Friday, December 27, 2019

Design an organizational culture for Wikileaks - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2574 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Wikileaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange as a platform for whistleblowers to share facts and information they believed the public should know. It was hailed as a turning point in investigative journalism and while their reason for existence was transparency, the culture of the organisation was not. Mcshane, Olekalns and Travaglione define organisational culture as the values and assumptions shared within an organisation. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Design an organizational culture for Wikileaks" essay for you Create order It serves three functions: to act as a control system that influences employee decisions and behaviours; the social glue that connects employees and binds the group; and to assist employees to understand why things are done the way they are. OToole, 2009, states that organisations who fail to achieve transparency will have it forced upon them; there is just no way to keep secrets in the age of the internet. This is the crisis point at which Wikileaks now finds itself. In order for Wikileaks to improve its credibility as a transparent organisation, Mr Assange will need to realise that the ability to keep secrets is changing in large part because of the internet (OToole, 2009) By observing the elements of culture using OTooles model, the transparency of Wikileaks can be examined through analysing the following: Telling the truth: OToole (2009) states that leaders must trust others before others will trust them. While the premise of Wikileaks is truth, this needs to be exte nded to incorporate their culture. Mr Assanges belief in making the truth available to all (Boyes, 2010) should make the transition into being open and telling the truth to his stakeholders easier. Encouraging others to speak the truth to power: Again, the trust that the organisation has in Wikileaks management must be earned this will take time and practice. Once it has been established, Mr Assange will be rewarded with unimpeded intelligence (OToole, 2009). This is an important step in an organisations cultural development as empowering employees with the courage to question the status quo can divert disaster (e.g. bringing to light problems with a proposed plan) or empower them to bring forward innovative ideas). Mr Assange may find that not all employees want to hear everything, but good mangers appreciate such openness. At interview,) Mr Assange said, that Wikileaks does have its own ethical code, it has values (Moss, 2010). Most employers would expect their employees to be good soldiers and not question company policy, but a great leader will welcome alternative viewpoints (OToole, 2009). Although as Mr Assange admits it is hard to get new talent quickly because everyone has to be checked out (Moss, 2010), he should encourage employees to put forward their views; listening to alternative points of view is easier than losing and replacing employees. Rewarding contrarians: OToole (2009) states that Companies with healthy cultures continually challenge their assumptions (and) that work is seldom done by one person sitting in a room. Wikileaks employs five full time staff (and others) in a decentralised structure that Mr Assange views as a model for many media organisations in the future (Moss, 2010). This structure could allow for some change to the culture, if an employee or stakeholder challenges a decision, Mr Assange could reward them by promoting them. This could also encourage other employees to stand up and voice their own opinions. The different opinions can be used to identify or solve problems that may not have initially been seen. When Daniel Domscheit-Berg questioned some of the practices of Wikileaks earlier this year, Mr Assange suspended him accusing him of insubordination and disloyalty (Boyes, 2010). This is an area where Wikileaks can dramatically improve. Practicing having unpleasant conversations: As the previous two steps highlight, encouraging communication and feedback both up and down the organisational hierarchy are essential to a healthy transparent culture. However, delivering what may be received as unpleasant information is a skill that, in order to be done effectively, must be learned. Practicing these conversations will help maintain strong relationships. Diversifying your sources of information: By consulting a range of information sources when decisions are made or strategies are adopted, the risk of making bad decisions is reduced as management has access to a greater range of viewpoints and are subject to fewer biases. Admitting your mistakes: Mr Assenge believes what matters first and foremost is getting the information out (Moss, 2010). As founder and the most public face of Wikileaks, he developed a siege mentality (Boyes, 2010) and continued to reinforce its hierarchical structure alienating staff in the process. In order to make the organisation more transparent, Mr Assange should admit his mistakes and move forward. By making this the norm, employees will once again begin to feel confident taking risks or trying something new, as failure will not lead to immediate sanctions. Building an organisational architecture that supports candor: Wikileaks was founded by Mr Assange with his beliefs; based on total openness and transparency (Barrowclough, 2010) however he does not practice what he preaches. He lives his life never staying anywhere for more than two nights (Moss, 2010). The organisation has not been built as one that supports