MAKERERE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

PROGRAM: MASTER OF SCIENCE IN LEADERSHIP AND GAVERNANCE

YEAR: ONE

SEMESTER: ONE

COURSE NAME: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

TOPIC: POSITIVE LEADERSHIP –STRATEGIES FOR EXTRA ORDINARY

PERFORMANCE

COURSE CODE: MLG 7213

SIGNATURE

Name Student Code Signature

Sendawula Rogers 2019/HD10/29823U

Kato Herbert 2019/HD10/21721U

Bartazary Daud 2019/HD10/

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Contents
SECTION ONE................................................................................................................................................................ 3

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 3

1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Background ............................................................................................................................................................... 3

1.2 The Uganda Clays Limited Bump Up ................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 Statement of Opportunity .................................................................................................................................... 8

1.4 Purpose of Study ................................................................................................................................................. 8

1.5 Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................................................................... 9

1.6 Explanation of the conceptual framework .......................................................................................................... 9

SECTION TWO ............................................................................................................................................................. 10

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIABLES ....................................................................................................................10

2.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................10

2.1 Positive Communication ...................................................................................................................................10

2.2 Positive Relationships .......................................................................................................................................11

2.3 Positive Climate ................................................................................................................................................12

2.4 Positive meaning ...............................................................................................................................................13

2.5 Positive leadership- Strategies for extra ordinary performance ........................................................................13

SECTION THREE .......................................................................................................................................................... 15

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VARIABLES ..........................................................................................................15

3.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................15

3.1 Positive communication and positive meaning .................................................................................................15

3.2 Positive relationships and positive meaning .....................................................................................................16

3.3 Positive climate and positive meaning ..............................................................................................................17

3.4 Positive meaning and positive leadership-strategies for extra ordinary performance ...................................... 18

SECTION FOUR ............................................................................................................................................................ 20

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RELATING VARIABLES TO THE BEST PRACTICE ...........................................................................................20

4.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................20

4.1 Positive Communication ...................................................................................................................................20

4.2 Positive relationships ........................................................................................................................................21

4.3 Positive climate .................................................................................................................................................21

4.4 Positive meaning ...............................................................................................................................................22

4.5 Positive leadership-strategy for extra ordinary performance ............................................................................22

4.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................23

References ...............................................................................................................................................................24

Key Lessons ............................................................................................................................................................26

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SECTION ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

This write-up is about positive leadership-strategies for extra ordinary performance. It is divided into four
sections. This section covers the background, statement of the opportunity, purpose of the study,
Conceptual framework, and the explanation of the conceptual framework.

Background
Positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, actions and events that cause individuals to

exceed normal performance and hence bring about positive deviance as demonstrated in the case below.

1.2 The Uganda Clays Limited Bump Up

Before 2008, Uganda Clays Limited (UCL) was a profitable and stable company, being recognized as

Uganda’s largest local clay products manufacturer. In a bid to expand, the Company took on short-term

loans at market rates from Standard Chartered Bank and the East African Development

Bank (EADB) to establish the Shs36bn Kamonkoli plant. The ambitious move to set up the Kamonkoli

plant proved to be a very costly venture and marked the beginning of very many problems for the

company which included low sales, a net loss of 3.3bn, accrued interest of Ugx19.06bn on a loan worth

16.7bn given by NSSF. The company became indebted because of the burden of the loan; it defaulted

on the loan repayments attracting huge fines.

It became evident that top management was in panic, board meetings become board meetings every

week most of them ending up in disagreement. Mangers were put to unrealistic targets and the effect of

the stressful experience was transmitted to the lower staff.

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The inability to sustain the large workforce was the most likely scapegoat, the way out was to lay off

over 40 employees; revise staff salaries and allowances downwards, scrap off employee benefits such

as: medical allowances, the half a liter of milk and 5Kgs of maize flour for the machine operators; due to

the exposure to the coffee husks, (the milk was meant to help in the detoxification), and “Teretebwa”

end of year bonus incentive. This did not go down well with the workers who could not help it but show

the demoralization at work.

