MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Deploying resources
The deployment of physical resources arising from merger was, as we
have seen, an important issue for the CWU in that the Instrument of
Amalgamation committed the new union to a new headquarters.
Evidence cited above from the union’s video shows how managers saw
the move as being one which was of importance in bringing people
together, because the two unions had not yet merged in culture and
style. This attitude was shared by other managers:-
I think the one element of management strategy that we did
have from day one, which was right and which was good, was
that we would get into a single building as soon as possible
because until you got into the single building you couldn't
integrate the cultures and it's the cultures that keep the
processes separate (Interviewee G)
We took the principled view, the truthful view, that we should get
rid of what we saw as the repository of the two cultures and try
and find a new headquarters which hopefully would be
equidistant between the two old headquarters. (Interviewee O)
It is to some extent a truism to say that they saw the new building as
something which brought staff together – of course it did - but as in
other unions, managers in the CWU were aware of the concept of
culture and its importance for the new organisation. So there were a
number of critical feelings about what actually happened:-
We weren't using the new building as a way to impose a new
culture. Because some organisations do that, don't they? If
they've got a new building they see an opportunity because a
building can actually influence management style and all sorts of
things. I know for instance BP deliberately went open plan to
encourage networking - the building was designed to influence
the management. We didn't have any vision when it came to it. It
was just a case of trying to get us into one building. (Interviewee
J)
The one thing that I regret is that the union did not use it (the
move) as an opportunity to use the space to start changing
cultures (Interviewee K)
The departments which involved the bringing together of staff
included the Research Department where we thought that we
had already got a common style of working. At the other extreme
was the Legal Department which not only were moving two
groups together but moved them at different times, which I think
was a cultural disaster (Interviewee L)
Management of the union in the interim between merger and the move
into the new building had been culturally problematic:-
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