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MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

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Resource distribution systems<br />

It held back our progress enormously, I would say. I think any<br />

organisation underestimates the importance of space and how<br />

you allocate space at its peril. Undoubtedly the different<br />

buildings had different cultures and personalities and different<br />

takes on the merger and it is particularly true, I think, of the<br />

Woolwich people who for a whole host of reasons felt that they<br />

had been dumped in Outer Mongolia and that nobody really<br />

cared, not only about them as individuals but about the function<br />

they were responsible for. (Interviewee J)<br />

The fact that we were split up, it was dreadful. The effect of that<br />

decision, that we didn't move into one head office, it had a<br />

debilitating effect on the union for many years, first of all<br />

alienating staff who had to move, perhaps unnecessarily, long<br />

distances across London and secondly it meant that functions<br />

which should work together were working separately.<br />

(Interviewee C)<br />

An idealised solution was offered by one manager, who nevertheless<br />

had an opinion about why it had not been possible:-<br />

With the benefits of hindsight, we should just have moved into a<br />

new building on the first day of Unison. Having said that, I don't<br />

think we would have got Unison if we said we were going to<br />

move into a new building because you have to carry staff with<br />

you apart from anything else and as a key stakeholder in the<br />

merger, if we hadn't carried the staff, they would not have been<br />

a new union. I think all the staff in the three unions would have<br />

lobbied heavily against moving into a new office. It was difficult<br />

enough to persuade the NUPE people that they were not going<br />

to move to Mabledon Place on the creation of the union.<br />

(Interviewee A)<br />

There were decisions taken much later in the merger to rationalise<br />

regional offices so there is some data on the effect of this. At this stage,<br />

one would observe that the systems for allocation of space on the birth<br />

of the union were not seen by managers as ideal. This evidence, all<br />

gathered some 9 years after merger, show how the allocation of space<br />

is still a key issue with managers in UNISON. It is one which, they<br />

appear to believe continues to have importance for the management of<br />

the organisation.<br />

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