MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

UNISON
Of the four unions, UNISON devoted the most time actually to managing
the merger, of which the anthropological study to examine partner union
cultures may be the most dramatic example. UNISON was the oldest
merger studied and time is one factor in organisations progressing along
the stages of merger.
Managers remained aware of merger management issues, to the extent of
its still being suggested that partner union cultures and achievement
should be celebrated. But insofar as the psychological merger state was
visible in any of the case study unions, it was visible in UNISON.
The following exhibit illustrates these thoughts diagrammatically:-
5. Formal legal merger 6. Merger aftermath 7. Psychological merger
CWU
PCS UNISON
PCS
UNiFI
EXHIBIT 9.2 Stages of merger. Source: adapted from Buono and
Bowditch (1989)
Managerial roles
These important contextual issues, insofar as they impact on the
undertaking of managerial roles, will be considered shortly. In general
terms, however, this research revealed that all but one of the interviewees
accepted that they had a managerial role. The one person who did not, who
was in the CWU, accepted that he had a responsibility to ensure that the
organisation was well-managed; he therefore engaged in what seems to
have been the practice in trade unions in the past, to delegate managerial
responsibility - in fact, probably more than that, to pass off managerial
responsibility - to others in the union who were thought to be more
appropriate individuals to carry out that responsibility.
Whether specialists undertake what in other organisations would be
regarded as line management responsibilities is one of a number of
symptoms which indicate the extent to which unions have built line
management responsibilities into their structures. Another is whether
managers think that other managers accept the responsibility. In other
words, they may have told the interviewer that they personally recognised
their role but they were less confident in whether others did. In unions
where there was a greater and more longstanding recognition of the role
(perhaps after psychological merger), managers were less likely to assume
that others did not. But one would expect that in unions where managerial
roles were recognised, managers would have started using the language of
management, even if in a modified form, to take account of the fact that
certain concepts raised more difficulties than others.
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