MAKERERE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL

COURSEWORK FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

OF MAKERERE UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

COURSE NAME: ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

STUDENT: Twinamatsiko Patrick, Reg. No. 2013/HD10/2856U, Student No. 213024416

Tool: The Political Frame

Facilitator: Dr Francis Kasekende

1. Background

In any programme, having good intentions, good technical design and planning only, may not

lead to success. Leaders ought to apply skills that will make the programme acceptable to the

beneficiaries.

There are 26 licensed commercial banks in Uganda that hold 3.2 million bank accounts. One

third of these accounts are held at Centenary Bank. The bank therefore was faced with a

problem of long queues at counters and congestion in the banking hall. This called for

deployment of more tellers which in itself has financial implications.

In 2012, management of Centenary Bank decided to promote the use of alternative channels

like ATMs, centemobile, Point of Sale machines and PC banking to decongest banking halls.

Usage of these channels was not encouraging. Customers were not used to automation. They

still wanted the human touch. Worse still, staff did not embrace usage of alternative channels

because they looked at it as a way of throwing them out of employment.

The Managing Director of Centenary Bank, Mr Fabian Kasi analysed the situation and

embarked on a series of activities that would facilitate changing the mind set of management,

staff and customers on the use of these channels. Brainstorming sessions were introduced as

to which Division of the bank had better proposals on how to make the use of alternative

channels popular. That Division would then house the Electronic Banking department with its

attendant financing and training benefits. This attracted many proposals, manoeuvres and

lobbying from many divisions of the bank. At the end the project was placed under the

Operations division. A new manager in charge of ATMs was recruited outside Centenary

Bank.
Next, the MD introduced over the counter withdraw fees of UGX 2,000= for customers and

UGX 10,000= for bank staff, purposely to discourage transacting across the counter. A toll

free hotline was introduced where customers would contact designated bank officials in case

they had concerns or met difficulty in using the various service points spread across the

country. Programmes were sponsored in the media and any bank gathering explaining to the

customers the advantages of transacting using alternative channels.

On his part, the Managing Director led the way in usage of alternative channels. He would be

spotted in a queue at the ATM and in the staff canteen; he never used cash to pay but used the

POS machine stationed there. He identified ringleaders in the campaign against use of

alternative channels and educated them on their importance, discouraged them from further

activities that discourage usage of these channels by warning them that they could be

dismissed for sabotaging bank programmes and to others he would induce with trips abroad.

On return and in return, it is them who were to promote this programme and to popularise it

among staff and customers. In other words, they were appointed product champions.

Monthly rewards were introduced for staff who transacted most using the alternative

channels.

As of today, over the counter transactions have reduced by half from what it used to be in

2012. Queues have become shorter and visibly congestion in the banking hall has gone down.

It takes a combination of various approaches to succeed in persuading employees to adapt to

the new changes.

For the success of a program, leaders need to realise that apart from designing and launching

it, they need to market it. This can be achieved through building alliances and networks,

identify key people and enlist them for support and isolate and coerce those not supportive.

The ultimate objective is to have the program succeed.

3. Purpose of the study

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between power and authority, conflict

stimulation, building coalitions, leader morality, employee persuasion and a successful

political frame.
 4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Power and
authority

Conflict
stimulation
Successful

Employee Political

Persuasion Frame
Building
coalitions

Leader
Morality
5.1. Authority, Power and a Successful Political Frame

Authority is the right to give orders and they are obeyed while power is the ability to give the

orders. There are many sources of power. The first one is position power or authority. This is

derived from the office or position one occupies in an organisation or society. There is also

coercive power which is derived from the capacity to punish or constrain others and compel

them to act one’s way. Reward power comes in when one has the ability to give incentives,

inducements which attract people to do as he wishes. There are other sources of power like

having expertise over a subject or having built reputation over a long period of time and even

having built alliances. Finally there is the personal power brought about by someone’s

charisma, beauty, charm and character.

