MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Cognitive rules and culture
Some of the issues surrounding awareness of the strategic importance
of physical space, in the context of merger, will be explored later in this
case study. However, one particularly unique aspect of the
establishment of the CWU head office was that a video was produced
and shown at Annual Conference describing the move (‘Moving on Up’
Winter 1997) This showed staff in the process of moving and, in some
cases, expressing their apprehension. Four interviewees made on the
video strategic points about what was happening:-
We have made massive savings by moving from two buildings to
one and we will deliver those financial benefits to our members
next year (Interviewee C)
The benefits of one site as far as members are concerned is that
we have one headquarters and one number to ring. As a result
we can become more efficient on behalf of the members we
represent (Interviewee M)
We have two unions that merged several years ago but we have
not yet merged in culture and style (Interviewee D)
It will be really good for the members because we will be one
union and I think we’ll see the benefits of being together
(Interviewee O)
We did our level best to ensure we planned to the maximum
extent (Interviewee C)
Whilst these comments may have sought partly to pre-empt criticism of
the cost of the new building, they demonstrate the importance of the
process in terms of resource allocation.
Systems relating to cognitive rules
Here the intention is to examine cognitive systems conveying
‘meanings’ to managers in CWU. The first relates to ‘culture’ as it is
defined in the preceding chapter. One significant cultural issue relates
to the extent to which the union is organised according to the principle
of leadership predominance (‘officer led’) or the principle of
membership participation (‘member led’) (Fairbrother 2000), or of
partnership.
There seemed to be general agreement that UCW was ‘officer led’:-
Well, if I had to over simplify the UCW model was very General
Secretary centred; when I was talking about how difficult it was
to create a committee structure, in part that was because the
UCW largely operated without a committee structure. The one
important committee was actually called the General Secretary's
Committee. Very few rule books will have a committee named
after an individual. That was the policy committee, the driving
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