Business Assignment for Catherine Owens

Step 5: Empower Action

"That’s not my job!" "My boss won’t let me." "Let me go ask my supervisor." "That’s outside my authority." We’ve all heard reasons why we are unable to complete a task. Chances are, they are very real reasons that are impeding our progress toward change. To make our change efforts effective, we must be sure we are supporting and empowering the individuals in our group to actually do what we are asking them to do.

Specific questions or items to address:

Read Step 5 “Empower Action” from Kotter and Cohen's The Heart of Change. First, review the feedback from your instructor on Part 5. Use any new information you gained from the discussion and feedback from your instructor to revise and improve Part 5 of your project. Next, compile Part 6 of your project, explaining what actions you and your team will take to empower people to take action. How will you remove boss barriers, system barriers, information barriers, and barriers of the mind? How will you ‘retool’ the boss? You may find page 121 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when empowering action. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.

Be sure to include at least three scholarly references to support your assertions written in your own words. Do not copy word for word from the course text or any other sources. Your submission this week is Part 6 of the final project.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

• Write between 1,000 – 1,500 words (approximately 4 – 6 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style.
• Use font size 12 and 1” margins.
• Include cover page and reference page.
• At least 80% of your paper must be original content/writing.
• No more than 20% of your content/information may come from references.
• Use an appropriate number of references to support your position, and defend your arguments. The following are examples of primary and secondary sources that may be used, and non-credible and opinion based sources that may not be used.
• 1. Primary sources such as, government websites (United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Census Bureau, The World Bank, etc.), peer reviewed and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library) and Google Scholar.
  2. Secondary and credible sources such as, CNN Money, The Wall Street Journal, trade journals, and publications in EBSCOhost (Grantham University Online Library).
  3. Non-credible and opinion based sources such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. should not be used.
• Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list on a reference page in APA style.