Final Assignment:  Leading Change Paper (post in Assignments) LO 4:  Explain the

Final Assignment:  Leading Change Paper (post in Assignments)
LO 4:  Explain the relationship between leadership and organizational change and the significance of this relationship for the creation and maintenance of good organizational culture in the workplace (Assignments needed to identify, describe, explain, compare, and/or discuss).
LO 6:  Understand and evaluate the competitive challenges leadership faces in change initiatives (Assignments needed to identify, describe, explain, compare, and/or discuss).
LO 7:  Link conceptual material to practical situations to enhance analytical, managerial, and problem solving skills (Assignments needed to combine, analyze, identify assumptions, formulate, and/or modify).
LO 8:  Write at a graduate level, including clear and coherent structuring of ideas and the communication of those ideas, sentence and document structure and APA formatting.
LO 10:  Develop critical thinking (Assignments needed to create, model, theorize, plan, prepare, and/or design). 
Purpose of assignment:  the purpose of the assignment is for students to develop their analysis skills of organizational challenges and need for change by following an existing model, identify need for change, and to present the steps needed to implement change in an organization from prelaunch to sustaining change.  Learning about change implementation will help students to be effective managers and change leaders in their careers. 
Skills:  the purpose of this assignment is to help students apply the following skills:
Using a model to analyze a situation
Identifying specific need or opportunities for change
Applying the change implementation steps to achieve and sustain change
Knowledge:  this assignment will enhance student knowledge about:
Use of Burke’s model for change
The process for implementing change
Task:
Prepare a 1,500 to 2,000 word paper in Word addressing the following in your paper:
a. Select an organization you are familiar with or an organization of your choice. Consider availability of information about challenges faced by the organization, opportunities, and potential need for implementing change.  Provide a brief background of the selected organization, its challenges and opportunities.  Support your work with relevant research.  Note:  the selected organization does not need to have a major change initiative.  The change needed may be about one specific area or process of the organization.
b. Following the Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change, analyze the selected organization from information available. Summarize at least three of the most significant elements from the model.  Support your work with relevant research.
c. Discuss the importance of transformational leadership in achieving and leading change in the selected organization. Support your work with relevant research.
d. Prepare a brief outline listing the steps recommended for the selected organization to implement the specific change:  prelaunch phase, launch phase, post-launch phase, and sustaining change.  Support your work with relevant research.
Criteria for Success:  The paper is expected to be supported with citations from several scholarly and high-quality sources.  The basic format for supporting work with citations is to make specific statements and supporting that main statement with one or more citations.  Each assignment requirement shown above as a, b, and c should be supported with relevant citations. Assignment requirements that are not supported with relevant research may earn a maximum of 70% of the points for that assignment requirement.  See assignment rubric for specifics and allocation of points and weights. See Paper example under Course Materials.