DBA 8800 Module 1 Change Management Example

Course	DBA-8800 Ethical Leadership and Cultural Competency in the 21st Century
Module	Module 1
Paper type	Module 1 written assignment: change management
Length	About 600 words, 5 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Thomas Edison State University
Program	Doctor of Business Administration
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for DBA 8800 Module 1

Opening the Ladder: A Change Plan for Supervisor Promotions at a Port Logistics Firm

Student Name

Doctor of Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University

DBA-8800: Ethical Leadership and Cultural Competency in the 21st Century

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title names the change, opening promotion to people who could not see the ladder, as the subject of the plan.

Opening the Ladder: A Change Plan for Supervisor Promotions at a Port Logistics Firm

The Problem

Our company runs four warehouses near Port Newark and employs about 600 people. On nights, most associates grew up speaking Spanish or Haitian Creole. Over five years, 31 people were promoted to supervisor, and only 2 came from nights. Promotions happen when a day manager recommends someone he knows; openings are not posted. Night associates told us in focus groups that they learn about promotions after they are announced. Turnover on nights is twice the day rate. The problem is not a shortage of capable people on nights, since several run their crews in all but title. It is a process that rewards being seen by the right manager.

Choosing a Change Model

Kotter (1996) argued that major changes fail most often for predictable reasons, such as too little urgency, a weak guiding group and a vision nobody hears, and he set out an ordered sequence of stages to avoid them. I use his stages as the backbone of the plan because they treat change as a process that must be led, not announced. Armenakis and Harris (2009) add what the stages leave thin: the beliefs employees must hold for a change to take root. They list five convictions people need: a real gap exists, this fix suits it, the company can pull it off, the bosses back it and it will benefit the person asked to change.

Kotter stage	Our action	Belief it builds (Armenakis & Harris, 2009)
Urgency	Share the 2 of 31 figure and night turnover with all managers	Need for change
Guiding group	Two day managers, two night leads, the director of people and the chief operating officer	Leaders support it
Vision	Every supervisor opening posted on both shifts, in three languages, decided by a panel	Right change
Remove barriers	Interviews scheduled at shift change; language support for written steps	Organization can do it
Short-term wins	First panel promotions within 90 days	Good for me
Anchor	Policy in the handbook; promotion data by shift reported quarterly	Change is lasting

What this page is doingPairing each stage with the belief it is meant to build turns a familiar model into a plan aimed at what employees must come to accept.

Resistance

The strongest resistance will come from day managers, who lose the power to pick their own supervisors. Oreg (2006) found that resistance to change has emotional, behavioral and cognitive parts and that it is shaped by context, especially trust in management and the information people receive, as well as by personality. That finding gives us something to work with. Day managers will sit on panels, so they keep a voice. They will see the panel's rating sheet before it is used and can suggest changes. Their concern that panels will promote people they cannot work with will be answered by including a work sample in which candidates run a short shift huddle.

Night associates may also be skeptical, having seen past promises fade. The early promotions are the answer, which is why the first panel must sit within 90 days.

Sustaining the Change

Change that depends on one leader's attention fades. The new process will be written into the handbook, and promotion data by shift and first language will be reported to the leadership team every quarter. If night promotions stay below their share of the workforce for two consecutive quarters, the guiding group will review the process.

Conclusion

The promotion gap at our warehouses comes from a habit, not a policy, and habits change only when people are led through the change. Kotter's stages give the sequence, Armenakis and Harris's beliefs show what each stage must achieve and Oreg's research turns resistance into a set of concerns to address.

References

Armenakis, A. A., & Harris, S. G. (2009). Reflections: Our journey in organizational change research and practice. Journal of Change Management, 9(2), 127-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010902879079

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business School Press.

Oreg, S. (2006). Personality, context, and resistance to organizational change. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 15(1), 73-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320500451247

DBA 8800 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms

Written assignments dominate DBA-8800, four of them sharing 60 percent of the grade, with forums and the final project at 20 percent each; the texts are Norman's The Boldly Inclusive Leader and Helbig and Norman's The Psychological Safety Playbook. The first of those written pieces is shown here with the change management module. You will show why an inclusion problem needs fixing, lead the fix through a named change model, prepare for the people who will push back and explain what keeps the change in place. Use data from the organization to establish the need. Name the people whose support the change needs and the evidence that will convince them.

How this DBA 8800 Module 1 example is built

The paper opens with a figure that makes the problem undeniable: 2 of 31 supervisors from the night shift. It explains the cause as a habit of informal promotion and rules out a lack of talent. Kotter's stages give the sequence, and a six-row table pairs each stage with the action taken and the employee belief, from Armenakis and Harris, that it builds. The resistance section uses Oreg's research to treat day managers' objections as concerns to address, giving them panel seats and a voice in the rating sheet. A sustaining section writes the process into policy and sets a review trigger. The conclusion ties the three sources together.

DBA 8800 Module 1 rubric: what earns full marks

Mentors grade DBA-8800 written assignments on accurate use of theory, application to a real organization, critical thinking, ethical reasoning and doctoral writing in APA style. For a change paper, the strongest marks go to work that proves the need with numbers, commits to one model and carries it through stage by stage instead of surveying many. Treating resistance as information, with specific responses, shows mature change leadership. A plan for sustaining the change, with data and a review point, shows that the writer understands why changes fade. Connecting the change to equity and inclusion, the theme of the course, keeps the paper within the seminar's purpose. A named owner for every stage also earns credit, because plans without owners drift.

Common DBA 8800 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Students lose marks by summarizing Lewin, Kotter and others without choosing one, by describing a diversity initiative with no evidence that change is needed or by treating resistance as a problem of bad attitudes. Others end at the announcement and never plan how the change will hold. Start from a gap you can count, walk one model through all its stages, name the groups likely to resist and pick the figure you will watch to see whether the change holds. Send your DBA-8800 Module 1 situation and a free first draft can be built on it. Give the guiding group real members by role, and say when the first visible win will arrive.

Write yours, or have the desk draft it

This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.

More DBA 8800 and Doctor of Business Administration sample papers

DBA 8800 Module 1 questions, answered

Where can I find a free DBA 8800 Module 1 sample paper?

The paper above applies Kotter's stages and research on change readiness to opening supervisor promotions at a port logistics firm.

Why do change efforts fail, according to Kotter?

He pointed to predictable errors such as too little urgency, a weak guiding coalition, an unclear or poorly communicated vision and declaring victory too soon.

What beliefs support readiness for change?

Armenakis and Harris point to five: the change is needed, it is the right change, the organization can do it, leaders support it and it benefits the employee.

Is resistance to change a personality problem?

Oreg found that personality plays a part, but context, such as trust in management and the information people receive, shapes resistance strongly.

What textbooks does DBA-8800 use?

Norman's The Boldly Inclusive Leader and Helbig and Norman's The Psychological Safety Playbook.

DBA 8800 Module 1 Written Assignment: Leading a Change to How Supervisors Are Promoted at a Port Warehouse Firm Example