| Course | LDR 535 Leading Change (LDR/535) |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Change leadership plan |
| Length | about 1,192 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for LDR 535 Week 6
Every Community Has a Newsroom That Listens: A Change Leadership Plan and a Strategy for Making It Last at a Southwestern Radio Network
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
LDR/535: Leading Change
Week 6 Final Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
High Desert Public Media, its plan, budget and measures are composites written for a model paper.
Executive Summary
The invented High Desert network lost about $1.37 million a year, a seventh of its budget, when federal support for public broadcasting was rescinded in 2025. Rather than close its three rural stations, which serve about 60,000 people with few other local news sources, the network will reinvent itself over 24 months. Its three rural outlets will turn into community newsrooms staffed by a few professionals and many trained neighbors, a single digital team will produce for the whole network and the two city stations will narrow their schedules to fewer, richer local shows. Leaders will combine servant and transformational practices, implement through pilots with skeptics helping design standards and sustain the change through embedded routines and public reporting. The plan aims to close the budget gap within two years while increasing local news coverage in rural areas and growing digital audiences.
The Case for Change
The network faces both a sudden funding shock and long-term shifts toward digital listening and online advertising. Week 1 framed the need for episodic change now and continuous change over time.
Stakeholder Value
For rural communities, the change preserves local news and emergency information and adds community voices. For urban listeners, it offers deeper local programming and podcasts. Members and donors gain a clear, compelling mission to support. Staff gain new skills and a voice in the change. Partners such as tribal colleges and libraries gain collaboration. Funders gain evidence of a sustainable model.
Harrison et al. (2010) argued that organizations which attend to what each stakeholder group values, including fairness and voice as well as material benefits, build trust that becomes an advantage over time; the plan's measures follow that logic by tracking value for each group rather than the budget alone.
What the Diagnosis Showed
The Week 2 causal model diagnosis found strong commitment but slow, centralized decisions, siloed planning and outdated systems. Appreciative sessions generated the community newsroom and digital desk ideas.
Leadership Approach
Week 3 found leaders strong in community orientation but weak in transparency and empowerment; Week 4 found them trusted and inspiring but facing cynicism from past broken promises. The plan therefore combines servant leadership practices, full transparency, empowerment of cross-station teams and fairness in any cuts, with transformational practices, modeling, a simple vision, intellectual stimulation through pilots and individual support, grounded in transactional clarity about goals, owners and timelines.
The network's leaders will inspire with a vision and keep their credibility with monthly evidence that the vision is becoming real.
Implementation
Week 5 set out a sequence: an editorial standards group and protected transmitter budget in months 1 to 3; two pilot community newsrooms and the digital desk in months 4 to 9; evaluation and decisions about expansion in months 10 to 18; and full adoption and refinement in months 19 to 24. Resistance will be treated as information, with skeptics involved in design.
Financial Plan
The gap will be closed through four sources: a rural sustaining donor program targeting $350,000 a year, digital underwriting and podcast sponsorship targeting $300,000, a regional foundation partnership of $400,000 a year for three years and schedule and administrative savings of $320,000, including the leadership pay reductions. A one-year draw on reserves covers the transition.
What Sustains Change
Buchanan et al. (2005) examined why changes fade and found that they tend to slip when people tire of new initiatives, when the people championing them move on and when new ways of working never become part of everyday routines and systems. Sustainability was supported by factors including substantial changes in working practices, perceived benefits, commitment from senior and middle managers, supportive culture and adequate resources, along with the timing and pacing of change.
Evidence-Based Principles for Change
Stouten et al. (2018) integrated popular management models of change with scholarly research and identified evidence-based principles: diagnose the problem, assess readiness, implement through revisions in structures and practices, develop and communicate a vision, build support and coalitions, empower others, generate short-term wins, nurture and institutionalize change and monitor progress. They noted that some popular prescriptions lack evidence, while others are well supported.
Sustaining the Change at High Desert
The change will be embedded in roles: community newsroom editor and digital desk producer will become permanent positions with job descriptions. Routines will institutionalize it: weekly cross-station editorial meetings, quarterly community advisory meetings and annual contributor training. Systems will support it: a new donor database tracking rural sustaining members. Ownership will be spread across station managers and the editorial standards group so the change outlives any one leader's tenure. Short-term wins, such as the first community-sourced investigation, will be celebrated publicly.
Leadership Through the Transition
Leadership itself must change for the plan to last. The senior team will continue coaching on transparency and empowerment from Week 3, managers will receive training in the transformational practices from Week 4 and the board will add two members from rural communities. A leadership development path will prepare staff from community newsrooms for future management roles.
Measures by Stakeholder
Rural communities: number of local stories per week from each rural station, community advisory feedback. Listeners: digital downloads and streams, broadcast audience estimates. Members: rural sustaining members, retention rate. Staff: pulse survey scores on information, voice and cynicism, voluntary turnover. Partners: number of active partnerships. Finances: operating balance and reserve level.
What Success Looks Like in Two Years
If the plan works, a listener in a small eastern plains town will hear local news five days a week from neighbors trained by the network, a podcast from the digital desk will reach thousands of listeners who never tune in to broadcast and the network's budget will balance without federal support. Staff will report that they understand decisions and have a voice in them.
