MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Teams
There are more tools now, the development review process, we
have always done that here and that has been useful. We have
also reorganised twice and we have had staff come and go,
which is unsettling and short-term puts more demands but it has
actually been quite refreshing and I think that has been a good
sign. So we use the development review and I think that's
positive. There is now training that people see that they can
have, as opposed to a wish list that wasn't there and we have
regular unit meetings. People go to lunch. We have a team
away day. It's not rocket science. (Interviewee F)
This is virtually the only evidence relating to staff development and
training in general in the union. In the East Midlands the evidence
seems reliable; in the one area where a training plan is available, just
under 60% of the training budget was unspent in 2001, which is an
indicator only of quantity of training, not quality.
Teams
There have been references on several occasions in this case study to
various teams – management teams in the main but also teams at
regional level. The General Secretary is clear about the national
position on this:-
What we are doing is to change that by bringing in team
working. So we are now within regions, and most regions have
gone over to it (and it's not successful yet), we are bringing
regional officers together as a team and they work together as a
team under a team leader and the team also includes organising
assistants and clerical and secretarial staff. They have got to
keep a diary within those circumstances. They have got to sit
down as a group under a manager and talk about what they are
doing and we can get through to them the priorities on what we
want them to do. There has been a belief in trade unions that
this job has been done for 100 years and we will continue to do
it that way but by bringing in team working under a manager,
you can actually change the job of the regional officer. And
again, we are part of the way through this. I am not saying that
we have done it but we are part of the way through it.
He believes that team working is changing the job of the regional
officer. A reason for that is offered from one region:-
It (scepticism about management) also manifests itself in
working as part of a team because there is kind of an
individualistic culture, not just amongst ROs but generally
amongst staff that working in a team was seen as being
synonymous with being managed and, again, for people to work
as team members you have to see that the team is greater than
the sum of its parts and has a contribution to make. (Interviewee
O)
322