MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Deploying resources
mapped against plan headings. There are national performance
indicators for recruitment which are applied through this process. The
Regional Secretary here says that:-
I am objectives focused. When I write my report to Regional
Council now, I am using the objectives as headings. I am trying
to move towards reporting what we are achieving in terms of our
operational plan. That's my aim, that those reports become
quarterly reports on the operational plan. If we are all signed on
to that and the things that flow from it, that helps with the
demands.
So UNISON is making a concerted attempt to integrate its objectives
and priorities with its management and budgetary systems. It is
intended that the system will provide criteria against which spending
proposals can be judged. This may be difficult:-
The discussion that I was having…….before you came in was
that (the Finance Officer) said, well, we have got a problem
because we are just going through the budgetary making
process and people are bidding for about £16 million extra work,
all good issues, initiatives, over and above what we are likely to
have available as new money and I don't see any willingness, he
said, for the organisation to make the difficult decisions to say, if
we are going to do this we're going to have to cut other things
that we do…….. And I said to him, well, what we have got to do,
what I want to see is those 6 objectives, what different initiatives
are we going to be taking as an organisation to achieve it and
how much it's going to cost and we make a judgment about what
we think are the important parts of that, what we are going to
spend our money on; so we want to spend that and then how we
going to cut back on those other areas?……It is starting a
process within the organisation so that they do start making
those difficult decisions.. (Interviewee E)
And despite the assertion of the General Secretary that:-
The other thing that we are trying to learn is to say no
one manager is not convinced that this is likely to give fruitful results:-
For instance, we have got objectives, we have got priorities but
when I ask, can you tell me one thing we have stopped doing as
a result of having these, nobody can ever tell me. (Interviewee
B)
Another manager sees another area of possible weakness:-
The area that we are still weak on is to monitor and assess
where we went (Interviewee L)
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