cloth and shelter. An individuals who lacks any of all these physiological needs is disturbed in mind. In addition, if these needs are unfulfilled, the higher needs will not be recognized. 2. 5. 2 Safety Needs:It is only when the individual meets the physiological needs that he tries to focus his attention on the next set of needs in the hierarchy, that is, the safety needs. At this level of the hierarchy, the employee is preoccupied with the safety of his life and property. He is also more concerned with stable situations and the security of his job. The needs for his 15

Saturday, January 4, 2020

What Is a Sign in Semiotics

A sign is any motion, gesture, image, sound, pattern, or event that conveys meaning. The general science of signs is called semiotics. The instinctive capacity of living organisms to produce and understand signs is known as semiosis. EtymologyFrom the Latin, mark, token, sign Pronunciation: SINE Examples and Observations We live in world full of signs. Whatever our eyes take in is pervaded by signs, ranging from traffic signs to the constellation of stars in the night sky; from the silhouette of a mothers image in our dreams to the seven color bands of the rainbow. . . . Conceiving of a world without signs is impossible. (Kyong Liong Kim, Caged in Our Own Signs: A Book About Semiotics. Greenwood, 1996)A sign is any physical form that has been imagined or made externally (through some physical medium) to stand for an object, event, feeling, etc., known as a referent, or for a class of similar (or related) objects, events, feelings, etc., known as a referential domain. In human life, signs serve many functions. They allow people to recognize patterns in things; they act as predictive guides or plans for taking actions; they serve as exemplars of specific kinds of phenomena; and the list could go on and on. The English word cat, for example, is an example of a particular kind of human sign--known as ver bal--which stands for a referent that can be described as a carnivorous mammal with a tail, whiskers, and retractile claws. (Thomas A. Sebeok, Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics. University of Toronto Press, 1994) Saussure on Signs [Swiss linguist Ferdinand de] Saussure argued that the meaning of a sign is arbitrary and variable. . . . In Saussures terms, any sign consists of a signifier (the sound a word makes, its physical shape on the page) and a signified (the words content). For language to work, the sign needs to be a unified whole. (David Lehman, Signs of the Times. Poseidon, 1991)Psychologically our thought--apart from its expression in words--is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague uncharted nebula. There are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language. (Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics. Translated by Wade Baskin. Philosophical Library, 1959) Graphical Symbols in Airports Much of the innovation in the sign world has been spurred by airports, places where people of all nationalities and tongues must move quickly, efficiently, and safely through huge spaces. For years, designers have been developing graphical symbols to help non-natives find the bathrooms, the baggage claims, and the bureaux de change, and, in the process, theyve been inventing a global language, a kind of pictorial Esperanto. (Julia Turner, The Secret Language of Signs. Slate, March 1, 2010) Culturally Determined Signs At checkpoints [in Iraq], U.S. troops tried to stop cars by holding up an open palm and waving downward. Iraqi drivers interpreted that as come, not stop. When a car kept advancing, troops shot warning shots, displaying an unnecessary hostility. Sometimes theyd shoot directly at the car, killing drivers and passengers. It was months before the troops came up with an unambiguous alternative, the outstretched clenched fist--by which time some Iraqis had died for an elementary cultural misunderstanding. (Bobby Ghosh, Iraq: Missed Steps. Time magazine, Dec. 6, 2010)