Power is not static. It fluctuates with time and circumstances. Organisational politics also

influence the level of power someone wields in an organisation. Performance both at

individual level and organisational level attract a certain amount of power. Therefore

sustaining this performance, performing below it or surpassing it comes with enhanced or

reduced power depending on each case. Losing or gaining power can be either gradual or

abrupt. A look at contemporary Uganda’s politics can provide good example for this. John

Patrick Amama Mbabazi has been a powerful Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda and

Secretary General of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement. All of a sudden, he

is a backbencher in parliament. After 2016, who knows, he may not be a Member of

Parliament anymore.

In organisations there are there are people with authority or what is known as position power.

These are called Authorities. Then, there are also people with influence although they may

not necessarily hold high positions. These are called Partisans. The Partisans try to influence
the Authorities and where possible topple them. The Authorities on the other hand try to win

over and in the extreme subdue the Partisans.

Authority power is necessary because social control depends on it. But it is erroneous to rely

on authority or position power only to get things done. There are multiple sources of power

which constrain authorities in exerting their influence. Those occupying positions of

responsibility need to use their power and authority to persuade employees to embrace their

innovations and programmes if they are to succeed.

In our tool, there are influential staff mainly in the middle levels of management who have

the capacity to influence other staff. Management of the bank is wary of such staff. The MD

identified these staff and enlisted them as product champions of the alternative channels.

They were sent abroad on attachment to study how these alternative channels operate and

how they have been successful. Definitely foreign travels attract handsome allowances which

made the concerned staff happy. After the training, these staff were given the responsibility

of popularising this programme. They were facilitated to do this. Using their influence, they

were able to make other staff embrace the programme and it became a success.

One needs power and authority to be able to accomplish a task. In our tool, the Managing

Director needed authority to have the staff embrace use of Alternative Channels. By virtue of

his position as MD, the structure gives him powers to punish those who resist this project.

They could be dismissed, demoted or have any other form of punishment meted onto them.

The writing was on the wall. Even opportunities for progression in the banks hierarchy were

to be influenced by one’s level of participation in this programme.

Authority can be used to attain a success in an undertaking. The MD used his authority to

introduce over the counter withdraw fees. Staff would be charged 10,000= for transacting

across the counters while external customers were made to pay 2,000=. The fee payable for
staff was high and therefore prohibitive. It discouraged staff from transacting across the

counter because they could not afford to pay this charge every time they transacted. The

result was that after spell of time using these channels under coercion, staff eventually got

used to them and adopted them as routine transaction methods.

Reward power facilitates successful political frame. Incentives were introduced for those staff

who transacted most using the alternative channels. The bank installed a software in the

bank’s core banking programme that would track staff usage of the ATM, or who transferred

money using Centemobile and/ or used the Point of Sale Machine to withdraw money.

Weekly and monthly reports were produced. Rewards in form of cash, letters of recognition,

gift hampers and holidays abroad were given. This aroused interest in use of alternative

channels and the product picked momentum.

Reputation power is crucial in promoting any programme. If someone has demonstrated

capability to handle projects successfully before, it gives him expertise power and develops a

sense of belief and confidence in him by his followers. This provides him with ammunition to

drive his staff to support new innovations. The Managing Director of Centenary Bank had a

track record of automating most of the processes at the bank which were hitherto, manual. He

had automated the motor vehicle movements with success. Other systems that had been

automated included leave management, ATM applications, complaint management and

Cheque Book requisition. With this proven trend of success, he confronted this new

programme with confidence. The use of alternative channels had received hostile reception

from staff because most were apprehensive of automation due to inadequate computer

literacy. Also they thought with automation, there was a likelihood of reduction of personnel

and so they would be out of employment. So he had to use the past successes in automation

to assure staff that this was not coming at the expense of their jobs.
5.2. Conflict Stimulation and a Successful Political Frame

