MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

‘Legitimate’ managerial actions - stakeholders
major problem at all. I would seek to operate as openly as we
can with the lay structure and talk through that in the early days,
particularly the key players (Interviewee O)
But, in UNiFI, the principal area of conflict mentioned by managers
relates to the principle of autonomy for Company Committees. This
was something that was not the case in BIFU and it was not an issue
with the other two old unions because they each dealt with only one
employer. It is an area where elements of the lay structure have sought
to regain ground and where a management response is required:-
I think that now it is easy to manage. The National Executive
role has diminished and there is a far greater degree of
autonomy now. But there are still one or two individuals who
wish, having lost arguments in a national committee, to try to
bring it to the national executive. To be fair, the real
management of that lies with the lay structure because it is up to
us professionally to ensure that the President and vice president
are totally au fait with the situation. They have got to be the ones
who say "no I'm not going to take that." And we're working very
well in that respect. That was terrible problem in the old BIFU
that it is no longer a problem. (Interviewee O)
The issue does not just arise in connection with negotiating policy:-
One of the national company committees in its autonomy has
decided that it will hold its own company conference. So of
course those who are, as it were, not of the thought that we
should have other than one annual conference were saying that
we know where we can save money -- we will stop them having
their annual conference. So we had to point out to them that we
could not do that. Enshrined in the rules for a period of time is
the ability for them to have it. (Interviewee C)
Another manager believes that the battle has been won:-
If it is a strategic issue - a classic would be the autonomy of
National Company Committees. We've had that battle with the
Executive and that's been won, basically because what we said
was 'we hate to remind you of this, chums, but that's what the
punters voted for. It's in the Book they voted for. So don't come
to us with democratic stuff.’ (Interviewee A)
In fact, Conference in 2002 reaffirmed the rule conveying this
autonomy. But it is not surprising that, because of the importance of the
rule for the union’s operation, UNiFI managers expressed on many
occasions their belief that the Rule Book was important in the process
of managing boundaries in aspects of their stakeholder management:-
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