MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Cognitive rules and culture
In looking at managers’ perceptions of what are clearly cultural
differences, it is interesting to see echoes of the findings of Ouroussof
(1993) on the cultures of the three old unions even at the distance of
over 10 years – the centrality of discussion in NALGO, speedy
decisions in NUPE and informality in COHSE, for example. The
characterisation of UNISON also has cultural components - the notion
of ‘partnership’, embraced by many of these managers is one which
relates to (Inter alia) values, ways of working, ‘feel’, orientations and
identities of the union. These issues, involving relationships with lay
members and the consequent degree of autonomy of managers, were
always at the centre of cultural preoccupations in these unions and so it
proved here. One particularly interesting development of the idea was
the suggestion by several managers (from all three old unions) that lay
members in NUPE, seeing the extent of lay member involvement in
NALGO, themselves moved in the direction of more power and
influence that they experienced in their old unions:-
My perception was that NUPE, if they had a strategy it was
fundamentally flawed. It was merger at almost any price,
probably with the belief that the sort of the full time officer cadre
had a lot of influence with the lay members and therefore they
would be able to achieve their objectives once the merger took
place by getting key full time officer posts and the lay members
would follow, which of course didn't happen because their lay
members, like everyone else's, changed their view and weren't
any longer prepared to -- moved into a different culture.
(Interviewee B)
I have been surprised at how much some of my colleagues in
the other two unions have actually adapted to the system and
actually followed it much more than I would ever have done in
NALGO. (Interviewee E)
I guess the culture, I think, that emerged was one of stronger lay
input, lay leadership. We know all of that but reflecting on the
changes that took place at the time, I guess shortly I would
characterise it as NUPE lay members saying "I like that, I want a
bit of that". And it was about senior lay members with much
more influence, a perception of lay members with much more
influence in NALGO than they necessarily had in NUPE.
(Interviewee H)
UNISON managers use the discourse of culture to discuss many
features of the union, articulating cognitive ‘meanings’, even if it is this
particular feature that seems of particular significance. We saw earlier
that one manager had expressed the view that, on merger, UNISON,
had developed a culture of management. We look now at the extent to
which individual experiences have impacted on managers’ perceptions
of management and its significance within the union. Strongly in the
perception of two managers:-
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