| Course | OML-8030 Seminar in Leading Change for Innovation, Sustainability, and Competitive Advantage |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Seminar paper: the leader's role in change |
| Length | About 1,011 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | Doctor of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for OML 8030 Module 5
Less Shaping, More Framing: What Research Says About My Role in the Plant's Change
Student Name
Doctor of Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University
OML-8030: Seminar in Leading Change for Innovation, Sustainability, and Competitive Advantage
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Less Shaping, More Framing: What Research Says About My Role in the Plant's Change
Introduction
The OML-8030 description places emphasis on the leader's role in managing change. As plant director, I am the most visible leader of our transformation. I have been told I am a strong leader: I set direction, push for results and personally oversee details. This paper asks whether research supports that style during change.
Transformational and Change Leadership
Herold et al. (2008) surveyed employees across organizations in the middle of change to compare two kinds of leader behavior. Transformational leadership refers to a general style of articulating a vision, inspiring, intellectually stimulating and attending to individuals. Change leadership refers to specific behaviors for managing a particular change, such as explaining it, planning it and involving people. Followers' commitment to the change tracked transformational leadership more closely than it tracked change-specific behaviors. The two also interacted: good change management mattered most when a leader was not otherwise transformational. Transformational leadership counted for more when the change reached deeply into followers' own jobs.
For our operators, whose jobs are deeply affected by automation, this suggests that the broader relationship I build matters even more than the quality of the change plan.
Shaping, Framing and Capacity
Higgs and Rowland (2005) analyzed 70 change stories from seven organizations, examining both the approach to change and leader behaviors. They grouped leader behaviors into three categories. Shaping behaviors are leader-centric: the leader tells, controls and makes others accountable to them. Framing behaviors establish starting points for change, design the change journey and communicate guiding principles. Creating capacity involves developing others' skills and connections so they can act. Where leaders relied on shaping, change tended to go worse; where they framed the change and built capacity, it tended to go better. More emergent approaches to change, which allow learning during implementation, also tended to succeed more than tightly directed ones.
Competencies for Change Activities
Battilana et al. (2010) studied managers leading planned change in the United Kingdom's National Health Service. Three implementation activities were examined: explaining why change was needed, rallying others behind it and checking how it was going. Different competencies predicted emphasis on different activities. Managers with stronger person-oriented competencies placed more emphasis on mobilizing others, while those with stronger task-oriented competencies placed more emphasis on evaluating. Leaders seldom emphasized all activities equally, which suggests that change leadership often requires a team with complementary strengths.
| Source | Key finding | What it means for me |
|---|---|---|
| Herold et al. (2008) | Transformational leadership drives commitment, especially when jobs are affected | Invest in relationships with operators |
| Higgs and Rowland (2005) | Shaping hurts; framing and capacity building help | Step back from controlling details |
| Battilana et al. (2010) | Competencies predict which change activities leaders emphasize | Pair my task focus with a people-focused partner |
An Honest Assessment
By Higgs and Rowland's categories, much of my behavior has been shaping. I personally review each change decision, I set deadlines without consultation and I hold supervisors accountable to me for progress. I have framed the change, explaining why customers require recycled content and automation, but less consistently. I have invested little in creating capacity among supervisors to lead their own crews through the change. Following Battilana and colleagues, my strengths are task-oriented: I plan and evaluate well, but I give less attention to mobilizing people.
What the Night Shift Told Me
To test my self-assessment, I spent three nights on the floor asking operators what they needed. They said they rarely see me, that changes arrive as orders from day shift and that their ideas about the new line layout were never asked for. One operator said, in effect, that I manage the plan well but not the people. This matched Higgs and Rowland's description of shaping and gave me a starting point that a survey alone would not have.
Leading Three Changes at Once
Leading recycled fiber, solar and automation at the same time adds strain. Supervisors told me they cannot tell which change matters most this month. Framing, in Higgs and Rowland's sense, includes setting priorities, so I will publish a simple monthly sequence showing which change has the floor's attention.
A Personal Leadership Plan
I will make three changes. First, shift from shaping to framing: I will set the guiding principles for each change, such as no layoffs from automation, safety first and quality before speed, and then let supervisors and crews decide how to implement within them. Second, create capacity: each shift supervisor will attend a short change leadership workshop and lead a weekly huddle on progress and problems, with me attending as a listener. Third, build a complementary team: our human resources manager, who has strong person-oriented skills, will co-lead mobilizing activities, while I focus on planning and evaluation. To strengthen the broader relationship Herold and colleagues describe, I will spend time on the floor on every shift each week, especially nights, asking about concerns rather than checking progress.
