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DECEMBER 06 | ISSUE No.11FRONTLINE NEWS FOR KP WORKERS,MANAGERS & PHYSICIANSIN THIS ISSUEStewards of ChangeRx for Uncertain TimesFrom the Desk of Henrietta: Acting Like We Mean Itwww.lmpartnership.org

EDITOR’S LETTERAt Your ServicePublished by Kaiser Permanente andCoalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions888 LMP AT KP (888-567-2857)Communications DirectorsMaureen AndersonMichael DowlingStaffPatty Allison, Janet Coffman,Paul Cohen, Jennifer Gladwell,Vince Golla, Kyra Kitlowski,Julie Light, Chris Ponsano,Neal Sacharow, Gwen E. ScottWorksite Photos: Bob GumpertCover Photo: Getty ImagesGraphic Design: Stoller Design GroupAt Kaiser Permanente we have what it takes to lead essential changes in the U.S. health care system—an integrated modelof quality care, a skilled and committed workforce, and a Labor Management Partnership that puts decision making in thehands of frontline employees, managers, and physicians to serve members. But to lead change in the face of growing financialand competitive pressures, we have to grow our membership, continuously improve service and quality consistency, andsee things from our members’ point of view.That service challenge is the focus of this issue of Hank.KP employees want to serve others—that’s why we choose to work here. But any large, complex system is bound to haveservice breakdowns and system stresses (as service guru Len Berry notes in these pages, health care delivery is “morestressful and more demanding” than other service work). Fortunately, we have Partnership tools for use in unit-based teamsto serve, innovate, and fix breakdowns when and where they happen.Partnership tools for change also are front and center in “Rx for Uncertain Times” (page 8). Simply put: Large, for-profit competitorsare competing fiercely with KP on every front—price, quality, technology, branding, service—and we have to respond.Leading the change are shop stewards (“Stewards of Change,” page 6) and frontline managers, whom we profiled last issue.These frontline leaders describe what it takes to serve the multiple demands of today’s health plan members, union members,and their departments.And our office wag, Henrietta (page 10), challenges us to not just follow our calling but to sound the call for others.Taken together, these articles show what KP can do, in Partnership, to better our members’ lives, advance our model ofcare, and lead change in a broken U.S. health care system. It’s up to us to prove there’s a better way.CONTENTS3Cover story: Great Service—It’s no MysteryKP people have the commitment to serve—and are creating workplace teams and toolsto put that commitment to work. Here are four examples of how they’re doing it.6810Stewards of ChangeWhat it takes to represent employees, partner with managers, and stilldo a full-time job.Rx for Uncertain TimesWith tough times ahead in U.S. health care, teams throughout KP arefinding ways in Partnership to do more for members, more efficiently.From the Desk of Henrietta:LEADING THE CHARGEWe know we’re good, so why don’t we act like it?10 Letters to HankAnother look at the roles of managers and stewards.1011 Hank Survey ResultsWhen it comes to Partnership, frontline managersand stewards see eye to eye—almost.12 A Tear-Out PosterRip, Post, and Go Ergo!Hank December 2006 | No. 11www.lmpartnership.org

Cover storyGreatService—it’s noMysteryWorking at KaiserPermanente is about morethan collecting a paycheck; it’sabout serving members and makinglives better. “People at KP want to do theirbest with every member they encounter,”says Shernida Wheeler, a surgery schedulerat Glenlake Medical Center in Atlanta. “I trynot to let much get in the way. When I hita barrier, the Partnership helps me finda way through it.”That kind of commitment runsdeep at KP. According toProject Looking Glass, a 2004survey of more than 10,000KP employees, the top threemotivators across KP are jobsecurity, making a differenceto members, and recognitionfor a job well done. “KPemployees have a strongsense of personal mission,”says Deborah Konitsney, directorof organizational research. “Theywant to contribute to a larger ideal.”Those high aspirations meet reality at thefront line—increasingly in self-directed, unit-basedteams—where the quality of members’ service experienceand employees’ workplace experience are determined. In a competitivehealth care marketplace, those experiences matter.“The quality of our patients’ experiences, and how they perceivethe quality and competence of the care they receive, is basedlargely on the attitudes, behaviors, and service styles of the peoplewho deliver their care,” says Leonard Berry, author of several bookson service and a Texas A&M professor of marketing and of humanitiesin medicine. Berry conducted a six-month study of servicequality at the Mayo Clinic, observing and interviewing more than1,000 patients, doctors, and staff members.