MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

One would assume that unions where there is a real partnership
between lay members and managers would tend to fall in the top left
hand quadrant of Exhibit 9.12. The fact that this is not the case
suggests that, even in those unions, such as UNISON, whose
managers profess the ideal of partnership quite strongly, the reality is
that partnership is defined by a range of strategies, some co-operative
and some competitive. This does not mean that partnership is not a
reality – in the real world, conflict and co-operation go hand in hand
and have to be managed, though in different ways. But it does mean
that, in seeking to pin down the differing ways in which trade union
managers manage boundaries, the nature of these dynamics requires
further research.
9.5. RESOURCE DEPLOYMENT
This topic is to some extent tangentially related to the research
propositions. In the literature, there are doubts raised about the extent
to which unions have robust systems of resource management,
specifically financial management. One of the reasons advanced for
this is the potential conflict between administrative rationality and
representative rationality. This, in terms of this research, raises issues
about stakeholder management. If, in particular, the modalities
influencing trade union managers in their approach to stakeholder
management are positive in relation to their interface with the systems
of representative rationality, then the concerns raised in the literature
are unlikely to be sustained. Managers will perceive the importance of
financial and resource management systems and any impact which
those have on systems of representative rationality will be managed.
In terms of resource modalities, we see that all four unions have
centralist modalities, though in UNISON devolution is a factor, based
on systems in which budgets are devolved to managers and where
virement between budget heads, subject to regulatory control, is
possible. There has been discussion in the earlier parts of this chapter
about ‘meanings’ and ‘norms’ relating to representative rationality. The
conclusions are mixed; there are many words of commitment to the
democratic process but actions relating to boundary management that
give a much more varied picture, as we saw in Exhibit 9.12. Other
’norms’, however, relate to the idea of ‘fairness’ and Exhibit 9.5
contains words in three of the four case study unions that explicitly
relate to the protection of minorities or ‘diversity’, inherent in which is a
commitment to the value of individuals and individual groups, no matter
their size or influence.
Exhibit 9.13 examines managerial actions relating to resource
deployment in the light of these factors. Examination of these actions
might conclude as follows:-
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