MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

hindsight, this seems as though it may have been pessimistic
reasoning. I may have partially fallen into a trap which readers of the
literature on trade union governance might have been expected to have
encountered – that management is not a concept known in the
organisation and administration of trade unions.
The ideas for this research project thus arose from my own interests,
my own experience and my own learning activities. Its content is
primarily founded on the words of 56 senior trade union officials in four
UK unions (CWU, PCS, UNiFI and UNISON) and is designed to
answer the following research question:-
How do those who manage UK trade unions which have
engaged in merger activity go about the management of
their unions?
1.3. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH STUDY
There is in management literature a wealth of material on the world of
managers and management. A proportion is sector-specific, looking at
management in, for example, the not-for-profit sector (see e.g. Butler
and Wilson 1990) from which some analogies can be drawn. Streams
of literature look at stakeholder management within organizations (see
e.g. Freeman 1984), and at power relations which affect, and are
affected by stakeholders during decision-making processes (see e.g.
Rowley 1997).
In the field of trade unions, discussion of their nature and role has
taken place throughout the century and works such as Industrial
Democracy (Webb and Webb 1902) are still regularly cited. Studies of
unions using concepts of organizational theory have appeared more
recently, with Warner (1972) arguably being the first. Much has been
written about the role of 'full time officers' - the staff who act in the field
on behalf of members, in particular with reference to their relationship
to the members and the democratic processes of the union (see e.g.
Kelly 1988). Conversely, some writers have posited theories of unions
as polyarchies - containing a variety of interest groups whose goals are
sometimes shared, sometimes in conflict (see e.g. Crouch 1982).
Virtually nothing is, however, published about people who undertake
management roles within unions. The first significant text (Dunlop
1990) introduces the management of labor (sic) unions as an
'oxymoron' and undertakes an interesting comparison of the common
elements among executives in four fields, private business,
government, academic institutions and labor organizations. Weil (1994)
presents what is in effect a manual to assist labor unions in America
'respond to external changes creatively and proactively.’ Kelly and
Heery (1994), in a study which refreshingly unpicks simplistic theories
of union bureaucracy and oligarchy, examine the work relations of full
9