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MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

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Merger management<br />

different structures and ideas in place that equality was kind of<br />

seen as maybe a bit dangerous and subversive. Which I think I<br />

wish it was. So from a personal perspective that was quite a<br />

difficult time, about the amount of focus that equality would have<br />

within the merged union. (Interviewee N)<br />

The one area that there was a positive comment about was the<br />

creation of staffing structures which, in some mergers, can take a long<br />

time:-<br />

Certainly, there was a lot of work that took place on staffing -- in<br />

fact, if you're going to take one issue that was actually dealt with<br />

earlier rather than later, it was staffing, getting structures in<br />

place. That was something that took an awful long time in<br />

Unison (Interviewee E)<br />

As mentioned by one of the interviewees, a facilitated senior<br />

management event was held at Eastbourne in April 2000, one of the<br />

managerial responses to the Industrial Society report referred to earlier.<br />

In this session, despite its having been held two years after merger,<br />

initial working groups were defined by their old union membership.<br />

Some of the conclusions reflect managers’ perceptions that the merger<br />

management process, insofar as it can be identified, was not effective:-<br />

• A number of features emerged from the pre-merger groups,<br />

principally a common understanding of the problems and a<br />

broadly similar vision of the kind of union PCS should be. The<br />

"old tribes" are not as far apart as they may have suspected.<br />

• On the other hand there was an honestly self-critical recognition<br />

that the management of the union leaves much to be desired.<br />

For instance, decision making is slow and cumbersome and too<br />

many decisions are made at or near the top rather than where<br />

the problem is.<br />

• It is clear that internal friction and conflict are absorbing<br />

considerable time, energy and other resources, distracting the<br />

170

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