MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Deploying resources
when we take people's money, this has always been the sort of
NALGOish thing hasn't it, -- if we take people's money in
exchange for sort of saying, we will give you a service, then we
should give you a service. (Interviewee L)
I would be very conscious of the Transport group, because they
would get the support for being the smaller group. Local
Government can take care of itself anyway. If there was a
feeling that the Transport group was being picked on unfairly
…(Interviewee E)
Another manager takes a more practical, but still issue driven,
approach:-
The criteria I adopt are what are the implications on Unison
financially. In other words, as a general rule I would follow that
and so it is not necessarily a case of who shouts the loudest
gets served first. It is what is important, what will the impact be
in not doing something on Unison and Unison finances. The
impact of dealing with something. (Interviewee N)
Another manager, already cited, emphasised that her core values
included the protection of minorities and that this impacted on her
actions. There is some evidence, then, of ethical criteria being applied
in resource allocation decisions.
There was discussion above about the systems for allocation of space
on merger and the practical consequence of those decisions.
Managers saw this as a significant issue. In the earlier discussion there
were some references to cultural issues connected with the building of
the new union. Two managers made the point that staff located in
Woolwich felt undervalued, which is a cultural perception. Perceptions
that there were ulterior motives for the decision also seem to have
been common:-
There were lots of people who were saying that it was part of a
political agenda, that this had nothing to do with efficiently
locating departments. It's about making a point. There were
lots of people who were saying that there were wider agendas,
they didn't have anything to do with efficiency or effectiveness,
they were part of scores being settled. (Interviewee H)
And feelings of undervaluation were sometimes shared at regional
level:-
The problems with Castle Gate and Sherwood Rise were firstly
that the Sherwood Rise staff felt themselves to be second-class
citizens on the basis that one was on the outskirts of Nottingham
and the other was smack in the middle of Nottingham with, in
fact, access to all the tasty shops and all the rest of it and the
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