‘A complete absence of conflict may indicate that the organisation is stagnant and that the

employees are content with the status quo. It may also suggest that workgroups are not

motivated to change the traditional and well accepted ideas. Conflict stimulation is the

creation and constructive use of conflict by a manager. Its purpose is to bring about situations

in which differences of opinion are exposed for examination by all’ (Ricky and Gregory,

2009, p.390)

Where there is completely no conflict in an organisation may suggest that either team

members are uncertain and ignorant but are failing to admit it or there is excess concern for

maintaining harmony, tranquil and agreement so as not to injure the feelings of others. Some

organisational members play politics of popularity in anticipation of rewards at the expense

of those who are competent, creative and high performers. The former avoid conflict in order

to remain popular with the authorities. They are more concerned with maintaining peace and

cooperation regardless of the outcome. Therefore conflict is necessary to keep the

organisation animated. Organisational members work hard to defend their positions by

explaining what they are doing and why. Each individual or group tries to outshine the other

so as to attract attention and facilitation. In the process the organisation gets the best out of

the many alternatives.

Too much conflict on the other hand can bring about negative consequences. In our text, the

conflict between America’s two intelligence agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation

and the Central Intelligence Agency, became counterproductive as each organisation decided

to go about America’s intelligence in isolation of the other. As a result of lack of cooperation,

there were loopholes in their information gathering and processing activities which led to

undetected attacks by terrorists and other security mishaps.

attract attention, favour, funding and recognition. In the process, the parties to the conflict

become creative and innovative by generating new ideas and making the organisation livelier.

Conflict stimulates interest and curiosity and therefore encourages learning. It helps people to

grow. Conflict also challenges the status quo. This makes organisation leaders think harder

and come out with higher quality solutions and better outcomes.

In our tool, the MD made a suggestion that the department of Electronic Banking which

managed the programme of the use of alternative channels was to be under the Division of

the Bank that brought the best proposal on how to promote the usage of these channels. There

are seven divisions in the bank, namely: Finance, Business Technology, Operations,

Corporate Services, Business Development, Human Resources and Audit. Such a proposal

would incorporate aspects such as the product design, training, marketing and promotion of

the use of these channels. These activities attracted huge funding and any Head of Division

that would have this programme in his division, would be empowered financially and would

be in a good position to motivate his staff. The attraction to the much needed financial

resources involved plus the prestige that would come with it, initiated a conflict among the

division heads.

With the resolve from each division to take charge of the programme, proposals were put

forward showing how prepared and why they were the best division to take charge of the

programme. For example Operations Division boasted of having the widest coverage in terms

of its staff, Business Technology claimed to have unrivalled technical competence to handle

electronic banking products while Business Development presented its research and

marketing expertise as its strength. Quite creative ideas were brought forward on how the

programme can be improved and make it appealing to the youth, the middle class and the

peasants.
In designing their proposals on how best each division can ably manage the programme, they

punched holes in the existing design and pricing of the various products involved in the

programme. Sometimes they would doubt the competence of those who designed the

products in the first place. They offered alternative approaches and designs opposed to the

initial arrangement. They challenged the status quo.

The exercise of preparing proposals and counter proposals became interesting. Divisions of

the Bank employed espionage on their counterparts to know what they are preparing so that

they offer a better proposal. It appeared like they were placing bids for a tender where the

highest bidder took it all. The offered proposals were evaluated and in the process better and

brilliant proposals were obtained. It made the bank lively.

The exercise of generating new ideas helped some staff, hitherto unknown, to come to the

limelight. They were identified because of their ideas. They were promoted to positions of

responsibility in the programme. This motivated other employees, hitherto indifferent; to

embrace the programme and make it successful.

A new manager in charge of ATMs by the names of Hussein Sseggujja was hired from

another financial institution. His attitude and managerial style differed from those of the

present staff members. He initially locked horns with some other managers in the bank. He

worked hard to establish himself in the organisation by showing that he had something new

and better to offer. The managers he found in the bank also worked hard to show that they

knew and were good at what they were doing.

