MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Merger management
Other structures were also the subject of management attention:-
We worked very closely together on thinking through what other
things we could do in the course of the merger. Three aspects
really. One was to try and think ahead to put in some structures
that sorted out the disjointedness of the way that we worked
within BIFU in terms of the fact that we almost had three circles.
We had a management circle locked into the executive
committee, locked into the management of that part of the
democracy. You had a regional structure which was not really
connected with that and you had a service structure which was
also not connected with that, and bugger all strategy in the
middle. So we thought that we would try and do some work in
the course of the merger to try to make people think about this
(Interviewee G)
This was one factor in leading the union to focus on project
management as a way of getting staff to work together, which will be
discussed later as a managerial activity but which did have merger
management factors in the thinking that led to its institution.
In NWSA, lay members had been told by their General Secretary that
they must change – or lose his services:-
If this merger doesn't happen or if this merger happens in such a
way that you are unhappy, then you will get the opportunity
every six months to say no to it. And I will go. Because if you
are not prepared to merge, if you are not prepared to move
forward and change, I do not want to work for you.
As lay members from a small union moving into a large one, it would
not have been surprising if they had experienced a certain amount of
culture shock. One senior manager, formerly of NWSA, realised this:-
I suppose making sure that the national executive committees of
the two smaller unions were given as many rights or as much
rights as the PEC of BIFU. It was a big leap for some of our
people to go into this new national executive committee where
they had never had any involvement really with trade unionists
who did not work for Nat West or Barclays in the case of old
Unifi so they were given a lot of opportunities. Some of them
have done great things as a result. (Interviewee H)
Interestingly, there was a converse concern relating to BIFU lay
members:-
What we had to do, and it was the responsibility particularly on
the BIFU officers, was ensuring that the focus of the union didn't
236