MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Cognitive rules and culture
…..sometimes in graphic terms on how management actually takes
place:-
Yes, that's right. They don't like being interfered with. They don't
like unnecessary interference which compromises them in the
sense that they say that what you're actually doing is
questioning my ability because you're interfering. We don't do
that. You won't necessarily wait until they have got a problem or
want some direction. There is an assumption that they are paid
the dough they are to do the job they're paid to do and to get on
with it. Most of them are quite capable of doing that. Well, what
most people want is at the very least a neutral corner. I keep
myself above all that - a neutral corner to run to. So, hold on a
minute, I'm clear about this. Or they'll come in and say 'I'm doing
this, I'm letting you know I'm doing it.' Fine. Now that's
responsibility transference. What they are actually saying is that
they've dumped the can on my desk and I choose whether or
not to pick it up. So most of the stuff's OK anyway. Sometimes
they walk out of here and I think, fucking hell, what are we
paying him £35,000 a year for (interviewee A)
But it is fair to say that, although several other managers recognise that
this is an issue in the union, others have not found it to be the case:-
We have certainly not found any (resistance to being managed).
I think we may have had had there not been a voluntary
redundancy programme. There would have been people,
(obviously the more senior ones, with longer service, tended to
go) either who worked on the same level as J who may have
been difficult and there was also another member of the
department who went for the post so there may have been some
difficulties there. But we haven't had any. We try and make it
so that day to day it is fairly hands off management and that
secretarial staff and officers have a degree of autonomy about
their priorities and which things they initiated. They understand
the objectives of the department and the restrictions on the
department. (Interviewee J)
Again, the type of management is seen as important here, something
which is identified elsewhere;-
It is a question of trying to balance that and getting them to see
that there are organisational objectives and processes which
need to be observed at the same time as delivering services and
benefits to members. I think on the whole that works and I have
to say that I have found little or no difficulty in persuading my
current team of officials to accept the organisational objectives
and the managerial objectives that have just gone through some
weeks back in the PDP process. We have got a business plan
219