MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Resource distribution systems
There is a resentment by former CPSA staff about people
coming in. They see it as their building (Interviewee O)
Though there may have been consolations:-
It said CPSA on the front for a good 9 months. (Interviewee C)
The system for allocating space within the new building was centrally
driven, though there was some consultation on the layouts within that.
Managers did differ on the extent of such consultation:-
What we did really was to say ‘well, we have to get x number in
here’ and we space planned the areas into quartets of desks,
single desks, in the room and where we hoped to get, let’s say,
30 people into an area, as long as it was not totally
unreasonable we moved desks around until we did fit them in.
Then we really sold them, saying ‘that is where you will be’ and
that is the ideal layout as we see it. There were not that many
options for instance they were not given the option of having the
2nd or 3rd floor or the north or south wing; they were told that
that is the wing you are having and that is the space planning
which will enable you to have the number of people you have in
your area. So, no there was not a great deal of consultation.
(Interviewee L)
This does not entirely fit with the evidence from managers in general or
with the experience of the researcher who attended several meetings
on office location. But there were certainly some constraints imposed:-
I was forced into an office, which is why I have got one of these,
(indicating glass door) which was the only compromise I could
get out of H at the time who said, "no we think that's wrong,
national officers should have their offices, there will be an office
for the negotiators, the support staff will have an office and so
on." And I said that I wanted an open plan environment but I was
told that I could not have it. So we ended up with this
compromise which is not a very good compromise. (Interviewee
B)
This was a Senior National Officer; the same constraint did not seem to
apply to functional managers:-
I saw from day one the best way of getting an open approach,
an inclusive approach, was to break down barriers and walls are
the most physical representation of a barrier that there is. I have
a job where I do need to concentrate quite hard on lots of
occasions and I find it no problem whatsoever. I have just a little
bit of screening and that is all that you need to be able to
operate quite comfortably without any difficulty whatsoever.
(Interviewee C)
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