Evaluation Timeline
Measures will be reported to staff and the board quarterly. A formal evaluation at month 18, conducted with an outside evaluator, will review pilots and decide on expansion. A two-year review will assess whether the change has become routine.
Communication Plan
The board will receive quarterly reports, staff monthly updates and a pulse survey, rural communities regular on-air reports and annual community meetings and members an annual impact report showing local stories produced and communities served. Communication will report setbacks as well as progress, which research on cynicism suggests is essential to credibility.
Risks
Key risks include foundation funding that does not materialize, contributor errors that harm credibility, staff burnout and broadband limits that slow digital growth in rural areas. Responses include diversified revenue targets, strict editing, workload relief and continued investment in broadcast where broadband is weak.
Conclusion
Research on sustaining change and on evidence-based change principles shows that lasting change requires embedded practices, distributed commitment, visible wins and ongoing monitoring. This plan integrates six weeks of analysis into a coherent strategy for High Desert Public Media, combining servant and transformational leadership, pilot-based implementation that respects skeptics and measures for every stakeholder. If carried out with consistency, it can turn a funding crisis into a stronger, more local and more sustainable network.
References
Buchanan, D., Fitzgerald, L., Ketley, D., Gollop, R., Jones, J. L., Lamont, S. S., Neath, A., & Whitby, E. (2005). No going back: A review of the literature on sustaining organizational change. International Journal of Management Reviews, 7(3), 189-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2005.00111.x
Harrison, J. S., Bosse, D. A., & Phillips, R. A. (2010). Managing for stakeholders, stakeholder utility functions, and competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 31(1), 58-74. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.801
Stouten, J., Rousseau, D. M., & De Cremer, D. (2018). Successful organizational change: Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 752-788. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0095
What the LDR 535 Week 6 instructions ask
LDR 535 usually ends with a change leadership plan that ties the whole course together: the case for change and stakeholder value, organizational diagnosis, leadership approaches such as servant and transformational leadership, implementation and resistance, and the means of keeping the change alive and judging whether it worked. Plans usually include an executive summary, objectives, actions, timeline, resources, communication and measures. A strong paper is coherent, evidence-based and realistic, shows how each element follows from earlier analyses, uses research on sustaining change and defines how leaders will know whether the change created value for stakeholders. Cite peer-reviewed sources in APA format.
How this LDR 535 Week 6 example is built
The final paper draws six weeks of work on High Desert Public Media into a single plan for the board. It opens with an executive summary and the vision that every New Mexico community, however small, has a newsroom that listens. Stakeholder value is restated for listeners, rural communities, members, staff, partners and funders. The leadership approach combines servant and transformational practices with transactional clarity. Research on sustaining change identifies factors that help or hinder lasting change, such as embedding new practices in routines, and an integration of research and practice offers evidence-based principles for change. Implementation stages, resources, communication, measures for each stakeholder group and an evaluation timeline complete the plan.
LDR 535 Week 6 grading rubric: where the points go
The final change leadership plan is graded on integration, evidence and feasibility, and on whether a board member could act on it after one reading. Reviewers expect the revenue plan to add up to the gap it claims to close and the measures to cover every stakeholder named at the start. High marks require an executive summary that a board could act on, clear objectives tied to stakeholder value, a leadership approach drawn from earlier analysis, a sequenced implementation with resources and owners and a credible plan for sustaining and evaluating the change. Graders look for research on sustaining change, measures for multiple stakeholders rather than finances alone and honest treatment of risks. Consistency of figures and terms across sections and a professional tone suited to decision makers complete a strong submission.
LDR 535 Week 6 help: mistakes to avoid
Final plans often summarize earlier assignments without showing how they connect. Make the logic explicit: the diagnosis justifies the leadership approach, which shapes implementation, which determines the measures. Another common gap is ending at implementation without explaining how the change will last; research shows many changes fade. Build in routines, roles and reinforcement. Some papers measure only finances. Measure value for each stakeholder group. Others ignore risks or treat the plan as certain. Name risks and responses. Lastly, draft the summary after everything else and hold it to a single page, because trustees often read only that page.
Related LDR 535 sample papers
Other LDR 535 week samples
- LDR 535 Week 1: Leadership Theory and Change
- LDR 535 Week 2: Organization Development Approaches
- LDR 535 Week 3: Servant Leadership in Change
- LDR 535 Week 4: Transformational Leadership in Change
- LDR 535 Week 5: Implementing Change and Resistance
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LDR 535 Week 6 questions, answered
What does LDR 535 Week 6 usually cover?
It usually covers a complete change leadership plan that integrates the case for change, diagnosis, leadership approaches, implementation and resistance and the steps for keeping the change in place and judging its results.
Where can I find a free LDR 535 Week 6 sample paper?
This page carries the complete closing plan for an invented Southwestern radio network, executive summary and measures included.
Why do organizational changes fail to last?
Research identifies factors such as leaders moving on, new practices not becoming routine, lack of reinforcement, staff turnover and competing priorities that cause changes to decay.
How do you sustain organizational change?
Embed new practices in roles, routines and systems, keep leaders visibly committed, measure and share results, reinforce new behaviors and adapt the change as conditions evolve.
What should a change leadership plan include?
An executive summary, the case for change, objectives tied to stakeholder value, the leadership approach, implementation steps, resources, communication, risks, sustainability measures and evaluation.
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