MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

divisions causing relative weakness to parties on one or other
side of the boundaries.
• Staff boundaries. These relate to the extent to which lay activists
claim to involve themselves in matters concerning staff, such as
appointments.
• Policy and political boundaries. These are boundaries where it is
unclear where politics and management begin or end – such as
the retention of a particular regional office because of the
symbolic nature of it to one of the parties to the merger.
10.6. LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH
Chapter 3 describes the extent to which the research is designed to
ensure validity and reliability, trustworthiness and generalisability. The
reader must judge the extent to which it has achieved these objectives.
This section will draw attention to some areas which can be taken into
account in assimilating the work.
This is a qualitative study. 56 respondents is not a large number but the
richness of the data is, it is suggested, demonstrable. Nevertheless, it
is always the case in studies of this character that more subjects may
have increased confidence in the results. Similarly with the case
studies. They have, as has been demonstrated, been chosen carefully
but care must be taken not to generalise the findings outside their
particular contexts.
All these unions have merged. One of them is by far the largest union
in the country. The others are of not inconsiderable size. Different
occupational groups are members of unions of different cultures and
characters. Thus, the ‘norms’ and ‘meanings’ influencing trade union
managers in those contexts may produce different results in terms of
managerial actions.
So the reader needs to take into account these contextual factors when
reading this document and assessing its value. The need to research
other unions in similar ways has been identified as a necessary further
research project. The researcher would hypothesise, however, that in
the vast majority of unions it will be possible to identify trade union
managers, even if they are in ‘cocoons’.
A particular factor which affected the research was the length of time
over which it proceeded. Although this was unavoidable, in the CWU it
meant the election of a new management team with a much more
positive attitude to management. In PCS it involved the election of a
new General Secretary (whom it was not possible to interview) and the
ending, following legal action, of the conflict between the two most
senior people in the union. Informal talks with staff at PCS suggested
that he was doing ‘surprisingly well’ and, as cited in the case study,
management still featured on the agenda after his arrival. Any piece of
research is a snapshot. The submission here is that, although these
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