candor. Alth ough in some way this is incorrect, his publications are open and transparent and tell the truth. Although it does not seem that way for the organisational culture. The organisation sneaks around hacking into systems and receiving information from whistleblowers. This step encourages organisations to have whistleblowers, this should clearly identify those individuals that are not adhering to the organisations policies, procedures, culture or norms. To build on this Wikileaks should only hire new employees that are committed to working in a transparent organisational culture. Setting the information free: From Wikileaks point of view the organisation is about setting information free, however not all information is free and forthcoming. The information that the organisation reports on contains information which has been given to them by whistleblowers and from within Wikileaks requires full confidentiality, to make obtaining more of this information accessible. However, from the p ublic point of view the organisation does not set the information free until the information has been published. Exemplary leaders encourage and even reward, openness and dissent. (OToole, 2009) In analysing the steps detailed in OTooles article, it is apparent that Wikileaks current organisational culture needs a great deal of transformation to move it to move it to an open and transparent model. It should be noted, however, that complete transparency is not possible, nor is it desirable, for example Wikileaks is based on anonymous sources of information and it is essential that the privacy of its contributors is maintained. Once Wikileaks has applied the analysis of OTooles model and acknowledges the need for change, a change process should be followed to ensure the transformation is successful. Kotters eight steps to transforming organisations provides a useful model for Wikileaks to base their change efforts. By following the steps in order, it can be successfully trans formed into a more transparent, workable organisation. The management of Wikileaks should: Establish a sense of urgency The first step in transforming the culture of an organisation is to establish a sense of urgency. Kotter (2009) statesby making all stakeholders aware of the urgency in changing the organisational culture, there will be a greater acceptance and active participation in the change process. The problems within the organisational structure of Wikileaks have been well publicised in the media; Boyes (2010) writes of a siege mentality adopted by Julian Assange. Wikileaks grew quickly, and the hierarchical structure of the organisation has stifled the necessary discussion about roles and responsibilities (Domscheit-Bert in Boyes 2010). In communicating the urgency of the situation, it is also important to convey the message of why the corporation is in such a crisis and major opportunities that may arise once the new organisational culture is implemented and operating effectively. Within Wikileaks a culture change is essential for the survival of the organisation and due to the rece nt media attention, Wikileaks stakeholders will already be aware of the need to change to a more transparent culture. Until recently, Daniel Domsheit-Berg, a Senior Executive of Wikileaks, was a strong defender of the organisation but has recently publicly confirmed the companys internal struggles (Boyes 2010). In this regard, the sense of urgency has been created by external forces and is beyond the control of the organisation. All stakeholders need to be aware of the consequences of not adapting to change. These consequences will include unemployment for staff, financial loss for investors and professional embarrassment of management. Create a powerful guiding coalition It is often said that major change is impossible unless the head of the organisation is an active supporter (Kotter 1995). Wikileaks has no option but to embrace the changes necessary to ensure its survival. With a sense of urgency established, Mr Assenge should call for senior managers to nominate for the guiding coalition. The members of this coalition should come from those who are most motivated to progress the organisation into the future and into a more transparent culture. The importance of having this guiding coalition cannot be overstated, along with their commitment to drive the change. If the coalition is not totally committed to the process and does not fully understand the urgency, the process will ultimately fail; the urgency will recede and old familiar practices will return. When Wikileaks was formed in 2006, it was touted as a turning point in investigative journalism (Boyes, 2010), however with the rapid growth of the organisation the closed culture became a problem as soon as we started to take sides (Boyes, 2010). Creating a vision The vision is the glue that holds the organisation together. It must provide real guidance, be focused, flexible and easily communicated (Kotter, 2010). The Wikileaks vision now needs to be recreated to resurrect its image and help in transforming its culture. This new vision should provide guidance to all employees and key stakeholders, where the organisation is headed and what it, the organisation hopes to achieve. In the process, Wikileaks should be focused on their goals and outcomes of the organisation and provide flexibility in their change efforts. Mr Assange has been quoted as envisioning a time where all media would develop their own forms of Wikileaks, including creating systems for all media organisations (Barrowclough, 2010). Communicating the vision Once Mr Assange has developed his new vision, the guiding coalition