“Health care delivery is more stressful and more demanding—bothphysically and emotionally—than any service work I’ve studied,” hesays. “Health care organizations have to recognize that and createan environment that allows people to work together and rise totheir highest level.”KP and the Union Coalition are attempting to do just that. The2005 National Agreement commits KP and the Union Coalitionto “working together to make Kaiser Permanente the recognizedleader in superior service.”Yet we know that service inconsistency is a problem. The 2006Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems(CAHPS) shows that, compared with competitors across mostregions, KP service quality is better in some measures (includinggetting help from member services departments), worse in others(including staff courtesy and helpfulness), and in most respects haschanged little in the past year. Likewise, PeoplePulse survey resultsfor 2005–2006 show mixed results on employee perceptions ofKP service quality.But the service improvement commitment cannot fall on theshoulders of individual providers or staff. Service failures usually areoperational failures. That’s where Partnership comes in. “Havinglabor and frontline management support for service quality helpspush things from the bottom up as well as the top down, and that’swhere it needs to happen,” says Kate Dougherty, RN, nationalservice quality consultant and co-lead of the Service Quality ActionTeam. “People want to do the right thing for the patient.”It’s important to see things from the patients’ point of view—andmost employees don’t have to look far to get that perspective.“Frontline workers are closest to our members,” says David Shapiro,chapter president of the Medical Social Workers, SEIU Local535, and co-lead of the Service Quality Action Team. “Most of usare KP members as well. So it’s obvious to us when we’re nottreated as we’d like to be, as members or employees.”The solution, he says, “cannot be imposed from above. Solutionshave to be developed in Partnership and work for the people doingthe work in each department—from EVS, to call centers, to doctorsand nurses.”As you’ll see in the stories in this issue, people across KP are takingup that call: Nursing and psychiatry departments in SouthernCalifornia, materials handlers in South Sacramento, and pharmacyand member-service teams in Colorado are just a few examples ofpeople making changes, in Partnership, to serve members better.Read on to see how they’re solving the mystery, and how you can, too.Psyched for ServiceWhen it comes to changing the way we dothings, it pays to speak up—especially if youhave the tools to make things happen.At the Psychiatry Department in the Fontana(Southern California) Medical Center,the impetus for change came from a 2003grievance from clerks regarding excessiveworkloads. Managers and staff addressedthe concern through the Issue Resolutionprocess, focusing on solutions that wouldimprove service as well as work processes.All agreed that clerks’ jobs, which includedchecking in patients and setting up appointments(then handled separately at each facility) were overloaded. Today,call-handling times and patient scheduling have improved dramatically—thelatter by using a centralized appointment center for allfour psychiatry units in the Fontana area—while the number ofmissed appointments has fallen. Both member and employee satisfactionscores have increased.PROBLEM:Overloadedstaff membersSOLUTION:Redesigned workprocesses andincentives(continues on page 4)www.lmpartnership.orgHank December 2006 | No. 11

to leave, more likely to recommend KP to others, and make fewertrips to specialty care and the ED, she notes.Other projects have included Coaching to Remove ServiceBarriers, also borrowed from the Diablo Valley service area.(“Removing Service Barriers” and other service-quality materialsused by the service area are available on the KP intranet at:http://kpnet.kp.org/qrrm/service2/culture/ed_matls.htm.) Theprogram used a union and management pair (and sometimes aphysician) who trained union, physician, and management leadershipin many of KP Colorado’s 500 departments. Their goal: helpeach department identify and overcome service barriers.“I walked away from that meeting very energized,” says BrentArnold, MD, chief of internal medicine in Aurora. “We all felt like itcould help with many initiatives at the clinic.”The LAMC initiative still is in the early stages, and obstaclesremain. Nursing staff often doesn’t get enough time to completethe assignments from the council, and that can dampen enthusiasmfor participation, says Mongelli.The key is to integrate service improvement efforts with the dayto-daywork of the unit. “Nursing practice flows from the nursesat the bedside, and the opportunity to have a built-in structurewhere nurses are meeting regularly about their own practice isvery appealing,” says Margaret Ecker, RN, the hospital’s directorof nursing quality. In fact, she says the council model was one ofthe reasons she took her job a few months ago. “I’ve inherited thisglorious opportunity to take a well-built Partnership structure andrefocus on patient care—because how you’re going to ultimatelymeasure success is through patient satisfaction—and that’sdirectly related to service and quality.”Cutting Through the MazeIn Colorado, KP managers and workershave been sounding the trumpetfor service throughout 2006.They struck a high note on October5, when it became much easier fornew