Measuring My Own Change
I will ask supervisors to rate my behaviors anonymously on shaping, framing and capacity building at the start and after six months, and I will track operators' commitment through the readiness survey from module two.
Signals to Watch
Two signals will tell me whether the change in my own behavior is real. The first is whether supervisors start bringing solutions rather than problems to our meetings. The second is whether operators raise ideas about the new lines without being asked, especially on nights, where I have been least present.
Limits
Higgs and Rowland's study was based on stories collected from managers, and Battilana and colleagues' setting was public health care. Self-assessment may be biased. The plant is invented.
Conclusion
Herold and colleagues showed that transformational leadership matters most when change affects people's jobs, Higgs and Rowland showed that leader-centric shaping hurts change while framing and building capacity help and Battilana and colleagues showed that different competencies favor different change activities. For a plant director whose habits lean toward control, the evidence points to framing principles, building supervisors' capacity and partnering with a people-focused leader.
References
Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C., & Alexander, J. A. (2010). Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 422-438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.007
Herold, D. M., Fedor, D. B., Caldwell, S., & Liu, Y. (2008). The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees' commitment to a change: A multilevel study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 346-357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.346
Higgs, M., & Rowland, D. (2005). All changes great and small: Exploring approaches to change and its leadership. Journal of Change Management, 5(2), 121-151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500082902
Reading the OML 8030 Module 5 assignment instructions
The leader's role in managing change is the emphasis TESU's OML-8030 catalog paragraph sets, and with TESU keeping the syllabus internal, module five asks you to apply change leadership research to your own conduct. Review studies of leader behavior during change, distinguish a general leadership style from change-specific behaviors, report what helped and what hurt, then assess yourself honestly and propose a plan with a way to measure whether you actually changed. Listening to people on the floor, or in your equivalent setting, gives the self-assessment evidence. Some seminars ask for a critique of a public leader instead. Clarify whether anonymous feedback from others is expected. Gather evidence from others before trusting your self-assessment. Name signals that will show whether your own behavior has changed.
How this OML 8030 Module 5 example is built
Tomás, often praised as a strong leader, asks whether his controlling style suits the plant's transformation. Herold and colleagues' comparison of transformational and change leadership, Higgs and Rowland's categories of shaping, framing and creating capacity and Battilana and colleagues' competencies for change activities are explained and applied in a table. An honest self-assessment, what night-shift operators told him and the strain of leading three changes at once lead to a plan to frame principles, build supervisors' capacity and partner with HR, measured by anonymous ratings. Limits and a conclusion follow. Annotations show how each research finding changed a specific behavior in the plan. Signals to watch close the plan.
Where the marks sit in the OML 8030 Module 5 rubric
Change leadership papers stand out when they report what studies found, including results that challenge the image of the decisive, hands-on leader, and when the writer applies them candidly to their own behavior. Readers credit specific changes, such as setting guiding principles and stepping back from details, along with efforts to build capacity in others and a partner whose strengths complement the writer's. Gathering views from the floor and measuring one's own change through anonymous ratings show commitment. Noting the settings of the studies shows awareness of how far findings transfer. Choosing observable signals of change, such as supervisors bringing solutions, makes the plan testable. Attention to the night shift, where the leader is least present, shows honesty.
OML 8030 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Leadership papers often praise vision and decisiveness without evidence; check what research says about shaping and framing. Many writers also shy away from self-critique. Review the studies, then hold your own behavior up against them. Shift from controlling details to setting principles, build capacity in the people who report to you, partner where your strengths are thin and listen to people on every shift. Ask for anonymous ratings now and again in six months. Send your seminar question and a description of your role for a free first draft. Pick two or three observable signals that will show whether your behavior has really changed.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
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OML 8030 Module 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free OML 8030 Module 5 sample paper?
The seminar paper on a plant director's leadership of change, from transformational leadership to shaping and framing, appears in full on this page.
Does transformational leadership help during change?
Herold and colleagues found it predicted commitment to a change more than change-specific behaviors, especially when jobs were affected.
What are shaping, framing and creating capacity?
Higgs and Rowland's categories of leader-centric control, setting direction and principles and developing others' ability to act.
Which leader behaviors hurt change success?
Leader-centric shaping behaviors were negatively related to success in Higgs and Rowland's study.
Why might change leadership need a team?
Battilana and colleagues found different competencies favored different activities, so few leaders emphasize all of them equally.