| Course | LDR 300 Innovative Leadership (LDR/300) |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Innovative leadership plan |
| Length | about 1,046 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for LDR 300 Week 5
Leading Grief Care Across Screens and Distances: An Innovative Mindset for a Family Funeral Business in a Virtual World
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
LDR/300: Innovative Leadership
Week 5 Final Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Hartwell Family Funeral Homes, its plans and its families are composites written for a model paper.
Across four papers, the invented Hartwell funeral group has examined the difference between managing and leading, the behaviors of its location managers, the power and influence needed to win support for new services and the leadership of a staff-led livestreaming innovation. The business's world has widened. About a third of the families it serves now have close relatives living out of state, and some have relatives abroad who join services by livestream or need help with international paperwork. President Claire Hartwell plans a remote arrangements team of four staff, working partly from home, to handle online planning, livestream support and families who live elsewhere. This paper explains how an innovative mindset affects people and systems, reviews research on innovation and virtual leadership and presents a leadership plan.
What an Innovative Mindset Means
An innovative mindset is a habit of looking for better ways to serve people, testing ideas on a small scale and learning from what happens. For a leader, it also means building systems that make innovation normal rather than accidental. At Hartwell, livestreaming emerged from one apprentice's initiative; an innovative mindset would make such initiatives expected and supported.
What Drives Innovative Behavior
Scott and Bruce (1994) studied employees in research and development and proposed a path model of individual innovative behavior. They found that the quality of the relationship with one's leader, the expectations leaders communicate and the climate for innovation, including perceived support for new ideas and adequate resources, influenced whether employees generated and promoted ideas. Leadership shapes innovation both directly and through the climate it creates.
Leading Through Technology
Avolio et al. (2000) described e-leadership as a social influence process mediated by advanced information technology, producing changes in attitudes, feelings, thinking, behavior and performance. They argued that technology changes how leaders communicate, how trust forms and how quickly information moves, and that leaders must adapt their style to the medium. A leader who relies on presence and personal warmth, as Hartwell's directors do, must find new ways to convey care through screens.
Leading Virtual Teams
Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) studied teams that varied in how virtual they were and found that traditional hierarchical leadership became less strongly related to team performance as teams became more virtual, while structural supports, such as fair rewards, clear communication routines and reliable information management, became more important. Shared team leadership was related to performance regardless of virtuality. For Hartwell's remote team, the lesson is to build structure and share leadership rather than depend on a supervisor watching over people.
A remote team cannot be led by walking the hallway, so the leader must build the hallway into the system.
People Affected
The plan affects four groups. Families, including relatives far away, need sensitive, reliable service across channels. The remote team needs structure, connection and support for emotionally demanding work. Location staff need to coordinate with remote colleagues without feeling replaced. Senior directors, some uncomfortable with technology, need a role in shaping the new services.
Systems Affected
Systems include the online arrangement tool, livestream equipment at each location, the scheduling system that links remote and location staff, records that families sign electronically and a process for international cases, such as shipping remains or obtaining foreign documents.
The Plan: Vision and Values
Building on Week 1, the leadership team will extend Hartwell's vision to say that the business will help every family grieve together, wherever its members are. This statement connects new services to the business's long-standing values.
The Plan: The Remote Team
The remote arrangements team will have clear roles, one coordinator for online arrangements, one for livestream support and two family service specialists, and a shared case board visible to all locations. The study by Hoch and Kozlowski (2014) found that structure matters more as teams spread out, so it comes first: a daily 15-minute video check-in, written standards for response times and fair evaluation based on family feedback and accuracy. Leadership will be shared, with team members rotating responsibility for improving one process each quarter.
The Plan: Caring for Remote Staff
Funeral work brings grief into every day. Remote staff lose the informal support of colleagues down the hall. The team will hold a weekly conversation about difficult cases, with Angela Ruiz, whose supportive behaviors were noted in Week 2, as mentor, and each member will spend one day a week at a location.
The Plan: Global Families
The team will build a guide for international cases, partnerships with two firms that handle international transfer of remains and livestream scheduling that accounts for time zones. Families abroad will be offered a recorded service as well as a live one.
The Plan: Keeping Innovation Going
The idea program from Week 4 will continue, with remote staff included. Influence will follow Week 3's approach: directors will be consulted on standards for virtual services, and data on family feedback will guide decisions.
Including Directors Who Prefer Tradition
Some senior directors remain wary of virtual services. Rather than bypass them, the plan asks each to review one month of remote arrangements and suggest improvements, and invites them to record short welcome videos for families planning online. Their presence on screen carries the business's personal reputation into the virtual channel and gives them a meaningful role in the change.
