MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

question by asking trade union managers themselves. It has
categorised those activities into areas of interest which are now
examined further.
Merger management
Chapter 9 discusses merger management in the four unions and
aspects are summarised in Exhibit 9.1. The management of physical
space is treated as an integral part of merger management, consistent
with Becker’s (1990) view that physical space issues should be linked
to an organisation’s strategy.
The management of physical space and physical resources is of
interest for two reasons; first, it is an incident of merger management
and secondly it is a ‘modality’ having an impact on the way in which
managers undertake their trade union management roles (Hales 1999).
However, links, between resource modalities and the space
management element of merger management are more difficult to
discern. There is significant awareness of the importance of the task to
merger but this appears to arise from a sense in all unions that the
management of space, in a merger context, had not been ideal. Such
activities that occurred were self-evidently designed to bring staff
together but not always in ways designed so that partner union staff
could work together. In CWU, for example, significant areas of the head
office building are still occupied by staff exclusively originating from one
union, together with any new staff appointed since merger.
The General Secretary of UNISON, and other of his managers, still
reflect also on the damage done by the absence of a unified head
office for the first six years of the merger. In PCS, some managers felt
constrained by the cultural manifestations within their head office
building of the history and organisation of the partner union whose
building it had been.
The evidence here suggests, as do Dempsey and McKevitt (2001), that
these considerations affect trade unions as they do other organisations.
Managing by Information
Lipset et al (1956) characterise union bureaucracies as holding all the
resources and all the powers of communication. They are, of course,
adverting to communication with members. It would not, however, be
unreasonable to assume that, given such advantages, communication
with staff would be one managerial activity to which trade union
managers would attend. It is one upon which, as Mintzberg (1973)
relates, managers in other spheres devote high proportions of their
time.
In fact, the evidence does not support this. Chapter 9 points out that
there are processes in place which are integral to communications
strategies, including one to one meetings and cascading overall
objectives through into sectional business plans and individual
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