Finally, the Operations Division was mandated to manage the programme. This was after a

number of modifications, improvements and strategies to promote the programme had been

compiled. A number of staff benefited from the exercise because they were identified and

promoted. Use of alternative channels was embraced and is performing well.

A coalition is a group of individuals or organisations who agree to work together for a

common goal. The goal may be loose or specific. It also may be for a short time, long period

or even permanent. Coalition members may have different interests, beliefs and values. In the

case in our text, NASA wanted the launch of the Challenger expedited because their

credibility was at stake and they risked losing funding and any other support from Congress.

Thiokol engineers and the astronauts on the other hand were concerned with the safety of the

crew. With the varying interests and values therefore, goals and decisions emerge from

bargaining and negotiating. Although coalition members may have overlapping interests, they

still need one another. In an organisation for example, employees may be clamouring for

better pay, management wants increased sales, shareholders want more profits while

customers want better services. But all these members of the coalition need each other to

realise their goal. Management, for example, needs employees to grow their sales volumes

and the employees need management to coordinate and offer strategic direction. The

organisation needs customers to boost their sales while the customers need the organisation to

provide them with excellent service.

According to Kotter(1985), there are four basic steps in exercising political influence. The

first one is to identify relevant relationships. When building a coalition, you do not need to go

to everybody. Identify key constituents that are necessary. In our tool, the Managing Director

of Centenary Bank realised that he needed the support of the division heads to make sure that

the programme of use of alternative channels succeeds. He invited them to put forward their

proposals on how best the programme can be managed. He also appeared liberal when he

offered them the opportunity to determine which division of the bank should run the

programme. He was creating a sense of ownership. In that case, he weakened those heads of

divisions who might be harbouring negative feelings about the programme. Moving up the
ladders in any organisation creates more dependence. The MD is fully aware of this fact

because his success has to be achieved through critical senior managers.

The second step is to assess who might resist, why the resistance and how strong it will be.

The programme of diverting customers from banking halls to the use of alternative channels

was bound to be not an easy one. The customers resisted it because of low levels of literacy.

Besides they were not used to automation. They preferred the human touch where they would

interface with the bank staff serving them. In fact some were wondering that in a situation

where the machine gives them less money, to whom would they complain. Resistance also

came from staff. They feared automation would lead to laying off of staff. The resistance

was therefore high. The MD had adequately assessed and anticipated the resistance so he

psychologically positioned himself to deal with it. The introduction of over the counter

withdraw fees was one of the measures he introduced to discourage them from transacting

across the counter. Although it is a harsh measure, it did help to push the customer to use

alternative channels.

The third step is to hold your enemies close. This means that you develop links with potential

opponents to facilitate communication, education, or negotiation. The MD recognised the role

of Partisans in any organisation. He identified influential middle level managers who were

biased against the use of alternative channels and put up an arrangement to educate them on

the importance of these channels. He opened up avenues for regular interaction with them

either as individuals or in a group. He arranged trainings for them abroad. These trainings

were mainly on success stories around the world on automation of bank services. Such

foreign travels in the bank attract good allowances which is a source of motivation to staff.

But the gentleman’s agreement these staff had with the MD was that they would reciprocate

by popularising this programme.

coalition, if the other approaches fail. In doing this, make sure you have the capacity to make

your threats real. It will be disaster on your part if coalition members realise your weaknesses

or know that you lack the ability to implement your threats. Do not underestimate the might

or resolve of the coalition members and therefore have alternatives in case you do not secure

their cooperation. The MD had his weapon in case he did not receive the cooperation he

needed from the middle level managers. They could face dismissal from the bank. Some of

them could not afford that. Some had long term loans with the bank and they may not be able

to service them once outside employment. Others were already advanced in age and it was

not easy to secure employment elsewhere. The MD was privy to this information and he

therefore knew that threat of dismissal would compel most of them to yield. Good enough it

did not get that far.