members to select their personalphysician, thanks to asystem developed in Partnershipby the region’sService Steering Committee.The Personal Physician SelectionService team—modeled ona program in Northern California’sDiablo Valley service area—gives members three ways of finding aphysician: by calling the PPSS team, going online, or stopping bya KP medical center.PROBLEM:Needlesslycomplexprocedures impedeserviceSOLUTION:Joint problemsolving, coaching, andcommunication“This was a big deal for us,” says Colorado Senior DeliverySystem Leader for Primary Care Ginny McLain. “There were 18ways, if not more, to find a physician. Every clinic did it differently.”Selecting a personal physician has many advantages for members,including online access to a physician who is familiar withtheir situation and can provide quick advice. “It is also hugelyadvantageous to us as an organization to link members to apersonal physician they like,” says Jill Bansek, the region’s servicequality director. Members with personal physicians are less likelyHowever, a few departments hit a sour note when project teamsfailed to consult the unions, or submitted plans that violated unionagreements, says Karla Langer, a physical therapist and UFCWLocal 7 steward. After going into “crisis mode,” she says, theSteering Committee communicated the expectation that allplans would be developed in Partnership.That has paid off in the Long Term Pharmacy in Aurora.Phone-order patients who had billing questions wereneedlessly being transferred between the pharmacyand the billing department to get answers.“It is not that there were lots of official complaints,but you [could] detect frustration,” says PharmacySupervisor Mary W. Johnson. “Calls would betransferred to us over a problem that we could not fix,and we would have to refer them back to the billingdepartment.” The number of bounced-back calls hasdropped since the service team, with the help of frontlineworkers, began holding classes for the billing department about theneeds of long-term pharmacy patients and how to best triage theircalls. Johnson continues, “We can save rework for all employees,time on the phone with frustrated members, and get the business ofthe members done more quickly and efficiently.”Dressed for SuccessAt the South Sacramento Medical Center (Northern California),staff and physician leaders are launching unit-based teams byworking collaboratively on improving service. Union, management,and physician leaders evaluated each department’s Partnershipreadiness, and picked three departments as pilot projects, saysRoy Clarke, a support services director.One of those departments was Materials Services, which hadestablished a team informally two years ago to resolve issues atthe lowest level. Among other things, they looked at ways tobetter serve their internal KP customers.“One of the things we focused on was the appearance of ourdepartment,” says Pravin Singh, a storekeeper II and SEIU UHW-West steward. “Our informal group met and wanted to get uniforms,so we rolled it out to the department.”“Our customers can identify us a lot easier,” says manager RobertAlvarez. “[But] I think there was some anxiety. For whatever reason,people want to wear what they want to wear.”(continues on page 9)Anyone atany levelcan raise ideasor concernsand knowthey’ll beaddressed.www.lmpartnership.orgHank December 2006 | No. 11

Stewards ofC HANGEWhat it takes to represent employees, partnerwith managers, and still do a full-time job.Being a union shop steward always takes guts,perseverance, enthusiasm, and boundless energy, tact,and humor. Being a steward in Partnership takes allthat—and more. Stewards must balance their role asoutspoken advocates for their co-workers with thatof trusted colleagues to their management partners.It ain’t always easy. The 2005 National Agreement calls forstewards to expand their role to “one of work unit leadership,problem solving, participating in the organization anddesign of work processes, and representing co-workersthrough interest-based procedures.”Are Union Coalition stewards ready to step up to theplate? And are they being given the support they needfrom their unions and from KP? How quickly will unitbasedteams (UBTs)—which may require stewards tohone their leadership skills—be rolled out? In our last issue(October 2006), frontline managers expressed strongcommitment to Partnership and support for their newrole as coaches and facilitators. However, some said thatstewards too often fall into adversarial roles when dealingwith difficult issues. What’s the stewards’ perspective?Many say they already do much of what’s being asked ofthem under the Agreement: they mentor new stewardsand co-workers, do damage control, handle grievancesand corrective actions, and represent members’ interestson Partnership committees. Stewards do all this to helpco-workers and to move KP forward. “My favorite part ofthe job is being of service to fellow employees,” says MarkEnglehart, an OPEIU Local 30 steward at the San DiegoCustomer Service Center. “Being a trusted confidantmakes my day here.” Stewards also do it to embrace thegoals of the organization: striving to provide the bestpossible service and patient care.Confident