| Course | BU 506 Leading Change and Operational Excellence |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Change approach and resistance |
| Length | About 820 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 506 Unit 5
Five More Minutes With the Customer and a Calculator That Second-Guesses You: The Change Approach and the Real Sources of Resistance to a Composite Flooring Retailer's Order Redesign
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 506: Leading Change and Operational Excellence
Instructor Name
February 9, 2026
Five More Minutes With the Customer and a Calculator That Second-Guesses You: The Change Approach and the Real Sources of Resistance to a Composite Flooring Retailer's Order Redesign
What Is Actually Changing, Group by Group
Resistance attaches to specifics, so this paper begins with what the Unit 4 redesign changes for each group, written as the people in that group would describe it.
The change is small in scale, quick to run and visible to customers only through the consultant's screen. That profile matters for choosing an approach.
| Group | What changes, in their words |
|---|---|
| Sales consultants (9) | I type the order on a screen with the customer waiting, pick products from a list, and a calculator tells me how many cartons to order |
| Showroom administrators (4) | I stop keying orders; I check them instead, and I am not sure what that means for my hours |
| Buyer (1) | Lot notes arrive by themselves, but I now keep the carton table current |
| Receiving clerk (1) | On flagged orders I record lot numbers for every pallet, on mornings that are already busy |
Choosing an Approach
Large programs such as the eight stages described by Kotter (2012), which open by building urgency and assembling a coalition to lead the effort, are built for organization-wide change. Applied here they would turn a change in one handoff into a campaign and make the redesign look larger and more threatening than it is.
The approach used instead draws on the analysis Lewin (1947) offered of change as a shift in the balance between forces driving and restraining a behavior, with attention to reducing restraining forces rather than only adding pressure. Lewin is usually credited with a model in which an organization unfreezes, changes and then settles again; Cummings et al. (2016) show that the tidy three-step version was largely built by later writers from fragments of his work, so this paper uses the force-field idea he did develop and does not treat the three steps as his prescription. In practice the approach means finding what makes the new steps harder for each group and removing as much of that as possible before asking anyone to change.
Where Resistance Will Come From
Consultants' discretion and expertise
Experienced consultants add their own waste allowance based on the room, and the calculator replaces that judgment with a fixed allowance per product type. Several consultants said in the Unit 4 sessions that a long hallway or a diagonal layout needs more than any table allows. The redesign devalues a skill they are proud of.
Customer time in the showroom
Typing an order takes longer than writing one, perhaps 5 minutes. Consultants fear that a customer kept waiting after deciding to buy may reconsider.
Administrators' security
Removing re-keying removes about two hours a day of each administrator's work. Without a clear statement of what replaces it, the change reads as the first step toward fewer administrator hours.
The tablet rollout people remember
In 2022 the company gave consultants tablets for in-home quotes. They lost signal in basements, two orders disappeared and the tablets were withdrawn within two months. Every consultant with more than four years at the company mentioned it.
Receiving's mornings
Freight arrives between 7 and 10 a.m. Adding lot recording to flagged pallets during that window competes with getting trucks unloaded.
Responses
Each source has an operational response rather than a communication plan.
| Source | Response |
|---|---|
| Discretion | The calculator shows its carton count and an override field; a consultant can enter a higher count with a short reason, and overrides are reviewed monthly to improve the waste allowances |
| Customer time | The screen is piloted at one showroom with a stopwatch; if the median added time exceeds 5 minutes, the screen is simplified before rollout |
| Administrators | Before the pilot the operations manager confirms in writing that administrator hours are unchanged and that freed time goes to order reviews and customer callbacks |
| The 2022 rollout | The order screen runs on showroom computers, not tablets; the paper fallback stays for in-home measures |
| Receiving | Lot recording applies only to flagged orders, about four in ten, and can be done at putaway rather than at the dock |
When Resistance Is Right
Ford et al. (2008) suggest that what managers label resistance often carries useful information about a change's flaws, and that treating it purely as an obstacle wastes that information. Two of the objections here are partly justified. The consultants are right that a fixed allowance will be wrong for some rooms, and the override field exists because of them. The administrators are right to ask about their hours, because a change that removes work without saying what replaces it usually does lead to cuts. Piderit (2000) describes employees as often ambivalent rather than simply for or against a change; the administrators fit that description, since they welcomed losing tedious keying and feared what came next in the same conversation.
What I Will Watch During the Pilot
Resistance will show up first as behavior, not argument, so the pilot at Westerville will watch for four signs. The first is consultants entering orders on paper and asking the administrator to key them, which would mean the fallback has become the normal route. The second is overrides entered without a reason, which would mean the calculator is being bypassed rather than corrected. The third is administrators re-checking every carton count by hand, which would suggest they do not trust the screen or are protecting their old task. The fourth is receiving leaving the lot column blank on busy mornings. Each sign has a simple count, and each count will be reviewed with the people involved at the end of the pilot rather than reported upward first. If a sign appears, the question asked will be what about the new step makes it harder than the old one, since that is usually where the next improvement to the design is hiding.