Supervisors/ line managers turned hostile and unsupportive of their subordinates due to pressure from

top management and consequently from the board; they used disapproving language and often yelled at

subordinates. An example was with chief supervisor Okwera who specifically targeted Kalongo a

mechanical technician responsible for operating the boiler, on occasions Okwera was heard telling

Kalongo that he will be thrown in the fire if he did not leave at will, this kept kalongo on the watch over

his shoulders all the time. Fellow employees started making fan of him with this joke ― bakusuula

m’mulilo ‖ which would through him in a state of panic each time. Other mangers would make

statements like ―we have no money to pay the loan and you fellows are asking for benefits!!! muli

balalu?‖ during meetings. Some employees worked for long hours without overtime pay. This did not

only go against labor requirements but created a very unfriendly work environment for both new recruits

and continuing employees. Performance targets were not clear and often not communicated to

employees. For instance in one of the months the production target for the week was shifted 8 times

without explanation to the production staff. First it was 10000tiles per week then 12000, then 13000,

then 15000 and so on. Meanwhile sometimes there were no materials for these targets to be met.

Meanwhile the sales department was tasked to double their targets every now and again. Many

employees were offered temporary contracts ranging from 1 to 3 months and these were not entitled to

any form of leave including compassionate, sick or maternity leave for women. In other words no one
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was sure they would keep their job and morale kept deteriorating. This was seen when staff started

absenting themselves without explanation, others would come to work but find intervals of unsanctioned

rests during working hours. Supervisors would run up and down looking for staff that was not on their

stations. Many employees especially new recruits resigned before completing even a month at work due

to these unfavorable conditions. No training/induction was provided and therefore the new recruits were

prone to accidents on site, as if that is not enough kept gambling about how to go about the work.

Employees could use bare hands and feet while handling products, since the safety ware department had

stopped providing safety gear. There were no first aid boxes for managing minor injuries and employees

were asked to heal from home and return to work after full recovery without any compensation. Nothing

concerning the staff was a priority any more. No one had the morale to encourage another to continue

working and negative statements come in from every department with the people trying to wish each

other farewell rhetorically

Despite all the measures that were being taken to minimize expenditure and maximize on productivity, the

opposite happened. More losses were being realized to a tone of 8% per month and a clear reduction in

productivity and performance was evident.

In 2014, George Inholo was hired as substantive Managing Director, a former Country Director at Unilever

Uganda to return UCL to sustainable profitability and fix the Precarious situation at the time. Mr. Inholo

initiated negotiations with NSSF board to cap interest charged on the loan that had accumulated to 19.06bn.

This was done through a number of meetings whereby emphasis was put on the fact that there was need for

NSSF to save their investment and convert it to equity shares. Though this would calm the pressure on the top

management, Mr. Inholo’s first concern was the low productivity and his instincts dictated it had to be due to

the main factor of production which was the human resource.

He held several meetings with the employees, their supervisors, and department heads in order to determine
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what was happening and devise means to resolve any likely causes. It was through these meetings that staff

matters were discussed. Through these meetings he discovered that there were unresolved conflicts, such as a

need to understand and acknowledge the prevailing behavior of the supervisors/line managers. Many of the

remaining employees were still harboring un forgiveness for their friends that had been laid off, A growing

concern for the unsafe working conditions at the moment. Also evident was the availability of discord among

the employees with none of them willing to refer to his collogues as a friend. Statements like ―buli omu

yajakululwe‖ (every on come here on their own) were ureter in one of the meetings as he was listening. He

went ahead to empathize with those whose friends were laid off. He explained that there was need to

restructure and save UCL from collapsing and return it to its former glory. Though it was not pleasing to hear

most of the employees felt important that for the first time they were requested to play part in saving the

company. He pointed out that it was not going to be easy to forgive those that hart them but it was worth a try

and necessary to allow time to heal those wounds. Mr. Inholo went out of the way to tell the junior employees

that his office was open to anyone seeking to talk to him at any time, going out of the tradition where every

communication to the MD went through the immediate supervisors. This was warmly welcomed and you could

see the smiles on every body’s face. He kept the communication open and employees shared their grievances,

on a now and then basis. For example, other than laying off some of the non-permanent employees, which was

on going; the Tusakimu Association (a section of non-permanent employees) offered to render their loading

services for half the price (that is, instead of the 10shs per tile loaded, it was reduced to 5shs per tile); the

employee welfare incentives were to be reinstated on the budget, but on a gradual basis of little by little, month

after month. Mr. Inholo requested the HR team to conduct a salary survey, which turned out that UCL was

giving salary below the industry average rates. And a proposal to review employee salaries was made, based on

positions and seniority by the HR team, but it was unexecutable at the moment. Mr. Inholo went out of the

