MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Cognitive rules and culture
a bit rushed and it was not followed up properly. I found that
there was too much of a laid-back approach, too laissez-faire
and there was a lot of absence, an amazing amount of ill feeling
between staff and managers with a lot of staff being moved
round the organisation when they became problems. Instead of
being dealt with by the managers, they were moved on
somewhere else. So that was the Southwark branch, you might
say. At this site, when I came across here, although I did not
really come across here properly until we merged, and here was
a completely different culture. It was very oppressive to come
into the building. You felt that you were being watched because
there was a security person in the room. It was very quiet in the
building, with no movement and no people coming and going. It
was very silent as you walked around. There was just a general
feeling of oppression and I think when I made myself available to
talk to staff, I took an office and people made appointments to
come and talk to me and quite a few people had stories about
management being extremely unsympathetic and not wanting to
discuss anything and with everything happening in secret,
people disappearing from the workforce without any explanation,
the whole area of secrecy and lack of information, nobody told
anyone what was going on and with lots of bad information
coming out of those interviews. I don't think they were
exaggerating. So I was in a way forewarned about what sort of
organisation this was, particularly in the case of a senior woman
officer and she had suffered in the same sort of way that I later
came to suffer so she told me what happened and I was well
prepared. Other people had similar stories as well. So you could
not really have two more extremes, I think, in terms of culture
(Interviewee J)
The general thrust of these observations is supported by the report by
the Industrial Society on staff feedback on Member Focus courses held
in mid-1999, whilst the move into the Clapham office was under way.
An issue was identified by staff on the courses as ‘culture and power of
control has led to bullying and harassment,’ the solution to which was
identified as:-
Trust. Let managers manage without unnecessary interference.
Could then work in a secure and safe environment. Could share
ideas and lead to a better organisation. (Member Focus Training
– Analysis and Recommendations, November 1999)
And managers, engaging with the idea of culture and its importance in
influencing their managerial activities, reflect this:-
There is an old management style which we're trying to change.
That is management by fear. All of us know that. I don't know
whether you are aware but we had an awayday to Eastbourne
and that came out of that -- management by fear. This came out
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