Keeping the Improvement the Subject
The goal is fewer late special orders, not acceptance of a new screen. If the pilot shows that overrides are frequent and correct, the waste allowances will change; if the screen proves too slow, the design will change. Resistance that reveals a better design is part of the improvement.
References
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin's legacy for change management. Human Relations, 69(1), 33-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715577707
Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362-377. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2008.31193235
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press.
Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change. Human Relations, 1(1), 5-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872674700100103
Piderit, S. K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: A multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 783-794. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.3707722
BU 506 Unit 5 instructions, in plain terms
The fifth BU 506 unit asks how to lead the specific change designed in Unit 4 and where resistance will come from. Requirements typically include restating what changes for each affected group, choosing an attributed change approach and arguing why it fits this change's size, speed and visibility, locating resistance in concrete terms, and giving each source an operational response. Graduate work goes beyond listing generic reasons people resist change. When resistance is justified, the expected answer is to change the design rather than overcome the objection. Quoting what named colleagues said about a past change at work is risky; describe positions by role and paraphrase them. A short table of what changes for each group is a common and efficient way to open.
How the BU 506 Unit 5 example is put together
The paper opens with a four-row table stating, in each group's own words, what changes for consultants, administrators, the buyer and receiving. An approach section explains why a large program would oversize the change and draws on Lewin's force-field idea, attributed with care using Cummings and colleagues. Five sources of resistance follow under run-in headings: discretion, customer time, administrators' security, the remembered tablet rollout and busy receiving mornings. A response table pairs each source with a concrete change. A section uses Ford and colleagues and Piderit to show two objections are partly right. A pilot-watch section lists four behavioral signs, and the close keeps fewer late orders as the goal.
BU 506 Unit 5 rubric: what full points look like
Rubrics for change approach and resistance usually reward a clear statement of what changes for whom, a model chosen for fit, specific sources of resistance, operational responses and recognition of legitimate objections, together with writing. Stating the change group by group earns credit because resistance attaches to specifics. The approach criterion favors a short argument for fit over a long description of a model. Sources of resistance score highest when tied to particular steps, lost discretion or past attempts people remember. Responses earn full points when they change something concrete rather than relying on persuasion. Many rubrics reserve the top band for papers that treat some resistance as a reason to improve the design.
Common BU 506 Unit 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Resistance papers lose marks by listing textbook causes such as fear of the unknown without locating them in this change. Another weakness is choosing a large change model and describing all of its stages for a small procedural redesign. Writers often answer resistance with communication alone, which leaves the harder step just as hard. Some ignore the history people remember, though a failed past attempt is often the strongest source of doubt. Others treat every objection as an obstacle. Leaving yourself out is a quieter mistake: the person leading the change can create resistance too, for instance by announcing it before the design is settled. If you need help mapping resistance to the actual steps of your own change, one of our writers can map it with you, working from your design and your section's prompt.
Get a BU 506 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Once the Unit 5 instructions and rubric reach us from your BU 506 classroom, along with the improvement design the assignment carries forward, we start. We write a custom example that restates the change in each group's terms, matches one attributed approach, locates resistance step by step and answers it operationally. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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BU 506 Unit 5 questions, answered
How is this different from an undergraduate change course?
There the change itself is the subject and the paper is about whether people accept it. Here the change exists only to deliver a measured process improvement, so the approach is judged by whether the gain survives rather than by how smoothly the rollout goes. Keep the improvement in view throughout and the deliverable stays inside this course.
What if the resistance is justified?
Then say so and change the design, which is the strongest move available in this unit. An operator objecting that the new step removes a check they rely on has given you a defect to fix, not an attitude to manage. Record the objection, record what the design became, and the paper demonstrates exactly the judgment the criterion is looking for.
Can I quote what colleagues said about a change at work?
Not as attributed statements, and not from any internal record. Feedback forms, meeting notes and engagement summaries belong to the organization, and colleagues did not agree to be quoted in coursework. Write the objection as a type of concern raised by a role, keep the person unidentifiable, and let the analysis rest on the mechanism rather than on who said what.
Where can I find a free BU 506 Unit 5 sample paper?
The complete BU 506 Unit 5 change approach and resistance paper is free above, with the group-by-group table, five sources of resistance, the response table and margin notes. For your change, pass along the instructions and a custom paper is written free, often within two days.
Which change model fits BU 506 Unit 5?
One sized to the change. The sample sets aside an eight-stage program as too large for a single handoff and uses the force-field idea attributed to Lewin, focusing on removing what makes the new steps harder.