norm and intimated to the entire staff body the honest situation at hand and requested the employees to bear
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with the situation and hold on until the company was stable enough financially to execute the proposal, this

was not good news to all the employees but a majority of them welcomed the honesty of the new MD. Clear

and realistic targets were set and communicated to employees on weekly basis; routine-programs were

designed for the field staff, whereby an employee started his/her day by sending out his/her “to-do” list for

that day to their supervisor, who then had to write a hand written ―thank you‖ note to the subordinate. This did

not go down well for the supervisors at first but they were amazed at what it could do to the recipients each

time it was done. Line managers were tasked to identify positive energizers in their teams; these are the people

who are optimistic, heedful, trustworthy and selfless. In only two months some employees had started to fit this

profile. These employees were then tasked to head either formal or informal groups while carrying out various

activities in the organization. During the end of year retreat, a practice of the “team-feedback” was

implemented; an employee was expected to give positive feedback to at least five fellow teammates regarding

their performance only focusing on the times when the employee was at his/her best. This time round every

employee was free and relaxed even the renown introverts were seen and heard cracking jokes, a real sense of

family was felt and people commented that work place now felt like home.

An induction schedule was drawn for all new recruits. The employees were to list their protective gear needs

such as gumboots, gloves, and helmets and these were to be availed to them as soon as a certain condition

was met, this condition was; if the company’s sales target exceeded the set target in the upcoming month by

15%. This was surprising all the lower employees were heard on occasions pushing the sales team to put in

more effort.

The company continued to explore ways of attracting and retaining the right number of staff with the right

skills and attitudes to implement the organizational strategy, the effective review project dubbed „„Together

for Success‟‟ facilitated by the Leadership Team was drawn. There was improved working relationship

between employees and their supervisors, as employees freely interacted with their supervisors for
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collective decision-making. Performance targets were mutually agreed upon between employees and

respective supervisors and successfully met. UCL reported a 70% increment in sales and 40% increment in

net profit in 6 month ending June 30, 2017. For the first time in many years, UCL gave dividends worth

900M to its shareholders.

Therefore organizations that seek to perform better than before should put in place avenues that

enable them to come up with strategies that can enhance extra ordinary performance.

1.3 Statement of Opportunity

UCL was able to reduce cost of sales from by 21.5% in 2016, turn its credit rating from red to green,

realized 70% increment in net profits in 6 month ending June 30, 2017, and issued dividends worth

900M for the first time in 10years to its shareholders.

This was because of obtaining best self-feedback, use of supportive communication, reinforcing

strength, build energy networks, affecting human wellbeing, connect to personal values and build

community.

1.4 Purpose of Study

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between positive communications, positive

relationship, positive climate, positive meaning and positive leadership-strategies for extra ordinary

performance.

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1.5 Conceptual Framework

Positive Meaning
 Affect human well-being
 Connect to personal values
 Build community

Positive Climate
 Foster compassion Positive Leadership
Positive leadership
 Foster forgiveness
 Foster gratitude  Positively deviant Strategies for
performance Extraordinary
 A Positively deviant performance
organization
Positive Communication
 Obtain best-self feedback
 Use supportive communication

Positive Relationships
 Build energy networks
 Reinforce strength

1.6 Explanation of the conceptual framework

As shown in the above framework, the four leadership strategies are interrelated and mutually reinforcing,

enhancing one of them tends to positively impact the other three, therefore positive communication, positive

meaning, positive relationship, and positive climate lead to positive Leadership and the positive leadership

leads to a positively deviant organization with extra ordinary performance.

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SECTION TWO
DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIABLES

2.0 Introduction
This section explains the dependent and independent variables as illustrated in the conceptual

framework. These are positive communication, positive relationship, and positive climate, positive

meaning being positive leadership-strategies for extra ordinary performance.

2.1 Positive Communication

Positive communication occurs when affirmative and supportive language replaces negative and

critical language. Communication is said to be the most single most important factor in predicting

organizational performance. There are two specific strategies that are available for facilitating

positive communication in organizations: the reflected best-self feedback process and the use of

supportive communication, the reflected best-self feedback process is based on the impact of positive

feedback on individual improvement. Positive information is captured that uncovers and highlights an

individual’s talents and highest capabilities. The result is a personal agenda for capitalizing on

positive attributes that are not necessarily obvious. Additional benefits of best-self feedback are

strengthened relationships with feedback givers. Best-self feedback results in higher cohesion and

mutual support. Supportive communication builds and strengthens relationships even when behavior

must be corrected or negative feedback must be provided. Effective communication in organization

increases productivity, decreases employee turnover and improves office atmosphere. Supportive

communication is a style of communicating that has a specific set of goals and techniques. The

primary goal of supportive communication is to resolve conflict or achieve change in a situation

while preserving, and even strengthening, the relationship between the communicating individuals.

