MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Cognitive rules and culture
There is a huge fear around getting into the emotional agenda. I
think the union culture is far more fearful of that than of
management culture in the world out there. I think that that is
what I found unsatisfactory about this training programme that
we have just been through because it really was not experiential.
To a large extent it was a mixture between theoretical discussion
and bits of kind of practice. We spent a couple of hours doing
coaching with each other, which was good, but I think I couldn't
spent a couple of days on it. I think there is a lot of fear around
most of the senior managers that they don't engage in that kind
of way themselves (Interviewee G)
And, arguably, it may not compare with training experiences offered to
managers in comparable organisations elsewhere:-
The major difference between trade union managers and
managers in other sectors is that trade union managers are not
trained in management even to the extent of going on short
courses. A trade union official will probably only ever have done
trade union functions and would not have had any defined
management role before taking them over. Because of the
context, such people will not even have come up through the
ranks learning managerial skills as they moved up. (Interviewee
F)
In the initial stages, the lack of a body of knowledge about how to
undertake the role of trade union management was certainly felt quite
strongly:-
I had no reference books to turn to for advice. I found that very
scary, having to make up things as I went along (Interviewee H)
Although there were some benefits from having confronted
management in one’s past career:-
Many people gained experience from bad managers and
therefore were in a position to know what not to do (Interviewee
F)
However, areas of constraint were identified around personnel issues,
for reasons which have already been touched upon:-
Do trade unions ever discipline or dismiss people -- well, very
rare indeed………Discipline and disciplinary enquiries do go on
and do get dealt with but I think we are probably only talking
about the most junior staff. I don't think it happens much above
the secretarial grade. Perhaps the issues aren't there, I don't
know, or if they are they are certainly not dealt with. I suspect
that discipline is dealt with more than inefficiency. Inefficiency is
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