MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

1.1. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
In 1987, I wrote a series of articles in the Local Government Chronicle
with the main title; ‘Trade union management; a professional job.’
Whilst initially the contact had been made by my union’s Press Officer,
she subsequently refused to handle articles because union
management was not within her remit. Two years later, the union
embarked on a programme of management development courses for
senior managers, including the Press Officer’s line manager, which was
probably unique in unions in the UK. Senior union managers had
always been required to practise management skills. Here there was a
recognition that management was a defined role for which training was
required.
I had taken the job as Assistant General Secretary of the former union
NALGO because my management education was proceeding and I
sought a senior management job. Nobody outside the union
understood this and, within the union, the only formal understanding
was amongst the staff trade unions who always referred to us,
derogatively, as ‘the management’.
Not much more than a decade from the start of our first management
development courses, much has changed. It has now become possible
not only to identify trade union managers but for them to talk
intelligently about their roles. This, basically, is the focus of this
research. The profession I practised for 15 years in what was my
second career can now be given identity and substance. I find this as
exciting and important as I did on the first day of the first course, in a
small hotel in Kettering.
1.2. HISTORY, DEVELOPMENT AND THE RESEARCH QUESTION
My first career comprised 18 years working as a lawyer. At least half of
that time was concerned with town and country planning and, as any
planning lawyer will testify, one works very much as a planner manqué,
becoming involved in issues of buildings and physical structures of all
kinds, in which I developed an enduring interest. This interest became
important as this project was conceived, as will become clear.
My second career was as a manager in NALGO, a large trade union, in
which I was responsible (inter alia) for the management of
professionals dealing with all aspects of buildings, their construction,
maintenance and the allocation of space within them. I had taken on
this job having been engaged in obtaining management qualifications,
culminating in an MBA. In addition, therefore, to my interest in physical
space, I became interested in the extent to which concepts and
theories of management could be applied within trade unions. Indeed,
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