must clearly communicate the message to all stakeholders, both frequently and powerfully. Mr Assange should communicate at every chance to enable all stakeholders to focus on the new direction for Wikileaks. Changes at this level need to be implemented from the top levels of management down through all other levels within Wikileaks and must therefore, believe in the change implicitly to prevent cynicism amongst the rest of the organisation (Kotter, 1995). To have successful change processes, employees need to embrace the new vision, and will not willingly change unless they believe that the changes are in their best interest (Kotter,1995). In communicating the vision all forms of communicating within the organisation both formal and informal should be used to ensure everyone get the message. Empowering others to act on the vision When all stakeholders are responsive to the sense of urgency and a committed guiding coalition has been put in place, to drive the change and communicate a clear vision to all stakeholders, empowering employees to meet the vision is the next step. To motivate employees and others within Wikileaks to act on the new vision, management should: Remove any barriers that may prevent employees from embracing the new organisational culture. Examples of this can include rotating staff to parts of the organisation where they can use their skills to best advantage or encourage those who dont share the vision to consider moving on or provide opportunities for them to understand the benefits of the changes Review or eliminate any systems (for example, the way of gathering confidential information) that weaken the companies new vision; and Provide scope to allow tasks to be done differently. Employees should be encouraged to think outside the box, use their initiative and take risks as long as it supports the vision and the new culture (Kotter, 2010). If Wikileaks is able to empower their employees in believing in and meeting the new organisational vision then the improved organisational culture too will be implemented and over time will remain in place. This is due to the fact that the new vision is part of the new culture. Plan for and create short term wins. The process of implementing change, at this level, is a complex process and will necessarily take time and effort to be accepted as their new culture. A long drawn out process can make stakeholders feel there is no light at the end of the tunnel and lead to a decrease in the sense of urgency. Additionally, by implementing many changes at once, change fatigue is a real possibility (Beaudan, 2006). By implementing short term wins, the enthusiasm and energy levels of those involved in the changes can be maintained and benchmark goals achieved can be celebrated. This will also assist in changing the attitudes of those who are still resistant to change, as they will have to acknowledge the achievements. Kotter (1995) suggests these short term wins can be measured by initiatives such as having clear performance improvements, establishing goals, achieving objectives and rewarding those involved through recognition, promotion and money. Little should be left to chance document plans , communicate expectations and advertise successes. This will boost the credibility of the renewal process (Kotter, 1995). Consolidate improvements and produce still more change At this stage, Kotter (2010) highlights that resistance is always waiting in the wings to re-assert itself and good leadership is crucial in this step. It is important that more projects are developed, ensuring that the organisation is successfully implementing the necessary changes. A common mistake at this stage is celebrating too early, causing employees to feel the change is complete however, any resistance at this stage can derail efforts to ensure the changes become embedded into the culture and may cause disillusionment amongst stakeholders (Kotter, 1995). The guiding coalition of Wikileaks needs to clearly identify what it is changing and communicate the message to all stakeholders. Once these changes have been implemented another target timeframe needs to be identified. Four stages in the change process: develop, implement, evaluate and monitor these stages are ongoing. Just as the change is taking shape, changes can occur such as technology or goals, this starts the process again. During this process, feedback is sought from those affected and issues identified can be addressed. Institutionalising new approaches In this final step in changing the organisational culture, the initiatives that have been introduced throughout the process need to be anchored into place in order to ensure compliance. This is done through practices such as continually encouraging and promoting the reinvented culture, through the creation of policies and processes, so that they become habit by the existing staff, and will obviously be normal practice to any new stakeholders that join the organisation. Changes can also be institutionalised through authority figures talking about the progress the organisation has made, sharing success stories during the change, and through promoting the new culture when training or interviewing new staff. Creating a transparent organisation requires ongoing effort, sustained attention and constant vigilance (OToole, 2009). If Mr Assange and Wikileaks are to continue to deliver the truth to the world, it must develop a culture that can stand the analysis that their charter advocat es transparency. Without this, the forces of globalisation and technology will surely bring about its demise.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Globalization Creates Inequality Essay - 1764 Words

