Addressed to a director of nursing, an NU512 Unit 8 memo sequences Yukl's influence tactics to win a therapy schedule change only another department can approve. Searches like "nu 512 unit 8 assignment example", "nu512 unit 8 sample" and "nu512 unit 8 example" land here.
Influence Strategy Memo: Winning Approval for a Staggered Therapy Day Without the Authority to Require It
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU512: Leadership, Organizational Theory, and Behavior
Unit 8 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The unit, people and figures are composite and bracketed; the influence research and regulation cited are published.
Memo Header
To: Director of Nursing, Medical and Rehabilitation Services From: [Student Name], Assistant Nurse Manager, Acute Rehabilitation Unit Date: [Date] Re: Decision requested: support for a staggered therapy start on the rehabilitation unit, and an influence plan to reach the rehabilitation services director
Bottom Line
I am asking for your support in proposing a staggered therapy day: first sessions at 0830 for the patients whose mornings take longest, and two therapists shifting their hours to 1000 to 1830. The decision belongs to the rehabilitation services director, who reports outside nursing. The plan below reaches her in a specific order, starting with the people whose support she will look for. Nursing's offer in return is a readiness check completed by 0815 and weekend carryover sessions, so the request is an exchange, not a demand.
The Case in Two Figures
Over six weeks, [71] of [312] first sessions, about 23 percent, started late or were missed, most because patients were not yet ready. Patients in an inpatient rehabilitation facility are expected to receive an intensive program, usually some three hours of therapy on most days of the week (42 C.F.R. § 412.622, 2024), and lost morning minutes are hard to recover. A staggered start would move the first sessions for about [eight] high-care patients to 0830 or later and add afternoon capacity through the two later shifts.
Stakeholders
1. Rehabilitation services director. Decides. Interests: therapist productivity, intensity compliance, staff satisfaction. Likely objection: later hours are unpopular and complicate the grid. What nursing can offer: fewer late starts, which protects her productivity numbers; readiness by 0815. Tactic: exchange, supported by rational persuasion.
2. Senior physical therapist who builds the daily grid. Does not decide, but the grid is hers in practice. Interests: a workable grid, fair hours for colleagues. Likely objection: the change would be designed by nursing and dropped on her. What nursing can offer: design authority. Tactic: consultation.
3. Physiatry medical director. Does not decide therapy schedules, but the director listens to him. Interests: patients meeting intensity expectations and achieving functional gain. Likely objection: none in principle; attention is limited. What nursing can offer: data on lost minutes. Tactic: rational persuasion.
4. Staff therapists whose hours would change. Interests: predictable schedules, family commitments. Likely objection: later evenings. What nursing can offer: volunteers first, rotation if needed, and patients ready when they arrive. Tactic: consultation through the senior therapist.
5. Night nurses who must have patients ready by 0815. Interests: a manageable early morning. Likely objection: another task at the busiest hour. What nursing can offer: first sessions moved later for the highest-care patients, which eases their morning. Tactic: consultation and apprising.
The Sequence
Yukl (2013) describes proactive influence tactics that leaders use when they lack formal authority, including rational persuasion, consultation, collaboration, exchange and coalition building. Falbe and Yukl (1992) found that consultation and inspirational appeals were more effective than hard tactics such as pressure, and that combining a soft tactic with rational persuasion tended to work better than any single tactic. The sequence below applies that finding.
Step 1, consultation with the senior physical therapist. She builds the grid, and a schedule designed without her would repeat the fate of the 0815 huddle. I will ask her to design the staggered start, not approve mine.
Step 2, rational persuasion with the physiatry medical director. The late-start data speak directly to his concern about intensity. I will ask him to raise the issue with the rehabilitation services director at their regular meeting, not to endorse a specific plan.
Step 3, exchange with the rehabilitation services director. When the request reaches her, it will come with the senior therapist's design, the medical director's interest and a concrete offer from nursing: readiness by 0815 and weekend carryover sessions that add therapy-related activity without therapist time.
Step 4, coalition, held in reserve. If the director declines, a joint request from the physiatry medical director and you, as director of nursing, would carry more weight. I recommend holding this back, because a coalition used first would read as pressure from nursing.
What I Need From You
Your agreement to the offer in Step 3, since readiness by 0815 commits night staff, and your willingness to support Step 4 if needed.
References
42 C.F.R. § 412.622 (2024). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-42/section-412.622
Falbe, C. M., & Yukl, G. (1992). Consequences for managers of using single influence tactics and combinations of tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 638-652. https://doi.org/10.2307/256490
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Pearson.
How this NU512 Unit 8 example is structured
Sequence is the memo's argument, since the same tactics in the wrong order would fail. Consultation comes first, with the senior physical therapist, because the grid is hers in practice and a schedule designed without her would repeat the huddle's fate. Rational persuasion follows, carried by the six weeks of late-start data, but it goes to the physiatry medical director before the rehabilitation services director, since lost therapy minutes threaten the intensive-therapy participation his patients must sustain. Exchange arrives third, when the request finally reaches the decider: nursing commits to a readiness check by 0815 and weekend carryover in return for the staggered start. A coalition forms only if these steps succeed. Pressure and legitimating tactics are listed as excluded, with reasons: the writer holds no authority to invoke, and either would damage the relationship the next request depends on.
Get an NU512 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Is there a decision you need that sits with someone you cannot direct? Describe it briefly, name the parties by role, and add the Unit 8 memo prompt with its rubric. An example influence strategy memo returns in 24-48h at no cost for a first request. The decision in your own memo, and the strategy you choose for it, belong to you. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
NU512 Unit 8 questions, answered
Which influence framework should the memo use?
Whichever your reading assigns. Yukl's proactive tactics are common, and so are Cohen and Bradford's exchange model, the power bases French and Raven described, and Cialdini's principles. The sample uses Yukl because his research compares tactics by the commitment they produce. Whichever framework you choose, apply it stakeholder by stakeholder rather than describing it in general terms.
Who should the memo be addressed to?
Usually to someone in your own chain who would support or approve the plan, such as your director. The sample writes to the director of nursing, who is not the decider but whose backing matters. Some prompts ask for a memo to the decision-maker instead, which changes the tone entirely. Check the prompt, and write for the reader it names.
Is it manipulative to plan influence this carefully?
Planning is not manipulation when the aims are open and the offer is real. The sample shares its data, consults the people affected and gives something in return, and it rules out pressure. Most sections expect this kind of planning, since influence is how nurse leaders usually move choices that sit outside their authority.