Despite ConfusionA Hank survey of 2,200 stewards from 17 of 29Union Coalition locals shows that stewards are strongbelievers in Partnership. For instance, 65 percent ofrespondents say LMP has helped improve their department’sperformance, and 69 percent say it has improvedthe quality of union members’ worklife (see page 11 foradditional findings.)At the same time, many are confused about the detailsand time line for unit-based teams. In the Northwest, forinstance—where unit-based teams and two other kindsof teams are rolling out—there is concern that UBTs willget overshadowed.TOOLS FOR CHANGEWhat Shop Stewards NeedStewards point to four resources that can help them do their jobs:Training. “Both the union and management are responsible for making sure that labor partners are up to capacity,”points out Undraia Johnson, a contract specialist with SEIU Local 49 in the Northwest. Stewards say they wantmanagers to routinely upgrade their training, too. A Union Stakeholder workshop has been piloted in the Northwestand parts of Southern California. (See “The Art of Stakeholding,” Hank, September 2005.) It should roll out across theorganization next year. For more information about Partnership training, contact your local training liaison (see www.LMPartnership.org/contact/localtrainingcontacts.html).Information. Union leaders and managers should share information freely with stewards on business andLMP initiatives. Everyone should familiarize themselves with the National Agreement and local contracts(see www.LMPartnership.org/contracts).Shared understanding. Stewards can be caught between managers who see them as adversarial and co-workerswho see them as unresponsive. Regular staff meetings and ongoing communication allow stewards to establish abalance between their obligation to represent their members and their Partnership role helping to resolve issuesaffecting the entire team.Backfill. In 2007, all department budgets are expected to have a line item for backfill. Managers and stewardsshould calculate together how much backfill the department will need. But if the department budget can’t cover it all,it’s not one side’s problem. Unit partners must find a joint solution that addresses everyone’s needs. “There has to beshared ownership of the problem,” says Facility Services Director Carry Wicht.Hank December 2006 | No. 11www.lmpartnership.org

Kate Pingo, Union Coalition staff representative for the Northwest,says stewards are clamoring to see the big picture ofUBTs’ place in the organization. “They’ve read the material [onUBTs] and are excited,” she explains. “But they don’t know howit fits into everything going on in the region.”A Familiar ObstacleHowever, the biggest roadblock to their full participation in Partnershipand to their growth as leaders is release time from theirdaily jobs, according to many stewards.Meg Tanahill, RN, of UFCW Local 7 in Colorado, says she hasto prevail upon her co-workers to cover her shift when sheneeds to take training. “At this point they resent my stewardactivity,” she says.Backfill for training, meetings, or special projects is not justone party’s problem, according to Carry Wicht, facilitiesservices director at Santa Rosa Medical Center (Northern California).“There has to be shared ownership of the problem,” sheexplains. “The manager and steward have to share responsibilityfor making the decision.”A Duty to DefendManagers often complain that stewards act like defenselawyers, backing up union members right or wrong. But stewardsdon’t always have a choice in what issues they take up:Unions are bound by law to represent their members’ interests.OPEIU Local 30 Executive Director Walter Allen says hefrequently talks to managers who feel the union is defendingbad behavior by its members. “I say to them, ‘Regardless ofthe particulars of the case, unions have a responsibility to ourmembers. It doesn’t mean we file a grievance in every case—we don’t. But if the union makes a mistake and doesn’t followup on a member’s concern, we can get sued,’” Allen explains.“I understand that unions have to defend their membersand believe that they should do so,” says John Folk, facilitiesservices director at the Redwood City Medical Center (NorthernCalifornia), and a former shop steward himself. “However, I donot believe that a union representative is taking a legal risk byadvising an employee that they are operating outside of thecontract boundaries. I believe this action would be in the bestinterests of the employee.”Stewards, meanwhile, complain they’re caught in the middlewhen a union member’s actions adversely affect the rest ofthe department.Mark Englehart, at the San Diego Customer Service Center,says his least favorite part of the job is “having to tell peoplethat the Corrective Action initiated against them is completelyjustified. That’s never fun.”Yet 79 percent of the stewards surveyed said they preferred toresolve problems in Partnership rather than adversarially. IssueResolution and Corrective Action provide ways to do that,many said.received the information and consultation they need from theirmanagement counterparts to partner effectively. But the surveyhit a nerve with the statement, “My managers say they work inPartnership, but usually make decisions and come to us afterthe fact to rubber-stamp their decision, rather than problemsolvetogether from the beginning.”Overwhelmingly, stewards agreed with that viewpoint.Responses ranged from “Bingo!” to “I feel that ‘Partnershipdecision making’ is one-sided: the administration side only.They make the mess and we have to clean it up.”Others agreed with one steward’s comment that “It stronglydepends on how fast [managers] need something done. I thinkall decisions involving union members should at least bediscussed before they are made.”Of course, there are steward-manager teams that work.