Globalization is a complex phenomenon which has positive and negative implications. In one of the report by World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, globalization is explained as â€Å"there is no point to globalization that reduces the price of a child’s shoes, but costs the father his job†. The chief characteristics of globalisation as explained by World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization are international trade, foreign direct investment, financial flows, technology and policy environment. International free trade has become the foundation of neoliberal globalization. The main aim was to promote development and trade. During the 1870s the gold standard was adopted which enabled the capital to move freely†¦show more content†¦But Paul Krugman states that this relationship cannot be quantified. Trade and income distribution Income redistribution is one of the gains from trade. But are the gains from the trade too small when compared to the losses suffered by the low income or disadvantaged groups that have little resources or savings with them. Thus distributional effects prove that technological change alone fails to support free trade. The trade causes some activities to shrink and some activities to contract. The whole notion of free trade is not clear since some people gain and some people lose. Redistribution is often the necessary handmaiden of the gains from trade. Due to a fall in demand for exports from the south, industries associated with the export industries will suffer a permanent fall in employment and even if people find other jobs there will be a fall in the income earnings. Advocates of free trade put forward the argument that some people will get hurt in the short run but in the long run everyone will be better off. This has proved to be wrong when we compare our self in the present scenario. The social impact of globalization is not confined to the marginalized countries alone even the developed countries are sufferingShow MoreRelatedThe Effects of Globalization1678 Words   |  7 PagesEffects of Globalization Globalization involves shrinking or reduction of the world as well as an increased consciousness in regards to the world as a whole. Globalization is a term which is used in the description of changes in societies and the economy of the world which results in a dramatic increase in investment, cross border trade s well as cultural exchange. Globalization is dominated by nation states, economies of national and the cultural identities of nations. Globalization creates an interconnectedRead MoreThe Problem Of Extreme Poverty1297 Words   |  6 PagesIn the last 10 years, the end of extreme poverty has been a top priority in the inequality equation. A report by the World Economic Forum s Global Risk states that inequality in 2013 is a big global risk. The world should immediately put in place objectives that abolish extreme inequality around the globe. The net income of 2012 from the 100 richest billionaires was $240 billion, which could end extreme poverty 4 times over. Having so much money and power in such few hands, causes depressed demandRead MoreImpact Of Globalization On The World Economy934 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"Globalization refers to all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society.† Definition by Martin AL brow, 1990, a British Sociologist. Globalization helps to under developed countries by increasing their economic. On the other side, researchers and experts are saying that, globalization helps in increasing gap between poor and rich people in all around the world. The impact of the globalization is so wide and board, it is difficultRead MoreGlobalization Has Brought New Opportunities For Equitable Health1560 Words   |  7 Pagesadvantage or disadvantage†¦ (Braveman and Gruskin, 2002, p. 254). While many factors influence health equity, one of the largest today is globalization; in fact, The World Health Organization claims, â€Å"globalization has brought new opportunities for equitable health. But it has also brought threats and risks,† (WHO Commission on Social Determinants). While globalization has benefited some countries in regards to economic growth, opening of markets, the spread of new information and technology (Huynen etRead MoreEssay about Marxs Theory of Alienation1087 Words   |  5 Pagesindividuality through a production system that is not communally, but privately owned (Marx, 2007). When applying Marx’s theory of alienation to the current issue of income inequality in the global world one can see how it is possible that capitalism has led to the issues at hand. Although not a new phenomenon, globalization is on the rise, and with that, the concentration of authority among few multinationals. By the early 1990’s, the world market share of the top five companies in each industryRead MoreGlobalization Effect on Pakistan1531 Words   |  7 PagesAffect of Globalization on Pakistan The word Globalization refers to â€Å"the growing integration of economies and societies around the world† (World Bank 2010). There has been an increasing amount of connection between various economies and one of the greatest challenges we face is to make this connection a positive one. Globalization certainly has the greatest influence on developing nations around the world. Countries such as India, China and Russia have been positively affected by globalization sinceRead MoreImpact Of Globalization On The Social Consciousness Of The Late 20th Century Essay1667 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Globalization is a term that profoundly