There are other categories of members needed in a coalition, cheerleaders for example. To

create cheerleaders, identify strategic allies and approach them for support. Exaggerate their

importance in the undertaking as if its success depended entirely on them. They proceed to

become spokespersons of the project. In the tool, the staff that were influential, were selected

for training and on return, they were appointed product champions. As product champions,

the burden of ensuring that the programme succeeds rested entirely on them. They had to

explain the benefits to their fellow staff and to the customers and counter any propaganda that

would come up not supporting this programme. They executed their responsibility with

utmost zeal and the programme has since succeeded.

In building coalitions, there is bargaining and negotiation. It is a game of give and take. It is

vital that one distinguishes the people and the issue at hand. In our tool the MD succeeded in

winning over those who were against the project because his interest was to see that the

project succeeds. He knew there were adversaries who were against this project. He did not
fight them as individuals but rather courted them. At the end they were the ones promoting

the project. Had he lost sight of this strategic issue, he would have gone for the adversaries

and deplete the bank of experienced staff.

The MD of Centenary Bank focused on his interest of making the project a success. It did not

matter so much to him as to which division of the bank was to be in charge of the

programme. That is why he allowed the different divisions to put proposals forward so that

the division with the best structures and capacity is selected to manage the programme.

To build enduring and long lasting coalitions, the manager needs to be fair and realistic when

negotiating. Using your position to subdue the other parties could lead to deep seated anger

which may explode anytime. If you are manipulative and self- interested, you may not be

able to build coalitions that will come handy and in future. The programme of popularising

use of alternative channels at Centenary Bank succeeded because the MD did not go out to

subdue the adversaries but rather convinced them and offered incentives until they

collaborated.

In building coalition, one needs to include diverse membership. In case of organisations,

there are many coalition members who include the customers, the suppliers, the shareholders,

the staff and management. The MD established a toll free line which would facilitate

customers who used these channels to seek for guidance whenever they would be stuck at the

service points. The toll free line would also help the bank to gather opinions from customers

on how service delivery at these points would be improved to make it more efficient and

secure for the customers. The MD appealed to customers to become partners in this

programme hence diversifying and widening membership of the coalition. Once the

customers were free with the use of the alternative channels, it would leave the staff with

little option but also to be persuaded to embrace facilitate its use.

members. Those benefits should be clear and should outweigh the costs to the members. To

the customers, the Managing Director emphasised the benefits of using the alternative

channels as opposed to queuing up in the banking halls. In the first place it saves the

customers time and money to move from their homes and places of work to find the banking

halls and wait in the queue. Besides, they will have to meet high costs of transaction by

paying over the counter withdraw fees. The other benefit was that customers can transact at

any time of the day or night because these channels are open 24 hours. On the part of staff,

automation was important because it would give them the opportunity of closing early and

get the opportunity to be with their families. It would also free them from their desks and be

able to do marketing for the bank and be able to bring in more business which will lead to an

increase in their earnings through bonus and other incentives.

The overall importance of building coalitions in having a successful political frame lies in

persuading coalition members to embrace the proposals given. As earlier shown, success of

programmes does not lie entirely with the good design, intention and benefits but rather with

the ability of the leader to rally reasonable support and cooperation with the partners and

beneficiaries.
Leader Morality and a Successful political Frame

A leader is one who shows the way and guides others by way of example. He should have the

ability to persuade others to if his leadership is to be effective. Morality covers principles

concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour. Moral

leadership therefore is about humility, giving respect to people and earn respect in return. A

moral leader develops his capacity and the capacity of others. He earns the respect of his

followers, delivers the best for them and establishes unity. He should have emotional

intelligence, is visionary and builds consensus.

A moral leader should be able to change long held beliefs and methods of work that may no

longer be suitable to the present challenges. Bass (1985) argues that: “Moral leadership helps

followers to see the real conflict between competing values, the inconsistencies between

espoused values and behaviour and the need for realignments in values, changes in

behaviour, or transformations of institutions… [However] the transformational leader may be

a breaker and changer of what society has regarded heretofore as right and wrong.” (pp.182-

84)

Morality in leadership requires that the leader practices what he preaches. As the old saying

goes, one should not preach water and take wine. In our tool, the Managing Director led the

way in the use of alternative channels. He would use his ATM card to withdraw money. In

the staff canteen and in designated supermarkets, he would use the Point of Sale Machine that

was installed in those places. In so doing he persuaded employees of the bank to follow suit.

