MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Teams
Staff development ideally arises from identified need arising from some
form of appraisal or development review system so to some extent it is
not surprising that CWU managers, without the tools for the job, do not
usually exercise managerial responsibilities in the area.
Teams
These management tasks are directed very much to individuals. The
use of teams is more common in some trade unions than in others
where they have sometimes been regarded as counter-cultural. One
CWU manager felt that working in teams was difficult in trade unions:-
First because many trade union people hold their position as a
result of elections in which they have to contest their position,
sometimes quite bitterly, with people who are or will be their
colleagues. Secondly because of the pressure of events -- they
spend a lot of time meeting managers, racing round the building,
going to meetings and the idea of making time and space to sit
down the colleagues I think is very difficult. And on the postal
side, I keep referring to these very difficult cultures, the very
phrase team working causes problems because for approaching
a decade the Post Office has been trying to introduce a form of
team working and most rank-and-file sorting and delivery staff
have seen that as a way of breaking the union and increasing
the power of the managers. So the very concept arouses
suspicion. (Interviewee L)
Some other observations, conveying suspicions within the union,
suggest that these comments are substantiated:-
I have an unofficial group that I sit down with of the senior
administrative officers, the senior DGS, the general treasurer,
the two DGSs, the Communications Officer and Head of
Research. What we have to be careful of is that that it must not
be seen as a caucus, looking at trade union policy or employer
policy. It is purely and simply an advisory group to myself and
other officers that require help, assistance and guidance from
time to time. It is very much an informal organisation. It has no
formal structure and although they take notes of things that we
want to process, we do not have formal minutes, we do not have
formal structures -- in actual fact we sit around in this room
(Interviewee D)
There is a certain amount of wish fulfilment here because other
evidence made it clear that at the time of the interview, the Senior
Management Team (which is what is here being described) had been
dormant for some years. So the interviewee may have felt either that
the interviewer wanted to hear positive news or else that he believed
that he really ought to be holding these meetings. Later, a more formal
Senior Management team was established but even this was not
universally approved of:-
114