MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Conclusions
which include coaching and supporting lay members. So positive and
principled attitudes can be perceived in UNiFI towards the union’s
systems of representative rationality.
Managerial Activities
Deploying resources
UNiFI has for many years – as evidenced by its Investors in People
accreditation – had systems of setting corporate objectives. The annual
Business Plan, Training Plan and Investors in People strategy are
related to other objective setting processes elsewhere in the
organisation. But these plans do not have financial components in that
it is not possible to see how they carry forward into resource allocation.
Subsequent to the completion of the research, the Joint General
Secretary was asked about this and he said that this link did in fact
exist. In explanation, he sent a copy of the latest Business Plan which,
although much more specific in terms of targets, still did not contain
overt financial and budgetary links. What the organisation does, it is
deduced, is to have regard to plan objectives when setting budgets
without the financial aspects of Plan proposals being built into the Plan.
Protection of minority interests in resource allocation, however, is
something of which managers are aware and in support of which
values arguments, particularly that of ‘fairness’ are expressed.
In terms of allocation of physical space, this was of course different in
UNiFI in that the three head offices were retained. Yet managers were
concerned about the cultural issues involved; the fact that they
supported the allocation decision did not mean that they did not seek to
manage it. There did not, however, seem to be a corporate impetus for
this to be done, except insofar as senior managers organised Senior
Management Group meetings at all three offices in order to
demonstrate their strategic importance. Individual managers sought to
manage the situation, even in cases where they were physically
separate from other parts of their team. They recognised the
constraints but accepted them as an inevitable part of a strategic
decision. Several of them felt quite strongly that there should be a new
head office as soon as possible, something which has not proved
possible in the light of financial difficulties and the prospect of merger
with Amicus.
‘Meaningful’ Managerial Actions
Merger Management
The most significant feature of cultural cohesion on merger, at least for
the smaller unions, was the principle of company committee autonomy.
This was a bottom line demand from those unions and they were also
faced with the highly significant change of turning from unions dealing
with single employers to one dealing with many employers. Both of
these unions engaged in management of change training for
managers, which in the case of the NWSA was extended to all the
staff. This seems to have played a significant part in the management
of the integration of the three organisations, particularly when the
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