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The organization that seeks to improve performance must give priority to developing a positive work

environment where open respectful communication is the norm between hierarchical levels and

business units. All staff members should be encouraged to communicate freely with others, the

organization should develop and assess the effectiveness of communication strategies that support the

organization’s vision and strong formal and informal communication networks. For organizations to

flourish, use of supportive communication should be encouraged that includes; congruent,

descriptive, problem centered statements validating, conjunctive, specific, owned statements and

reflective listening that allow leaders to provide corrective or negative feedback in ways that make

the communication encouraging and helpful, strengthening rather than weakening and enhance

individual performance.

2.2 Positive Relationships

Leaders affect interpersonal relationships by facilitating positive energy, by modeling it and by

diagnosing and building positive energy networks among others. These networks strengthen

interpersonal relationships, foster coordination and collaboration, and enhance efficiency of

interactions resulting in performance advantages for individuals and organizations. Leaders can

identify positive energizers, recognize, reward and support them. They put high energizers in tasks

and roles that allow others to interact with them and asking them to coach or mentor others. Since

human beings are naturally social creatures, employees need friendship and positive interactions

wherever they work. So it makes sense that the better the relationships are at work, the happier and

more productive the employees become at work. Good working relationships give employees several

other benefits like making work more enjoyable when they have good relationships with those around

them. Also, people are more likely to go along with changes that the organization wants to implement

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and employees are more creative and innovative in case there exists a good relationship among

workers.

Positive relationships are imperative for good health (Cooper, 2000). According to litman

(2010), a healthy working relationship should be made up of trust, mindfulness, mutual respect,

welcoming diversity and open communication. This means that if there is no trust between

individuals, communication in the organization cannot be effective as it’s the case for lack of mutual

respect. Therefore the organization and management should make sure that avenue for effective and

positive communication are established or put in place.

Another opportunity for managers to promote positive relationships lies in reinforcing individual and

organizational strengths. Identifying and building on people's strengths can lead to greater benefit

than finding and correcting their weaknesses (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; Clifton & Harter, 2003;

Seligman, 2002). By knowingly noticing and reinforcing positive behavior, the workplace becomes a

more positive environment.

2.3 Positive Climate

This is a set of measurable properties of the perceived work environment, directly or indirectly,

created by individuals who live and work in this environment and that influence the motivation and

behavior of these people. The organizational climate is a concept ―perceived‖ by employees.

Importantly, it is dependent on a value judgment, which can vary greatly from person to person. The

organizational climate affects productivity, motivation and employee behavior. After experiencing

organizational harm, damage, trauma, or injustice, one challenge facing leaders is to help the

organization heal, replenish, restore efficacy and positive energy, and enhance resiliency. Forgiveness

usually occurs in collaboration with other virtues such as compassion, and gratitude. Gratitude is an

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emotion similar to appreciation that most people are familiar with. What many people do not know is

that gratitude plays an important role in several institutions, and that gratitude is now becoming an

important part of psychology research, and organizational behavior (Kelley & Thibault, 1978)

2.4 Positive meaning

When people feel that they are pursuing a profound purpose or engaging in work that is personally

important, stress, depression, turnover, absenteeism, dissatisfaction are reduced and commitment,

effort, engagement, empowerment, happiness satisfaction, and fulfillment are increased (Difabio &

Blustein, 2016). Litman Ovadia and stager (2010), there are three core components of meaningful

work and these are; the degree to which people find their work to have significance and purpose, the

contribution work makes to finding broader meaning in life, and the desire and means for one's work

to make a positive contribution to the greater good. Meaningful work can come from the individual or

the organization. Some people bring a sense of meaning and mission with them to the workplace and

some other organizations excel at creating meaningful work places where every employee becomes

part of creating success, cohesiveness and culture at work. Positive coping strategies, such as positive

reappraisal, problem-focused coping, and infusing ordinary events with positive meaning are related

to the occurrence and maintenance of positive affect (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000) and predict

increases in psychological well-being and health (Affleck & Tennen, 1996).

