Homework for Cahterine Owens

Set the Stage for Change

Have you ever found yourself in a situation at work or in your personal life that you wished were somehow different than it was? Did you know what steps to take to change the situation yourself? Did you know how to get the people around you all moving in the same direction, with urgency, to create the change you desired? Change is often crucial to long term success both in business and in life. Accomplishing change, however, is not always easy. Throughout the assignments in this course you will work through one specific example of the change process to help you master the steps of change.

Specific questions or items to address:

Select an organization in which you feel change is needed. The organization may be a current or previous employer, a school organization, military organization, or other group you may be a part of. Be sure you have adequate knowledge of the organization to complete the project.

Throughout the course you will be studying Kotter’s 8 Steps for change from Kotter and Cohen's The Heart of Change. Each week you will build and expand on your final project for the course; a plan to implement change successfully. Your first goal is to identify the organization and change that is needed. Summarize the context of the organization, the change that is needed, why the change is needed, and why you feel the organization/situation is a good candidate for your final project.

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 1 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.

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