characterized the social consciousness of the late 20th century, and still continues to shape 21st century social discourse. But what exactly does globalization imply? Unfortunately, despite being referred to almost incessantly, the true meaning of globalization is often obscure (Reich, 1998). However, according to Griswold (2000), the term globalization simply refers to the liberalization of international trade that effectively promotes the integrationRead MoreWe Can Not Succeed When Half Of Us Are Held Back879 Words   |  4 Pagesheld back†. Malala Yousafzai. This is the way that feels a young girl in a globalized world today. There is not clear when Globalization starts, but some people believe that it begins with the end of the Cold War and the separation of the Soviet Union, others along with the arrival of man on the moon or with the development of telecommunications. As a matter of fact, Globalization is not always a synonymous o f progress; however, the process of people’s interaction and their desire of succeed along withRead MoreGlobalization And Its Discontents : The Promise Of Global Institutions Essay874 Words   |  4 Pages Globalization is the integration among nations of political views, products, ideas, and cultures. It helps by stimulating innovation, communication, and offers developing countries to catch up to industrialized countries. With the use of advanced technologies, large corporations can supply the world populous with consumer goods that would only be available in 1st world countries. Despite the numerous contributions that globalization has brought, it also carries with it disadvantages. Large corporationsRead MoreGlobal Inequality And Its Impact On The World s Population1429 Words   |  6 Pagespolitically. What is at the forefront of this volatility? Global inequality. For many decades, groups of the world’s population, particularly in the poorest areas, are contin uing to get squeezed by the weight by the radically uneven distribution of income. When this problem extends to globalization, it is heavily ambiguous in terms of its long-term implications, socially and politically as well. When one explores the fascinating limits of globalization, it is possible to consider why many in the world’s population

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Professional Communication Skills for Key Communication Skills

Question: Discuss about theProfessional Communication Skills for Key Communication Skills. Answer: The paper is unveiling three major aspects entailed in professional communication skills. The importance of business communication, the communication styles, and how the skills are acquired to various fields of real life situation has been highlighted. The paper will review the topic taking into consideration the view of various scholars about the topic. Maguire, P. and Pitceathly, C., 2002. Key communication skills and how to acquire them.Bmj,325(7366), pp.697-700. This article explicitly identifies how doctors embrace proper communication skills, demonstrates how effective communication is essential to health practitioners, and how the skills can be acquired. The Author of this articles ventured in a research to demonstrate how nurses and doctors embrace proper communication skills in their workplace. The authors ascribe to the benefits of embracing proper communication skills. The author notes that communication skills help the doctors with the analytical skills of checking the patient`s problem more accurately. Secondly, there is satisfaction of the feedback from the doctors in that, hence the doctors can better understand the problems, investigations, and offer better treatment options. Besides, the author has put emphasis how communication skills play an important role to explicitly define the problem, give opinions, and enable doctors to offer proper description and on the other end of the spectrum the patients are able to adhere to the dosage rules and equally monitor some of the symptoms to the doctors. The author depicts that Communication skills offer the patients relieve because their anxiety and depression is lessened because they doctors are in a position of giving the best advice to their patients. More so, the research demonstrates that doctors have the best communication skills-but also there is a highlight of the common communication skills and how they can be acquired. The empirical data corrected helped the research to come up with the following finding: Doctors with eloquent communications skills are more likely to satisfy the patient`s anxiety than those with improper communication skills. Also, such doctors gain a great job satisfaction and work smoothly. Also, doctors with this skills identify patient`s problems at ease. How Effective Is Your Business Communication Skill? (2015, January 20). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2015/01/20/how-effective-is-your-business-communication-skill/#7e02926a6718 Martin Zwilling has recognized the importance of communication skills among professional and entrepreneurs. Martin has removed the ambiguity of understanding this by showing how communicators use the skills to boost their business. Martin notes that poor communicators have poor listening attribute, therefore, they don`t recognize the importance of listening to the shortcomings of the feedback from the recipient. Notably, Martin emphasizes that it is the feedback of the recipient that matters hence the end of poor communication is vague feedback or irrelevant feedback. The author borrowed the word of Warren Buffet that Better communication can boost the value of the business by fifty percent. Certainly, Martin urges all