MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Performance management
will say what we can we do about it and what can we do to make
sure that it ever happens again and how are we going to sort
this one out, that kind of thing, and we will deal with it
(Interviewee J)
I manage the relationship with my staff. That's the top of my list
of duties and responsibilities. I manage that relationship. They
know that. Everybody else knows it and they know how I want
the relationship to be managed. I'm very firm that that is under
my control. (Interviewee F)
And also enjoyable:-
I do (like management). In some ways it is a thankless task
because I don't just manage. I am not just a manager. I am also
the lead negotiator and I am also responsible for the overall
relationship between Unifi and the Royal Bank of Scotland
group. So I can be kicked from all sides. But it is something I
do enjoy. I do get a degree of satisfaction of leading a team. I
know that's probably slightly status conscious as well but it is
something that helps, is a motivating factor for me, that I am
leading from the front and also the fact that, on the whole, we
have a happy team (Interviewee L)
One manager gives her feelings about the way she is managed:-
Nobody interferes or checks up on what I'm doing. I feel trusted.
(Interviewee H)
One manager offers his own ‘take’ on why people may not be checked
up on:-
If someone buggers off and I haven't heard from them for a
while, I'll go looking for them because I wonder what they're
doing. In a trade union, the one thing that is evident is that you
soon know when someone's doing something. It's harder to find
out when they're not doing something. The feathers come out of
the hen house, don't they, sometimes - oh there's a bit of activity
there. That's all right (Interviewee A)
Performance management
Evidence here suggests that managers in UNiFI take their
responsibilities for people management seriously There are managers,
cited earlier in the context of managerial constraints, who are sceptical
about the PDP process, in one case because of its lack of contribution
to performance management. One UNiFI manager believes that union
officials have nothing to fear from a performance management system
and uses his own system to link obligations to employers who are
strategic partners with work which is necessary on the union’s part:-
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