MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Moral rules and trade union principles
very, very easy for the bad side of people to be spread round
and not the good work that they do. Working for an organisation
which is democratic does impose certain constraints on you
(Interviewee C)
The idea that politics, in some senses, requires managerial awareness,
was put in a different way:-
I suppose, in a political organisation, as it were. I think we are
always -- are we going to upset the lay members, how will this
play. (Interviewee L)
A practical example of how one particular issue affected managerial
action was offered by another manager:-
We have about 350 people working here, perhaps a few more
and when I sort of look at the numbers, given what people say I
can't see us reducing it very much, not unless we have a major
outsourcing, which is one of the constraints that we actually
have as managers. We could certainly outsource a lot more
functions than we do -- for example cleaning -- but I can't see
the NEC agreeing to privatised schemes.(Interviewee E)
It would be unrealistic to believe that lay member dynamics do not
feature in managers’ perceptions of how they managed. There is,
though, little evidence that they perceive them as constraints. As one
manager put it:-
I am not using the term constraints necessarily in a negative way
because I think that it is positive that we are a democracy.
(Interviewee O)
Systems related to moral rules
8.11. First we must examine the values of UNISON managers and the extent
to which they imply sets of moral rules influencing how they manage.
The most common idea expressed by these managers is that of
fairness:-
I am absolutely clear that I want to be a decent and a fair
manager and that everything I do is ensuring that the staff here
can work to their best. (Interviewee D)
I think one is, I do, the middle managers that I work with, the
team leaders that I work with certainly do think harder than
people would in other organisations about what is fair, whether
people have had their say, that kind of thing. (Interviewee G)
Oh, we are great democrats, aren't we? That's why we get
involved in the trade union movement, because we did believe in
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