MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Conclusions
Managerial Activities
Deploying Resources
UNISON has begun to develop systems of identifying objectives and
priorities, together with concomitant business planning and is
endeavouring to link these with resource allocation systems. The
union’s six objectives are not SMART, so the process would remain
informal unless SMART objectives were formulated at other levels in a
cascading process. There is evidence that this is being done and that
some managers are very committed to the idea, though managers
agree that this has to be developed further and there are some doubts
about whether everyone has internalised the idea and is capable of
making unpopular decisions on withholding resources from
unprioritised activities. Demonstrated also is a belief that the resource
allocation system should incorporate fairness in ensuring, as far as
possible given stakeholder pressures, that minority interests in the
union are not subsumed by the majority.
In discussing physical space allocation, UNISON managers seem
acutely aware of its importance to the operation of the union. This
ranged from practical problems arising from split site working through
to cultural manifestations of undervaluation arising from perceptions of
occupying less satisfactory or undervalued space. At regional level,
various cultural strategies were adopted for integrating staff, even
some seven years after merger. At national level, there remained a
belief that the lack of a single head office held back integration and it
was suggested that the move into the old NALGO building led not only
to unsatisfactory space but also gave out cultural messages. The
cultural implications of a new office in the future are also articulated in
terms of facilitating new working practices, particularly in open plan
designs.
‘Meaningful’ Managerial Actions
Merger Management
Arising from externally published research and from managerial
observations as part of this project, it is clear that UNISON engaged in
a high level of merger management activities. Retrospective reflections
recognise possible areas of improvement; some of these suggest that
in one area, integration was so marked that those members of staff
who had not integrated to that degree were resentful. Even nine years
after the merger, valuing of old union cultures is identified as a
constructive step in planning for the future.
Managing by Information
Although there is criticism of communication processes during the
merger, there is evidence that this is something which seems now to be
recognised as significant. Individual managers – not, it has to be said,
by any means all of them – describe their approach to the activity, even
if in one case it is coupled with recognition that using staff trade unions
to communicate is inadequate. There have, though, been institutional
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