Position Paper

 You will select a large organization, profit or nonprofit, that has recently gone through significant change. Choose an organization that you can find substantial written material documenting the change effort. Analyze the organization on the basis of the readings covered in this course and write a 5–6 page paper discussing the change effort. APA Format!

 I expect you to have a minimum of 5 citations from the textbook. You are expected to utilize materials from the course and search for other sources of materials.  (3 chapters attached to cite from)

Requirements

The paper should follow this outline:

1. Introduction: Describe the situation, organization, and context for the change?
2. Analysis: Analyze the approach taken by the change agent(s), and address the following:
   1. the image of the type of change held by the change agent,
   2. the “culture” of the setting that is changing and the role culture played in the change,
   3. the extent to which the (envisioned and actual) change was first or second order vs. adaptive or transformational,
   4. the method(s) for implementing change,
   5. the vision for the change, and
   6. how the change was communicated
3. Overall Evaluation: Evaluate the quality of the change agent’s work based on class readings.
4. Recommendations: Include recommendations suggesting what steps could have been taken to increase the success of the project.

 Grading

Criteria for grading the paper will include:

• Use of materials from the course. I expect that your paper will make a number of references to class readings in addition to other source material.
• The use of supporting data. If you make an assertion such as “Morale at the company was at an all-time low,” on what do you base this? Or, if you suggest, “This project has had an enormous impact on customer satisfaction,” how do you know this to be true? While it is acceptable to occasionally insert some subjectivity into the analysis – be clear to identify what is a subjective opinion and what is based on more objective data sources.
• The quality of your conclusions and recommendations.