| Course | LDR 306 Organizational Leadership: Building a Performance Culture (LDR/306) |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Performance improvement plan |
| Length | about 1,010 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 306 Week 5
Forty Minutes and Home Safe: An Integrated Performance Improvement Plan for a Denver-Area Towing and Recovery Company
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
LDR/306: Organizational Leadership: Building a Performance Culture
Week 5 Final Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Summit Towing and Recovery, its targets and its plan are composites written for a model paper.
Four earlier papers studied Summit, the invented family towing firm with 140 people and a fleet of 95 trucks. The analyses found a culture that rewards speed while neglecting safety and involvement, a commission that motivates volume alone, safe roadside setup on only 61 percent of busy highway calls and a two-day onboarding that loses half of new drivers within a year. Meanwhile, average motor club arrival times rose from 38 to 49 minutes, putting a major contract at risk. Owner Rosa Delgado has asked for one plan that brings these findings together. This paper presents that performance improvement plan.
What Performance Management Has Learned
A centennial review in the Journal of Applied Psychology by DeNisi and Murphy (2017) took stock of the field. In their reading, refining the forms and training raters to be less biased brought only small improvements, and the field has turned toward the wider work of managing performance: goals, feedback, what motivates both managers and staff and the setting in which they work. They argued that the purpose of appraisal should be improving performance, not just measuring it.
Where Performance Management Adds Value
Pulakos et al. (2019) described the evolution of performance management from annual ratings to approaches emphasizing frequent conversations, flexible goals and ongoing feedback. They concluded that the value of performance management comes mainly from everyday behaviors, managers setting expectations, giving feedback and coaching, rather than from formal systems and forms. Organizations that simplified formal processes and invested in manager skills saw more benefit.
Feedback Culture
London and Smither (2002) proposed that individuals differ in feedback orientation, their receptiveness to feedback, and that organizations can build a feedback culture in which feedback is frequent, credible and used for development. In a strong feedback culture, supervisors are trained to give feedback, employees are encouraged to seek it and feedback is linked to development. Week 3's safety charts and Week 4's mentoring both depend on such a culture.
Goal 1: Response Time
Baseline: 49 minutes average motor club arrival. Target: under 40 minutes within six months. Practices: yard response time goals posted weekly and shared by drivers and dispatchers; the revised pay mix with a quality bonus and a dispatcher bonus; driver autonomy to claim nearby calls; and evening and weekend scheduling matched to demand, an adaptability gap identified in Week 1. Owner: operations manager.
Goal 2: Roadside Safety
Baseline: 61 percent full safe setup on busy highway calls. Target: 95 percent within three months, sustained. Practices: cones within reach, app safety prompt, weekly yard charts, task-focused feedback, recognition and progressive coaching from Week 3. Owner: safety coordinator and yard supervisors.
Goal 3: Driver Retention
Baseline: 50 percent first-year retention. Target: 70 percent within a year. Practices: the four-stage development path, mentors, monthly coaching and fair call distribution from Weeks 2 and 4. Owner: human resources manager and yard supervisors.
Each goal has a number, a starting point, an owner and practices that already have research behind them.
Culture Practices Across Goals
Culture is the foundation for all three goals. The monthly award will change from most tows to a Summit Standard award recognizing safe, fast and kind service. Yard meetings will open with a customer story. Drivers will be asked for improvement ideas each month, addressing involvement, and leaders will report back on what was done with them.
The Performance Management Cycle
Every driver will have three personal goals, response time contribution, customer rating and safety completion, reviewed in a 15-minute monthly conversation with a supervisor or mentor. Weekly messages show each driver's data. Quarterly, supervisors and drivers discuss development and next-stage readiness. The annual review becomes a summary of these conversations, not a separate event.
Individual Improvement Plans
Drivers who fall well below standards after coaching will receive an individual plan stating the gap, the expected behavior, the support offered, such as a ride-along, and a 30-day review date. The aim is improvement; dismissal is a last resort after documented support.
Threats to Watch
Summit's leaders should watch for three problems. Revenue could dip during the transition to the new pay mix if some drivers resist, so the change will be explained in small meetings and modeled with each driver's own numbers. Supervisors may slip back into chasing late calls instead of holding conversations, so their monthly conversation counts will be reviewed. And a hard winter could raise call volume and strain every goal, so targets will be reviewed against weather and demand rather than judged in isolation.
Supervisor Development
Because research places the value of performance management in managers' daily behavior, yard supervisors will complete training in goal setting, task-focused feedback and coaching. Their own goals will include holding monthly conversations with every driver.
Timeline
Month 1: baselines confirmed, cones moved, pay plan announced, supervisor training. Month 2: safety charts and weekly messages begin, first mentors assigned, new onboarding launched. Month 3: revised pay takes effect, call claiming opens for independent drivers, Summit Standard award begins. Months 4 to 6: monthly reviews of all measures and adjustments.