of us to embrace better communication skills because they form a basis towards a better performance in the business industry. Therefore, an entrepreneur has to carry out a self assessment to check the aspects to improve and bring changes if possible so as to realize a competitive edge. Booher,D.D., Saltus,K. (2015).What more can I say?: Why communication fails and what to do about it. Diana Booher is professional who has ventured to identify the various parameters that foster proper better communication is business. In his book, Diana has offered a checklist of facets that should boost communication and persuasion in business and each successful entrepreneur should at least to boost their relationship with the clients. Some of the insights for proper communication include: an entrepreneur to generate trust with clients and fight distrust at all cost. The author demonstrates that trust is important because an amalgam of activities is involved in the business chain. Trust comes from you, the way you send messages and the means you use to deliver services to the clients. She further denotes that the entrepreneur should fight to simply issues rather than making them more complex. Simplicity improves the clarity of an issue with results to an improvement in terms of focus and purpose. Also, simplicity boosts decision making hence changing and adjusting ton situations is very fast. Also, the author emphasizes on the need of considering the perspective of the listener rather than the perspective of the presenter. This is actually, essential to carrier achievements especially when giving speeches and presentations to the customers. Consider the package you present to the clients before the customer you realize the potential. Also, Diana has demonstrated the need to capitalize on emotions and logic. To the listeners the two facets are important because they derive the point home in the sense that they offer a path to calm the emotions of the listeners hence making the listener more attentive. Finally, the communicator should be as specific as possible. Many people tent to generalize business issues hence failure to clinch and pinpoint the issue instantly. De Vries, R.E., Van den Hooff, B. and de Ridder, J.A., 2006. Explaining knowledge sharing: The role of team communication styles, job satisfaction, and performance beliefs.Communication research,33(2), pp.115-135. In most cases, we communicate without knowing the style of communication we use. At any instance of communication, a person has to use a specific style of communication. Notably, there is no any other communication style that is superior. So, the styles are all equal depending on the audience the communicator is addressing. Research has proven that there are four philosophical styles of communication. They include, analytical style, intuitive, functional, and personal styles of communication. According to the authors, the only existing philosophical difference between the various styles is the extent to communicate the idea or the data to use in communication. Analytical communicators use tangible information like real data and figure to pass a message. For example, when reporting that the annual sales were positive, you are expected to define the positivity in the sales, such that you give facts and figures to support the information being communicated. On the other hand, intuitive communicators require things which are in summary form. They avoid speaking in details and they don`t take a broad view of ideas. For example, a mathematics teacher can decide to show students the formula and the final answer without showing the operation part. In this case, the teacher would have jumped to the conclusion assuming the middle part of calculation is obvious as long as there is the students have the formula. In another perspective, functional communication plays a role of using a step by step criterion to define information so that nothing is left out. The communicator utilizes vernal and non-verbal aspects of communication to explain the point. Personal communication style embraces the use of emotional language to analyze the feeling of others. The communicator finds the value by assessing what people think and there feeling towards a given subject matter. The communicator typically tends to identify the inner feelings of the listener hence you are able to create new relationships with others. In conclusion, as noted professional communications skills involves an amalgam of important facets, like knowing the communication style, the importance of better communication skills, and how the skills are acquired are all important to make an eloquent communicator. Proper communication is important to all people either professional or non-professional. References Maguire, P. and Pitceathly, C., 2002. Key communication skills and how to acquire them.Bmj,325(7366), pp.697-700. Booher,D.D., Saltus,K. 2015.What more can I say?: Why communication fails and what to do about it. How Effective Is Your Business Communication Skill? (2015, January 20). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2015/01/20/how-effective-is-your-business-communication-skill/#7e02926a6718 De Vries, R.E., Van den Hooff, B. and de Ridder, J.A., 2006. Explaining knowledge sharing: The role of team communication styles, job satisfaction, and performance

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Law Codes Essay Example