Technology Choices
Technology should serve the families, not the other way around. The plan uses tools already familiar to most families, standard video links and electronic signatures, rather than a custom app, and keeps a phone option for every step for families who prefer it.
Measures
The plan will be judged by family satisfaction scores for remote services, livestream reliability, response times, remote team retention and engagement and the number of ideas tested each year.
Conclusion
An innovative mindset turns occasional creativity into a habit supported by leaders and systems. Research shows that leader relationships and climate drive innovative behavior, that technology changes how leaders influence people and that virtual teams depend on structure and shared leadership. For Hartwell, combining a widened vision, a well-structured remote team, care for staff, support for global families and an ongoing idea program brings the course's lessons together to help families grieve together, wherever they are.
References
Avolio, B. J., Kahai, S., & Dodge, G. E. (2000). E-leadership: Implications for theory, research, and practice. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 615-668. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(00)00062-X
Hoch, J. E., & Kozlowski, S. W. J. (2014). Leading virtual teams: Hierarchical leadership, structural supports, and shared team leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(3), 390-403. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030264
Scott, S. G., & Bruce, R. A. (1994). Determinants of innovative behavior: A path model of individual innovation in the workplace. Academy of Management Journal, 37(3), 580-607. https://doi.org/10.5465/256701
What the LDR 300 Week 5 instructions ask
The final LDR 300 assignment usually asks students to integrate the course by explaining how an innovative leadership mindset affects people and systems in a changing global and virtual environment, often through a plan or reflection applied to an organization. Expect to address what an innovative mindset is, how leaders encourage innovative behavior in others, how technology changes leadership and how leaders manage virtual or distributed teams and global stakeholders. Many prompts ask students to draw on earlier weeks. A strong paper uses research on innovation and virtual leadership, applies it to specific people and systems, makes recommendations with measures and shows how the course's concepts connect rather than listing them separately. Use APA format.
How this LDR 300 Week 5 example is built
Hartwell now serves families whose relatives live in other states and other countries, and president Claire Hartwell plans a small remote team to handle online arrangements and livestreams across all locations. The paper defines an innovative mindset as a habit of seeking better ways, testing them and learning from results. Research on what drives innovative behavior among employees shows the roles of leadership, support and climate. Research on e-leadership explains how technology changes the way leaders influence people, and a study of virtual teams finds that structural supports and shared leadership matter more as teams become more virtual. A plan follows, joining the earlier weeks' vision, behaviors, influence and idea program with a remote team design, global family services and measures.
LDR 300 Week 5 grading rubric: where the points go
Final papers in this course are graded on integration, application and use of research. The highest marks go to papers that explain an innovative mindset clearly, use research to show how leaders encourage innovation and lead through technology and virtual teams and apply these ideas to specific people and systems in one organization. Graders look for connections to earlier course topics, such as leadership behaviors, power and change, presented as a coherent plan rather than a summary. Concrete actions, responsibilities and measures show practical judgment. Scholarly sources, correct APA citations, logical structure and polished writing complete a strong final paper.
LDR 300 Week 5 help: mistakes to avoid
Final papers often repeat each week's topic in turn without connecting them. Show how vision, behaviors, influence and intrapreneurship work together in one plan. Another frequent weakness is describing an innovative mindset in inspirational terms with no link to behavior or systems. Name the habits and supports that make innovation happen. Students also discuss virtual leadership generally without addressing the organization's actual remote work or global customers. Be specific about who works remotely and how. Some plans ignore the people least comfortable with technology. Include them. Finally, add measures, such as innovation adoption, team performance and customer satisfaction, so the plan can be judged and adjusted.
Related LDR 300 sample papers
Other LDR 300 week samples
- LDR 300 Week 1: Leadership and Management
- LDR 300 Week 2: Effective Leadership Behavior
- LDR 300 Week 3: Power and Influence
- LDR 300 Week 4: Leading Change and Intrapreneurship
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LDR 300 Week 5 questions, answered
What does LDR 300 Week 5 usually cover?
It usually covers how an innovative leadership mindset affects people and systems in a changing global and virtual environment, often through a final plan that integrates the course's leadership concepts.
Where can I find a free LDR 300 Week 5 sample paper?
The final innovative leadership plan for a composite Ohio funeral business serving families across screens and distances is shown above in full.
What is an innovative mindset in leadership?
It is a habit of looking for better ways to work, encouraging others to propose and test ideas, learning from failures and adapting systems so that new ideas can spread.
How do you lead a virtual team?
Research suggests clear structures, such as defined roles, regular communication routines and fair performance systems, along with shared leadership among members, become more important as teams work more virtually.
What is e-leadership?
E-leadership refers to influencing people through information technology, which changes how leaders communicate, build trust and coordinate work across distance.
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