MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Deploying resources
The problem with Mabledon Place was that, although it was
originally designed as an open plan office, by the time Woolwich
and Banstead staff moved in, it was not really an open plan
office. We were squeezing open plan in there and the open plan
was poor open plan rather than well designed open plan and I
think we had the consequence of poorly designed offices.
Which I am not blaming anybody for, that was the nature of the
building by that stage, whereas if we had had purpose-built open
plan such as now exists, you have probably not seen it, in
Nottingham and to an extent in Manchester (Interviewee A)
Although from another regional office, this optimism is not entirely
shared:-
S chose that (open plan) for them when they came into this
building. It is controversial and a lot of people, I think, would still
like offices but that has never been negotiable. It does cause a
bit of embarrassment when I have got, like, my palatial
surroundings here, you know, and I do open this up as a
meeting room for people and I have noticed that the team
leaders have now all got private offices, within the teams.
(Interviewee O)
Belief in the importance of physical space to the union has been
translated into a strategy for the future, in the event that a decision is
taken to refurbish the head office and move back in:-
But the beauty of moving out will change all the working
relationships within the head office. We will get the change that
we want and we will do it in two ways. As we move out, there
are lots of things that we are not taking. We are not taking stuff
from the basement but we will actually put people in positions in
work groups where we want them as we move out so that we
can bring them back here in different formats. And it may be
completely different formats on the floors because they will be
open plan again, for everybody (apart from me!). So we are
looking at different ways in which we can use the building,
improving the conference facilities, perhaps pulling back down
and getting very modern conferencing facilities put in. Actually
using a necessity to revamp this building as a way of changing
the culture within head office. It might change working
relationships and hopefully with the regions as well. (Interviewee
C)
Physical space and physical structure, therefore, is perceived by
UNISON managers as having demonstrable importance in their
managerial activities, but perhaps not entirely in ways that were
anticipated. It has had a significant impact on the development of the
new union since it was formed 10 years ago.
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