An MBA 687 Module 7 memo on modeling leadership behavior during organizational change: evidence on change leadership, five behaviors with concrete examples, habits to stop and a pulse check on whether leaders follow through. Searches like "mba 687 module 7 assignment", "mba687 module 7 model leadership behavior memo" and "mba 687 module 7 example" land here.
The MBA 687 Module 7 example, in full
Memorandum
To: Branch Leadership Team and Guiding Coalition, Veritane US (composite)
From: [Student Name], HR Consultant
Date: [Date]
Re: Modeling leadership behavior during the client migration waves
Why This Memo Now
The One Platform plan is approved, the waves are scheduled and the messages have been delivered. From here, employees will judge the program less by what leaders say than by what leaders do in ordinary weeks. The readiness survey showed that only 27 percent of branch staff believed leaders would see this change through, and the reason was experience: two years ago, leaders announced a customer system and then stopped using it themselves within weeks. Staff will be watching for the same signal this time, and they will find it in small moments rather than in speeches. This memo sets out five behaviors each of us should model and the habits that would undo them.
What the Research Says
Herold et al. (2008) studied employees across many organizations going through change and distinguished leaders' general transformational style from change leadership, the specific things a leader does about a particular change. The general style was the stronger predictor of employees' commitment, especially when the change affected them personally, as One Platform will. But among leaders whom employees did not see as transformational, sound change-management practices were associated with higher commitment. That is encouraging for a leadership team that includes a new general manager and several managers who do not think of themselves as inspiring: even without a reputation to draw on, what we do about this change can earn commitment.
Higgs and Rowland (2005) found that leader-centered behavior, driving change through personal persuasion and control, was often associated with less successful change, while framing the change clearly and building others' capacity to carry it out was associated with more. For us, this means the goal is not for leaders to be the loudest advocates of One Platform. It is for leaders to make the change understandable, make room for others to lead parts of it and remove the obstacles only leaders can remove.
Five Behaviors to Model
Table 1 describes each behavior as it should look in a normal week, alongside the habit it replaces.
Table 1
Leadership Behaviors for the Migration Waves
| Behavior | What it looks like in practice | Habit to stop |
|---|---|---|
| Use the new system first | Leaders raise client requests through the product council, not through a favored engineer | Asking a senior engineer for a quick custom fix |
| Follow through visibly | The general manager's monthly progress note goes out on schedule, including bad news | Going quiet when a wave slips |
| Ask before announcing | Managers bring decisions affecting a squad to the squad before they are final | Forwarding headquarters decisions without comment |
| Protect time for learning | Certification hours are blocked on calendars and never canceled for client work | Pulling staff out of training for escalations |
| Credit the people doing the work | Wave wins are presented by the engineers and consultants who delivered them | Leaders presenting results alone |
Note. Composite examples drawn from interviews with branch staff.
The Behavior That Matters Most
The first behavior is the hardest and the most important. Every leader in this branch, including me, has at some point bypassed a process to solve a client problem quickly, and clients and staff have come to expect it. During the migration, a single visible custom fix requested by a director will tell 140 people that the platform is for everyone except leaders and favored clients. If an urgent client need cannot wait for the product council, the general manager should decide openly, record the exception and explain it at the next monthly update. Exceptions made in the open build credibility; exceptions made quietly destroy it.
Leading Across the Two Offices
Modeling also applies to how we treat headquarters. When a decision arrives from Singapore that the branch dislikes, leaders' reactions will set the tone for everyone else. Criticizing headquarters in team meetings may feel like solidarity, but it teaches staff that the shared squads are a fiction. The better behavior is to raise disagreement directly through the product council or with platform leadership, then explain to the team what was raised and what happened. Leaders who join the rotating overlap hour at the inconvenient end, rather than always leaving it to their teams, show that the shared structure is real.
How We Will Know We Are Doing It
We should hold ourselves to the same measurement we apply to the program. I propose a four-question pulse survey after each monthly update, asking staff whether leaders are using the new processes themselves, keeping commitments, involving teams in decisions and protecting training time. Results will be shared with the whole branch, broken down by department but never by individual leader in public. Each leader will also receive private feedback from their own team at the end of each wave. Bass and Riggio (2006) described leaders' personal example as one of the most direct ways followers learn what is expected; the pulse survey tells us what example we are actually setting.
Request
I ask each member of the leadership team to review Table 1 before the next coalition meeting and to bring one habit of their own that they intend to stop. Naming these habits among ourselves is the first test of whether we can model the openness we are asking of the branch.
References
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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
How this MBA 687 Module 7 example is structured
The memo begins with why leaders' own behavior matters more than their messages at this stage of the change. Research follows in two short paragraphs. The five behaviors appear in a table with what each looks like in practice and the habit it replaces, and the memo closes with how leaders will be held to them.
Get MBA 687 Module 7 written to your instructions
Send your MBA 687 Module 7 memo prompt and rubric with details of your change. A memo on the leadership behaviors your change needs comes back within 24 to 48 hours; the first costs nothing. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
MBA 687 Module 7 questions, answered
What does the MBA 687 Module 7 memo ask for?
The Module 7 memo commonly asks students to describe the leadership behaviors that should be modeled to support the scenario's change, and how those behaviors will build commitment among employees.
What is change leadership as distinct from transformational leadership?
Transformational leadership is a general style of inspiring and developing followers. Change leadership refers to behaviors specific to a particular change, such as explaining it, involving people and following through. Research suggests change-specific behavior can build commitment even when a leader's general style is weaker.
Why do leader-centered change behaviors sometimes backfire?
When leaders drive change through personal control and persuasion, employees may comply without building the capacity to sustain the change. Studies have found that behaviors which frame the change and create capacity in others tend to be more closely associated with success.