MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Managing through people
This process included written and managerial communication and
seminars and was based on UNISON’s six objectives, cited above.
One of the achievements of the process was stated to be that the union
had:-
improved our staff communications: regular staff magazine and
news and Intranet information. (Transforming Our Union 2002/3
Update)
The review from which these texts are cited was distributed to all staff
and was therefore itself part of a communications process. There is a
regular staff magazine and an intranet, on which Senior Management
Group minutes are posted.
All our minutes and that are put on the intranet, we expect all
managers to go and brief their managers after we have had
meetings of the Senior Management Group, we have meetings
with the level twos; we are going to be bringing the level two
managers together across regions -- I think we have got a date
later this year. That will be the first ever meeting. We are
having meetings of women managers (Interviewee E)
There is, therefore, evidence that managerial communication is an
issue for UNISON managers. However, it cannot be said that it
featured as one of the key tasks of most managers when asked to
identify the way they operated as a union manager.
Managing through People
8.15. UNISON has made a commitment to achieve the Investors in People
standard. The Transforming Our Union update cited above says that
three regions have so far been awarded the standard, together with
UNISON’s Holiday Centre, and the process at other regions and Head
Office has commenced. A next step of achieving IIP nationwide is
identified in the document. The East Midlands region is one of those
which has received the award. In the assessment, staff are reported as
making the following comments about managers, in respect of the way
they are managed:-
• Very approachable and supportive
• Gives me responsibility
• Genuinely has an open door (UNISON East Midlands
Region IIP Assessment, May 2001)
The manager of this process appears to have found it rewarding
himself, though pointing out, after experience in another region, that his
experience may not be altogether typical:-
Having engaged in the process of IIP and taking people with that
-- and as you know, it is the process that is important, not the
shield -- in a wonderful experience in the East Midlands, having
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