2.5 Positive leadership- Strategies for extra ordinary performance

Extra ordinary performance refers to the ability of an organization to perform beyond expectation and

beyond the standard. This does not come as a surprise in an organization but it’s rather worked for in

the organization. For the organization to achieve this, it’s a collective effort of the organization as all

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members in the organization must participate. One of the key things that need emphasis to achieve

this is positive leadership (Dickason, 2016).

Positive Leadership is the application of positive principles arising from newly emerging fields

of positive organizational scholarship, positive psychology, and positive change. Application of these

principles leads to extraordinary performance.

The application of the positive principles that enable positive deviant performance, foster an

affirmative bias and fostering virtuousness and eudemonism leads to extraordinary performance in

organizations.

The strategies for extraordinary performance are Positive Climate; Positive Relationships; Positive

Communication and Positive Meaning as demonstrated above.

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SECTION THREE
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VARIABLES

3.0 Introduction

This section looks at the relationships between the variables. It breaks down each variable by its

indicators.

3.1 Positive communication and positive meaning

3.1.1 Obtain best self-feedback and positive meaning

The reflected best-self feedback process is based on the impact of positive feedback on individual

improvement. Positive information is captured that uncovers and highlights an individual’s talents

and highest capabilities. The result is a personal agenda for capitalizing positive attributes that are

not necessarily obvious. Additional benefits of best-self feedback are strengthened relationships with

feedback givers. Best-self feedback results in higher cohesion and mutual support. This enables the

organization to recognize people who are talented, have good ideas and others for example in the

case, employees were able to come up with solution to some of the problems that were affecting

them and the organization as a whole and this made them know that they are part of the organization

since they could have an input which enabled them to work harder hence positive meaning at work.

3.1.2 Supportive communication and positive meaning

If employees find work more interesting, open communication should be put in place, consultations
in case of matters affecting them and many other things. So if communication at the work place is
handled well, employees will be in position to trust each other, respect themselves, find solution to

15
their work problems and share them with the bosses hence finding work to be satisfying hence
meaning.

3.2 Positive relationships and positive meaning

3.2.1 Build energy network and positive meaning

Building energy networks is about identifying positive energizers in the teams; these are the people
who are optimistic, heedful, trustworthy and selfless in the team such that they are given the
responsibility of leading others. This energizes them to perform their duties as a group rather than
individually. A team in which ideas flow freely and its members build effortlessly on one another’s
work is described as high energy. Particularly an influential person may be known as an energizer
who is someone who can spark progress on projects or within groups. This usually makes teams to
do their work easily since the energizer is cheerful and motivates the people to work. This brings
about social cohesion among the team members and a good relationship is established since work is
done together. Working in such teams also helps workers and the organization benefit from synergy.
This is very important in an organization, as employees are able to get friends even beyond work due
to the interactions. And as a result, this makes the energizers feel that they are able to contribute
something to the organization community and at the same time also other employees feel morale
boasted hence easily doing their work and hence positive meaning. Therefore whenever people are
able to lead others to and mobilize them to do different things, people are able to have contributions
to the team and hence meaningful work

3.2.2 Reinforcing strength and positive meaning

Reinforcing strength refers to the concentration and the tendency to try helping the employee
improve his or her weak point while maximizing the strength. People are less likely to make huge
strides in something they’re bad at or hate doing, yet there is a common notion that doing more of

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those actions builds a better-rounded employee. When it comes to producing results from positive
reinforcement a small difference influences results dramatically. Most effective leaders, managers,
and supervisors do not necessarily reinforce more often than ineffective ones. It's the detail of what
they focus on that makes them better. They focus on strengths rather than weaknesses.
A reinforcing leader recognizes there is great strength in being supportive to others. It is important to
give appreciative and reinforcing feedback regularly. Employees with managers who focus on their
strengths or positive characteristics are almost 13 times more likely to be engaged. Ongoing
encouragement and recognition are key drivers of employee engagement.

3.3 Positive climate and positive meaning

3.3.1 Foster compassion and positive meaning

Compassion is a feeling of pity, sympathy, and understanding for someone who is suffering. There
are very many ways in which employees in organizations can be challenged and they need to be
cared for at that time such that they can have a feel that someone in the organization cares for them.
For example in the case, salaries of workers who were under paid were revised, leave for employees
were reinstated and this made them to know that the organization cares for them. Compassion is
related to positive meaning in a way that, It has to do with the support that employees feel they
receive from the organization and this is usually in bad times like when employees lose their dear
ones, they are sick and losses. As the organization sympathizes, employees feel supported.