“My manager comes to me before decisions are made sowe can work together,” says one steward. “My manager isvery cooperative with the LMP and keeps us involved,”comments another.Taking Partnership to the Next LevelTo take Partnership to the next level, stewards say they needmore clarity from the top, additional training, and managementpartners who address issues directly and early on.The key to successful Partnership relationships is respect, trust,and understanding, say both stewards and managers. If thoseunderpinnings are there, almost any issue can be overcome.“When there are bumps in the road, you need a strongfoundation,” says Wicht. “You hope your partner can seebeyond mistakes and together you can move forward.”WHERE TO GET HELP• Partnership training: Several trainingprograms, including Union PartnershipRepresentative training, are available forstewards, and additional programs arecoming soon. Check www.LMPartnership.org/skills for more info.• Partnership behaviors: Downloadpocket cards with the 37 Partnershipbehaviors from the LMP website atwww.LMPartnership.org/commtools/toolkits or get a free copy from thewww.LMPartnership.org eStore.Good Manager, Bad ManagerGiven the pressures on both sides, are union-managementpairs that pull together the norm or the exception?Just under half—48 percent—of stewards surveyed said theywww.lmpartnership.orgHank December 2006 | No. 11

From the Desk of Henrietta: LEADING THE CHARGE!Now that the November elections are over,let’s talk politics.If we expect our political leaders to raisetheir voices to better our world, shouldn’twe expect the same from ourselves? Afterall, as health care providers we respond to aspecial calling. We choose to work for amajor health care provider, one with such acomprehensive system of care that werefer to Kaiser Permanente as a model fornational health care reform. Our horn isready for the blowing.Then why don’t we act like it?Don’t believe for a minute that we can’t stepup to the bully pulpit in the same way aspoliticians. Because we’re big and badenough to survive a brutally competitivehealth care market, we’ve proven we canmake the difference. Our venue is ourworkplace, and our bully pulpit is our LaborManagement Partnership.Because of the Partnership, we stand outfrom the pack in many ways, but not theleast is that we participate in a unit-baseddecision-making process that resultsin improved care and services for ourmembers.Our LMP also gains us entrée to unionmembers throughout our system. Justwithin the last few months, for example, thebulk of new membership growth in Southernand Northern California came fromunions: state employees, carpenters,operating engineers, painters, tapers,teachers, and classified school employees.Just think of how many new members wecould recruit if we had access to the7 million Californians who are uninsured, orthe millions more uninsured Americans incommunities we serve across the country.Advocating for changing national healthcare to an integrated system like KaiserPermanente’s is not only the right thing todo, for us it’s the smart thing to do.Our LMP has resulted in ongoing savingsfrom operational improvements, improvedbilingual services, and helped improvequality and member satisfaction. With theLMP, labor relations are productive enoughto support a major workforce developmentinitiative in our National Agreement and KPHealthConnect, a technology upgradethat increases patient safety while improvingour revenue collection. We’ve collaboratedto win a federal standard that protectsagainst blood-borne diseases. We’veestablished a nurse staffing ratio in Californiathat protects patients and workers.Our work has built one of the mostsuccessful and sustained experimentsIf we expect our political leaders to raisetheir voices to better our world, shouldn’twe expect the same from ourselves?in integrated health care.Which is just to say that politician AdlaiStevenson was on to something when hesaid, “It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge ifyou think you look funny on a horse.” Welook grand astride a steed, and can outridethe best of them. We are acknowledgedleaders in the health care industry and sincethat’s the case, let’s act like leaders.Let’s raise a racket for the LMP andnational health care reform. There arelots of people waiting for us to make adifference. Charge!LETTERS TO THE EDITORA Last Word on StewardsThe column “From the Desk of Henrietta” inthe October issue suggested that somestewards present challenges for theirunions, or can be difficult to deal with. (And,of course, management