Once the staff started using these channels to transact, it became easy to explain them and

market them to the customers.

As seen before, moral leadership is about humility, giving respect to people and earning

respect in return. In the usage of the ATM, the MD would not come and move ahead of the
queue when others were lining up. He would queue up until his turn comes. He even resisted

offers from staff and customers that he is exceptionally exempted from lining up. He wanted

to feel and experience how fast or slow the process was. He also wanted to know how it feels

queuing up. In places where he was not known he wanted to hear from the customers what

they were commenting about use of ATMs.

Morality in leadership requires the leader to have the ability to persuade his members to

adopt his proposal and follow him. In our case, the MD took his time to educate the staff

about the convenience and importance of transacting using alternative channels. He did it

passionately until he was able to win them over to his side. Bank employees have now

embraced use of alternative channels and so have the customers. The project has been a great

success.
References

1. Bass, B.M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York:

Macmillan.

2. Ricky G., Gregory M., (2009). Organisational Behaviour: Managing People and

Organisations. Business Economics

There are 26 licenced commercial banks operating in Uganda. These are: Stanbic Bank,

Standard Chartered Bank, Centenary Bank, Crane Bank, Barclays Bank, Equity Bank, Orient

Bank, Bank of Baroda, Citibank, Imperial Bank, Bank of Arica, United Bank of Africa, Eco

bank, DFCU Bank, Diamond Trust Bank, ABC Bank Ltd, Bank of India(U) Ltd, Cairo

International Bank, Fina Bank, Housing Finance Bank, KCB Bank, NC Bank, Tropical Bank

Ltd, National Bank of Commerce and Global Trust Bank(closed recently). There are 3.2

million accounts opened in Uganda and one third of these accounts are run at Centenary

Bank. The problem with account holders at Centenary Bank is that the majority of them are

small savers. To be able to realise value out of these small time savers, you need to have a

very big customer base. But this comes with very long queues at bank counters and

congestion in banking halls. Such an arrangement, calls for hiring of more staff and

expansion of banking halls to serve the high influx of customers. This comes at a cost

through a bloated wage bill and high operational costs. These costs are not sustainable in the

long run and could seriously affect the bank’s profitability and erode shareholders equity.

The bank made an analysis and decided that the best approach was to automate the bank’s

services. Automation would be fast, handle large volumes of data with ease, reduce human

errors and will require fewer staff to handle a large number of customers. It is against this

background that in 2012, management of Centenary Bank decided to promote the use of

alternative channels. They were called alternative channels because they were seen as

substitutes to transacting across teller counters and in banking halls. Alternative Channels

include Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sale (POS) machines centemobile and

Personal Computer (PC) banking. Transacting using these channels does not require the

customer to walk in to the banking hall. They can handle cash payments, cash deposit,
balance enquiry, give a mini statement and also transfer money from one customers account

to another.

Usage of these channels met resistance from customers. This was mainly because of low

levels of literacy and apprehension in the use of technology. They still wanted the human

touch. They started wondering where one would complain if the ATM gave them less money

than they asked for. They threatened to leave the bank altogether instead of losing their

money to machines. The only hindrance was that was that most of the banks had automated

their services and so alternatives were limited.

Bank staff also were negative towards these channels. They were equally not up-to-date in

their usage of computers. But the biggest concern was that once usage of machines was

entrenched in the bank’s operations, it could lead to a reduction in the number of staff and

they were not sure who would be the first causalities.

The Managing Director of Centenary Bank Mr Fabian Kasi analysed the situation and

embarked on a series of activities that would make the use of alternative channels among

staff. The idea to start with staff was premised on the fact that it was not easy to market a

product you do not know much about, you don’t use it and don’t like it. Therefore first make

the staff comfortable with the product to enable them popularise it with external customers.