3.3.2 Fostering forgiveness and positive meaning

Forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward

a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve the forgiveness.
Research suggests that forgiveness might be an unexpected but powerful way to enhance
organizational culture as it can help promote wellbeing and build community and cohesion among

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previously conflicting parties. Holding on to negative feelings after a conflict may lead to
disengagement at work, a lack of collaboration, and aggressive behavior. Forgiveness interventions
focus on reducing negative feelings toward the offender and fostering positive feelings such as
compassion, empathy, and love.

3.3.3 Foster gratitude and positive meaning

Gratitude refers to a state of being grateful, thankful and readiness to show appreciation for, and to
return kindness. Frequent and sincere expressions of appreciation have been found to produce
dramatic effects on individuals and organizations. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness
in their lives. It makes employees feel recognized and rewarded for good performance. As a result,
gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals – whether to
other people, nature, or a higher power. On the other hand, positive meaning means the degree to
which people find their work to have significance and purpose, the contribution work makes to
finding broader meaning in life, and the desire and means for one's work to make a positive
contribution to the greater good. As employees are appreciated for the good work they usually do for
the organization, they ever feel that at- least there is something that they have contributed to the
organization and this also make employees happy and give them a reason to work every day.

3.4 Positive meaning and positive leadership-strategies for extra ordinary performance

3.4.1 Human wellbeing and strategies for extra ordinary performance

The term "wellbeing" covers several aspects of the way people feel about their lives, including their
jobs and their relationships with the people around them. Of course, a person's wellbeing is to do
with their own character and home or social life along with the workplace, but research shows that
employers can have an influence on an individual's sense of wellbeing in the way they run a
workplace. Staff well-being at work also means the principles, ideas, methods and theory for stress

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reduction and improving wellbeing in the workplace, for employers and employees In several studies
conducted on organizational behavior, many staff have consistently identified meaningful work as
the most important feature that they seek out in a job, ahead of income, job security, promotions, and
hours. Considerable evidence also suggests that employee wellbeing is associated with a series of
desirable out comes for the organization for example employee commitment and productivity. This
is so because if the employees are physically and emotionally well, their productivity increase and at
the same place their morale is increased hence putting their best in the organization leading to extra
ordinary performance.

3.4.2 Building community and strategies for extra ordinary performance

Involvement in a positive and encouraging community has a tangible impact on individual

self-awareness and fulfillment. Positive experiences with communities allow individuals to feel more
connected to their environment and the people in it. This form of connection also provides a support
system for members when they are in need of encouragement or sympathy. The strong feelings of
connection to the group also work to combat any mental illness that can arise from alienation in the
form of anxiety and depression. Communities that excel at promoting a feeling of belongingness
encourages members to speak up about their ideas and opinions, which, in turn, leads to members
considering their positions from a deeper perspective. Involvement in positive and encouraging
communities facilitates self-reflection and exploration of core values and beliefs and, this sense of
belonging and makes someone more focused on their work hence high productivity of workers
leading to extra ordinary performance.

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SECTION FOUR
RELATING VARIABLES TO THE BEST PRACTICE

4.0 Introduction

This section discusses the best practices in relation to the case.

4.1 Positive Communication

Positive communication involves self-feedback and use of supportive communication as seen during
the end of year retreats, a practice of the ―team-feedback‖ was implemented; an employee was
expected to give positive feedback to at least five fellow teammates regarding their performance
which made communication more open and feedback was continuously received.
Positive communication was also portrayed in the case when Mr. Inholo George held several
meetings with the employees, their supervisors, and department heads in order to address the
unresolved conflicts, to understand and acknowledge the employee concerns that he had clearly
noticed and going outside the norm to allow all employees to go to him directly whenever they had
grievances. He went ahead to empathize with those who were to be laid off, he explained the need to
restructure and save UCL from collapsing and return it to its former glory to the lower employees,
winning their sympathy in the long run.
He kept the communication open and it was through these meetings that staff matters were
discussed; employees shared their grievances, open solutions and new ideas sought from the
employees themselves and supported by the department heads. This communication helped the
employees to understand what was going on in the company, they provided the necessary feedback
and this boasted their morale to work again beyond the normal performance.