sometimesstruggles in the same way with some oftheir own.) In any case, when there areproblems, the unions’ professional field staffwill step in and hopefully educate ourstewards. However, stewards fill animportant role in labor-managementrelations and, especially, in our Partnershipenvironment, provide union leaders with thatall-important link to the rank-and-file worker.I know the article was not intended tolessen the importance of the steward. But itdoes give the naysayers an opportunity totrot out the old ideas and stereotypes thatso harmed our organizations in the past. I,for one, would not want to see those ideasresurrected. This is a different time for us atKP, and a very different attitude towardlabor relations exists here now. We all needto work together, in Partnership, and besuccessful for the good of KP, our workers,our unions, and yes, our stewards.WALTER ALLENExecutive DirectorOPEIU Local 30San DiegoMore About ManagersRegarding “Managers on the Line”: Mostmanagers and most stewards are trying toget away from their traditional roles, butthey often don’t know how to do it. I think itis important for managers to understand theCorrective Action process, and build on ourstrengths. In my experience you havehappier employees when the managermakes employees feel they are valued anda part of the decision-making process.Happier employees want to come to workversus call in sick. Also I’ve found thathaving regular staff meetings, whereeveryone is asked to participate (in advanceof the meeting) in agenda building, and feelscomfortable discussing any departmentalissues, makes for a more successfuldepartment.KATHY BACAContract SpecialistSEIU UHW-WestBellflower Medical CenterBellflower, CaliforniaNot FunnyThe cartoon “All in a Day’s Work” in Octoberfocused on the first anniversary of the 2005National Agreement. The manager in thecartoon is depicted in an offensive manner,being placed in the center of the celebratorycake with her hair lit afire. The cartoon is notat all aligned with promoting a Partnershipenvironment. I believe the editors of Hankowe all Kaiser Permanente’s managers anapology. Humor at the expense of any ofour employees, managers, or staff isnot supportive of partnering.DIANNA MARTINManager, Genetics DepartmentSanta Teresa Medical CenterSan Jose, California10 Hank December 2006 | No. 11www.lmpartnership.org

Hank SURVEY RESULTSStewards Accentuate the PositiveAlignment. Poke your head into any meeting at any KP facility, and you’re bound to hearabout the quest for that state of organizational bliss in which people, plans, and perspectivesare in sync.When it comes to Partnership, labor and management attitudes at KP appear to bealigned—just not in lockstep, according to surveys of frontline managers (see Hank,October 2006) and stewards (see below). Both groups agree LMP has deliveredbenefits to their department, are clear on their roles as partners, and are confident theycan meet the expectations laid out in the 2005 National Agreement. However, stewardsare far more positive about these questions.For instance, nearly two-thirds of stewards see performance improvement as a result ofPartnership, versus a bare majority of managers. Managers are more than twice as likelyas stewards to remain undecided about performance benefits in their department.Only a small minority of either group would choose to go back to the traditional ways ofmanaging or representing employees—but again, stewards express a stronger preferencefor the new ways of working than do managers. Stewards also are less afraid of speakingwithout fear of reprisal.Finally, some stewards may be stretched even further than their management counterpartsin terms of the numbers of employees they deal with. Twenty-eight percent of stewardrespondents represent more than 100 people each—more than twice the percentage ofmanagers who manage that number of employees. Yet stewards and managers also saythey are about equally well trained and equipped to work in Partnership.It adds up to alignment with a twist: Managers and stewards are moving at their ownpace—but they’re moving in the same direction.Note: We surveyed 2,200 shop stewards from 17 local unions via e-mail fromSeptember 25 to October 9. A total of 489 completed the survey—a response rate of22 percent. Both surveys were e-mailed to available lists and do not represent a randomsample of opinion.ManagersStewards897752657163322821167201010216 159AgreeDisagreeNo OpinionAgreeDisagreeNo OpinionAgreeDisagreeNo OpinionThe LMP has helped improve our department’sperformance.It is clear to me what is meant by ‘the new roleof (managers/stewards)’…I understand the new expectations of(managers/stewards) as envisioned by the 2005National Agreement, and I believe I can meetthose expectations.6978494565502628201311 9271823181214 16 12AgreeDisagreeNo OpinionAgreeDisagreeNo Opinion/Other0-910-5051-100MoreThan 100Given a choice, I’d prefer to manage/represent in a traditional way…I believe I can speak candidly, without fear ofreprisal, about workplace issues.How many employees report to you?(for managers)How many employees do you represent?(for stewards)Percentages are rounded figures.www.lmpartnership.org Hank December 2006 | No. 11 11