Changing the mind-set of staff was not easy and so a multi thronged approach was used. The

approach included consultations, sensitisation, publicity, reward and where necessary,

coercion.

In order to generate good ideas on how the programme could be improved, the Managing

Director opened up equal chances to the seven divisions of the bank to compete for managing

the programme. The bank has seven divisions. These are Operations, Credit, Business

Growth, Business Technology, Audit, Human Resources, and Corporate Services. Of course,
it would be in the interest of any division to manage such a programme because of the

funding and other attendant benefits involved. There would be many capacity building

activities that involve trainings abroad. The lucky division head would find himself with

many resources at his disposal to motivate his staff and add more clout on his efforts to have

a grip on his division.

The suggestion to allow divisions compete for this project generated a lot of interest.

Proposals and counter proposals were prepared. Exciting presentations were made.

Innovations were made on how the use of alternative channels would be efficiently managed,

promoted and executed. Some junior staff hitherto not known in the circles of management

brought up exciting and interesting proposals and they were noticed. There was a lot of

lobbying and bargaining. Coalitions and alliances were formed and others broken. At the end

of it, it is the Operations Division that carried the day. Even a new manager in charge of

ATMs was recruited outside the structures of Centenary Bank. The most important benefit

the bank derived from this exercise was that the discussions helped to compile suggestions

and obtain the best ideas and approaches to make the project a success.

One of the ideas that came up was the introduction of over the counter withdraw fees.

Customers would be charged UGX 2,000= for withdrawing across the counter money less

that UGX 1,000,000= which can be accessed via the ATM. For staff, it was even steeper.

They were to be charged 10,000= for the same service. To avoid evasion, it was automated in

the system. Staff and customers protested but the MD remained firm and unwavering. At the

ATM, staff withdraw was free and customers are charged UGX 500=. The charge

discouraged further transactions across the counter for those categories of transactions and

slowly banking halls started being free.

stuck at our service points and needed assistance. It would also help them to report in case

there was service failure on our machines spread across the country and some unmanned.

Radio and TV programmes were sponsored in the media to make extensive publicity of this

programme.

The MD as a person extensively used alternative channels to transact. He would patiently line

up at the ATM and resist calls for some staff and customers to allow him move ahead of the

queue. In the staff canteen he would pay for food using the POS machine stationed there.

Even in designated supermarkets, he would use the POS machine to make purchases. Being a

role model to a number of staff, they emulated him and adopted the use of the ATM and POS

machine.

The MD also identified influential staff who were against the use of alternative channels. He

started programmes to educate them on the importance of using these channels. He explained

that they were convenient to use because one can transact 24 hours. Secondly, customers did

not need to spend a lot of time lining up in the banking halls. To the bank, he told them how

it would save us a lot of money maintain a large staff base which would not be sustainable in

the long run. Also, he explained to them that the success of the programme would free them

to go and do marketing and mobilisation and grow business. Quite a number was convinced

and they became the product champions and change agents who now started convincing other

staff and customers to take it up.

He offered inducements to some of the key and influential staff. They were sponsored for

trainings abroad. Such training comes with other benefits like travel allowance. They visited

many parts of the world benchmarking those banks and countries that had succeeded in
having these channels operational. They came back motivated and embraced use of these

channels and even convinced others.

Those who were stubborn were advised to comply or face sanctions. They could be demoted,

suspended or even dismissed for sabotaging bank programmes. Fear of losing jobs compelled

many to yield and immediately started complying.

Monthly competitions were organised to see which staff transacted most using alternative

channels. Big prizes were won.

The programme of decongesting banking halls through promotion of use of alternative

channels has been successful. As of today over the counter transactions have reduced by half

from what it used to be in 2012. Queues are shorter and banking halls are much free than

then. The customers have embraced it and are no longer apprehensive. The bank is saving

money by having optimal staffing.