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4.2 Positive relationships

This is about how various people interact with each other at the work place. These can be among
fellow employees or between employees and employers. Positive relations enable workers to freely
relate with each other and also exchange ideas freely which can also enable employees and
management to share ideas freely and also to work as a team to grow the organization. Positive
relations focus on reinforcing strength and build energy networks. From the case, clear targets were
set and communicated to employees on weekly basis and these were based on the employees’
strengths; routine-programs were designed for the field staff, whereby an employee started his/her
day by sending out his/her ―to-do‖ list for that day to their supervisor and supervisors hand writing a
thank you not to the subordinate.
Line managers were tasked to identify positive energizers in their teams; these are the people who
are optimistic, heedful, trustworthy and selfless. These employees were then tasked to head either
formal or informal groups while carrying out various activities in the organization.
There was also improved working relationship between employees and their supervisors, as
employees freely interacted with their supervisors for collective decision-making. Performance
targets were mutually agreed upon between employees and respective supervisors.

4.3 Positive climate

As shown in the case, Mr. Inholo held several meetings with the employees, their supervisors, and
department heads in order to address the unresolved conflicts, to understand and acknowledge the
employee concerns that he had clearly noticed within the one month of orientation to the Company.
He went ahead to empathize with those who were to be laid off, he explained that there was need to
restructure and save UCL from collapsing and return it to its former glory; this was intended to
foster forgiveness within the organization.

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The end of year ―Teletebwa‖ bonus was to be reinstated in phases and this was mutually agreed
upon and the best performing employees were to be rewarded as in when it was affordable. and this
was an appreciation to the best performing individuals that showed gratitude as the company
appreciated these people.
Positive Climate is also depicted in the case when the employee salaries were reviewed and revised
after finding that it was below the industrial rate, this showed that Mr. Inholo was compassionate
about the staff earning which made staff to know that they are cared for, but what was most
outstanding was for the employees to bear with the organization to hold on before the proposed
revisions could be implemented.
Therefore, all the above portrayed a positive work environment.

4.4 Positive meaning

Positive Meaning is demonstrated in the case where 70% of workers were put on permanent
employment as this emotionally provides avenues for making employees feel safe as they know they
have job security. This makes the workers loyal as they are doing their work since they know they
are permanently part of the organization. Protective equipment like gumboots were promised to be
provided to workers and this made workers feel that the environment in which they are working in is
safe and this showed them that at least management cares for their health hence fostering human
well-being.

Also the introduction of staff leave showed that the company had care for the staff wellbeing as they
need to rest from work and do their personal things or rest for their good health.

4.5 Positive leadership-strategy for extra ordinary performance

In the case, positive leadership was portrayed when Mr. Inholo was able to listen to staff grievances
and their ideas. His concern for employee well-being exhibited in the salary increment review and
re-instatement of all the employee incentives within the very month of being appointed into office.
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He was also able to exhibit care for employee wellbeing and this was portrayed when protective
wears were to be provided to the employees so that they can be physically safe as they are carrying
out work and this provided a better climate in which workers can feel safe
UCL reported a 70% increment in sales and 40% increment in net profit in 6 month. For the first

time in many years, UCL gave dividends worth 900M to its shareholders.

Therefore the once collapsing company was able to gain life again.

4.6 Conclusion

Organizations always strive to grow, flourish and succeed in order to meet their set goals and
objectives. To achieve these organizations need genuine leaders who are always positive and
forward looking in order to foster and instill positive climate that enables the employees put in their
best into the organization so as to help the organization perform far much better than before. To
achieve exceptional success, leaders must emphasize strengths rather than simply focus on
weaknesses; foster virtuous actions such as compassion, gratitude, and forgiveness.
Leaders of such organizations should put a lot of emphasis on communication, the formal and
informal relationships and on creating meaningful work for their employees. That will enable
employees to feel part of the organization and be motivated to put in their best to achieve extra
ordinary success.

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Key Lessons
• Negative situations have some positive aspects which should be focused upon for positive results
• Success stories inspire others to participate in a program to the benefit of all.
• Leaders should use supportive communication where employees feel valued and respected.
• Leaders should develop strong working relationships with their subordinates and the external
community.

• Having goals and targets in place and continually reviewing them will help an organization
develop.

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