Communicating the Plan
Rosa Delgado will present the plan at an all-yard meeting, explaining the three goals, what changes for each role and why. Each yard will post its goals and progress where drivers gather, and supervisors will answer questions in small groups during the first two weeks.
Measures and Review
A one-page monthly dashboard will show the three goal measures by yard plus customer ratings, damage claims, near misses and engagement pulse scores. Rosa Delgado will review it monthly with managers, and the plan will be adjusted at the six-month mark.
Conclusion
Research on performance management shows that improvement comes from clear goals, frequent feedback, coaching and a culture that welcomes feedback, more than from annual ratings. Summit's plan ties each of its three goals to practices developed in this course, assigns owners, sets a timeline and reviews progress monthly. Together, these steps can help Summit reach stranded drivers faster and bring its own drivers home safely.
References
DeNisi, A. S., & Murphy, K. R. (2017). Performance appraisal and performance management: 100 years of progress? Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(3), 421-433. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000085
London, M., & Smither, J. W. (2002). Feedback orientation, feedback culture, and the longitudinal performance management process. Human Resource Management Review, 12(1), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1053-4822(01)00043-2
Pulakos, E. D., Mueller-Hanson, R., & Arad, S. (2019). The evolution of performance management: Searching for value. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 249-271. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015009
What the LDR 306 Week 5 instructions ask
The final LDR 306 assignment usually asks students to develop a performance improvement plan for an organization or team that integrates the course's topics: culture, motivation, behavioral management, development and empowerment. Expect to state performance problems and goals, describe the practices that will improve performance, assign responsibilities, set a timeline and explain how progress will be measured and sustained. Some prompts focus on an individual performance improvement plan for an employee; others on organizational performance. A strong paper uses research on performance management, connects each practice to a specific problem, includes feedback and coaching rather than only appraisal and builds in review and adjustment. Use APA format.
How this LDR 306 Week 5 example is built
The final paper brings four weeks of analysis at Summit into one plan with three goals: average motor club arrival under 40 minutes, 95 percent safe setup on highway calls and first-year driver retention of 70 percent. Research shows that performance management has moved from annual ratings toward ongoing goals, feedback and development, that it adds value when it focuses on frequent conversations rather than paperwork and that a feedback culture helps employees seek and use feedback. Each goal is linked to practices from earlier weeks: shared goals and a revised pay mix, the safety behavior program, the staged development path and culture changes. Roles for the owner, supervisors, dispatchers, mentors and drivers are defined, with a six-month timeline and monthly reviews.
LDR 306 Week 5 grading rubric: where the points go
Performance improvement plans are graded on integration, clarity and feasibility. High marks require specific, measurable goals tied to real problems, practices drawn from the course and research, clear responsibilities and a realistic timeline. Graders look for performance management as a continuous cycle of goals, feedback, coaching and review rather than a once-a-year rating, and for measures that track both results and the behaviors behind them. Consistency with earlier analyses and attention to sustaining gains, not just launching changes, show strong understanding. A plan that a manager could follow week by week earns the most credit, particularly one that shows baselines beside each target.
LDR 306 Week 5 help: mistakes to avoid
Final plans often list every idea from the course without showing which problem each solves. Organize the plan around a few goals and link each practice to one. Another common weakness is relying on an annual appraisal to drive improvement; research favors frequent feedback and coaching. Build those into the calendar. Some plans set goals without baselines, making progress impossible to judge. State the starting point. Others forget who will do the work; assign owners. Owners matter too, since a goal that belongs to everyone tends to belong to no one. Finally, include a review process that adjusts the plan as results come in, since the first version of any plan is rarely exactly right.
Related LDR 306 sample papers
Other LDR 306 week samples
- LDR 306 Week 1: Performance Culture and Engagement
- LDR 306 Week 2: Motivation
- LDR 306 Week 3: Behavioral Management and Feedback
- LDR 306 Week 4: Development and Empowerment
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LDR 306 Week 5 questions, answered
What does LDR 306 Week 5 usually cover?
It usually covers a performance improvement plan that integrates culture, motivation, behavioral management, development and empowerment into goals, practices, responsibilities, a timeline and measures.
Where can I find a free LDR 306 Week 5 sample paper?
The integrated performance improvement plan for a composite towing and recovery company near Denver is posted above, free to read.
What is performance management?
Performance management is the continuous process of setting goals, providing feedback and coaching, developing people and reviewing results so that individual work supports organizational goals.
What should a performance improvement plan include?
It should include the current performance level, specific goals, the actions or practices that will improve performance, responsibilities, a timeline, support and a way to measure progress.
Why are companies moving away from annual reviews?
Research and practice suggest that frequent conversations, timely feedback and development add more value than a once-a-year rating, which often focuses on paperwork rather than improvement.
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