Law Codes Essay Chad Goering Essay #1 â€Å"Hittite Law Code† and the â€Å"Code of the Assyrians† In this paper, I’ll compare both law codes of the Hittites and Assyrians by comparing the two aspects dealing with sexual conduct and relations. Also, I’ll examine their differences and similarities and consider why regulating sexuality was so important to both the Hittites and Assyrians. When examining the Hittite and Assyrian law codes, I thought there was a big difference. The first thing I noticed was that the Hittite laws were stricter and focused more on men, where the Assyrians laws were more punishable to women. A majority of the laws written by the Hittites only involved punishment towards men. Yes Assyrians also had punishments but not as largely targeted towards men as the Hittites. For example there is a Hittite law saying â€Å"If a man have intercourse with a cow, it is a capital crime, he shall die. They shall lead him to the kings hall. But the king may kill him; the king may grant him his life. But he shall not approach the king. † As said in the â€Å"Hittite Law Code: excerpts from The Code of the Nesilim. There is nothing in the Assyrian code mentioning anything about a man committing bestiality. The Assyrians are opposite compared to the Hittites; their laws are mainly targeted at women rather than men. According to â€Å"Excerpts from the Code of the Assyrians,† there is a law stating, â€Å"If a man have relations with the wife of a man at her wish, there is no penalty for that man. The man shall lay upon the woman, his wife, the penalty he wishes. † From my understanding, they do not focus on what the man did but rather just what the woman has done. We will write a custom essay sample on Law Codes specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Law Codes specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Law Codes specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The women alone will take punishment for the act. Examining the two laws makes me believe the difference between the two groups is the harshness towards men or women. However, the Hittites and Assyrians do have similarities. There are two laws that are closely comparable regarding a man raping a woman. The Hittite law states, â€Å"If a man rape a woman in the mountain, it is the mans wrong, he shall die. But if he rape her in the house, it is the womans fault, the woman shall die. If the husband find them and then kill them, there is no punishing the husband. (Hittite Law Code: excerpts from The Code of the Nesilim). The Assyrians law stated by â€Å"Excerpts from the Code of the Assyrians† based on rape states, â€Å"If the wife of a man be walking on the highway, and a man seize her, say to her I will surely have intercourse with you, if she be not willing and defend herself, and he seize her by force and rape her, whether they catch him upon the wife of a man, or whether at the word of the woman whom he has raped, the elders shall prosecute him, they shall put him to death. There is no punishment for the woman. In my opinion, the punishment for this crime is almost exactly the same for both the Hittites and Assyrians. Therefore, there are some similarities between the Hittites and the Assyrians law codes. One aspect on punishment I find interesting is how harsh the Hittites and Assyrians punishments were compared to how they are today in the United States. The reason why I think the Hittites and Assyrians were so harsh was because they didn’t have a problem with killing somebody. To them, both groups felt if you committed the crime, you will receive the punishment deserved. I’m not saying that America doesn’t have a good system, but I don’t think the punishments given are nearly as harsh as what they should be. When it comes to relationships, Hittites and Assyrians treat it the same. They both have a male dominated culture. Men can do whatever they want while women have to be loyal to their husband. From reading the laws about sexual conduct, I understand that if you’re a man, you can have sex whenever and wherever if the partner is willing. As stated before, if the man rapes a woman there will be punishment. However, if you’re a woman, you cannot cheat on your husband. Therefore, makes this sexual conduct law one sided towards men. Overall, when comparing the laws between the Hittites and Assyrians, I believe that they are pretty similar. Both of the codes are saying to not cheat on your husband. I find it interesting though that they both focus on the women cheating and not the male. Neither code has a law saying anything about a man cheating on his wife. Yes, they have punishment for men who rape women but nothing more than that. They expect women to be more proper and focus on doing the right thing. Even in today’s society they expect women to be perfect and loyal and not be sluts. Nowadays, men are expected to be the same as women. Allowing men and women to have the same expectations is a good thing because both are treated more closely equal. In today’s society, men and women are still somewhat treated different in certain situations, however, both men and women are now treated equally when it comes to punishment which is a good thing. The only problem I have with the punishment in today’s society is it’s not nearly as harsh as it once was. Punishment in general is the most comparable thing between the Hittites and Assyrians law codes. The punishments are very harsh and nothing is tolerated. The only main difference between the two group’s law codes is who the punishment is targeted towards. Now in this paper I have compared both the Hittites Law Code and the Code of the Assyrians. I have examined their differences and similarities and also reasoned why regulating sexual conduct was so important to them both. By doing this, it makes you think of how easy we have it in today’s world and makes you wonder what it would be like to live back then.