Minutes of the Positive Working Environment Meeting held on 09/12/10
PRESENT:
Kay Biscomb (Chair) Adam Brown, Claire Dowen, Steve Gelder, Vicki Thoms, Joan
Watson.
APOLOGIES:
Tracey Devonport, Andy Lane, Ilsa Porter, Helen Rudge, Chris Sellars, Steve
Spencer.
MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING:
Minutes of the previous meeting were seen as a true & accurate reflection.
MATTERS ARISING:
None from previous meeting.
FEEDBACK FROM DEPT REPS:
Steve Gelder / LI:
o
o
o
Staff seem to want to be part of the discussions re: relocation or to be involved in some way.
Any more collaborative opportunities with other staff from other departments within the School
would be welcomed. Currently working alongside other dept staff within the Social Science
Research Cluster and on the employability module.
The department is involved with TNE delivery. Paul Fallon is going overseas shortly to deliver.
Problems with systems such as registering with modules, module diets etc is causing anxiety for
staff and detracts from a positive working environment. [IP & Alexa are meeting to discuss these
issues so we may move closer to resolution for some issues].
Claire Dowen / Technical Team:
o
The team would have liked ‘bullying’ to be addressed at the last School Conference. The team
requested if a session covering ‘Bullying’ could be organised for the next conference.
Joan Watson / Admin Team:
Nothing to report at this time.
Helen Rudge / Drama:
Staff from drama would like to comment on the following as contributing to a poor working
environment currently:
o
o
o
The continuing situation of the offices only being cleaned every six weeks
Heating levels below the legal minimum in both studios
Lights in the corridor outside the studios that do not come on in the evening and early morning as
they are connected to motion sensors which don't work properly
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CD updated the group that Pete Bridges is regularly charting the heating levels as requested & we
believe he is also chasing up the issue with the light sensors also. The problem is exacerbated since
it is a performance area and heating needs to be correct. The problem seems to be in this instance
that heating is controlled externally. CD suggested that for performance areas heating probably
needs to be controlled internally.
ALLOCATION OF REMAINING STAFF TO STRANDS:
Claire Dowen to join the ‘Role & Responsibilities’ & ‘Yearly Planning’ strands.
Action: AB to chase up Tracey Devonport, Chris Sellars & Steve Spencer to see which strands
they would like to be allocated to.
Updates: Joan will concentrate on roles and responsibilities for staff within the sspal office;Ilsa will
focus on role and responsibilities for department administrators; Claire for technical staff & Kay for
academic staff.
Yearly planning: Kay & Claire will speak with Ilsa re: yearly planning processes. May have to work
towards a calendar of key tasks.
Communication for change: SG would like to meet with Will Foster for advice on & to discuss next
steps.
Equality & Diversity: VT & KB met recently and work will commence in January. The School Action
Plan needs to be revised to include E&D matters. Should have quite a lot to report in the next meeting
in February.
E&D, MENTAL WELLBEING & HEALTH STRANDS:
KB attended the University Equality & Diversity Committee meeting that took place on 1st December.
The UE&D Committee will meet twice in 2010/11 and will have a more strategic focus this year. The
work of the UE&DC will drive forward progress with each E&D strand and will ensure that we comply
with legislation.
The UE&DC is focussing on its family friendly policy this year along with its other key strands –
Women in research group (applying for Athena status); BME staff in senior positions within the
University; disabled staff in senior positions (we are representative as a University but not in senior
positions i.e. PL & above for academic staff); ethnicity & degree achievement (a steering group has
been set up); stonewall work place equality index – previous year we have not had a high ranking
against the index. We need to work with our LGB&T community and work towards a stronger visibility
/ awareness for staff. We are currently struggling with communication of the community. Kay will
send out info soon to our staff re: staff networks.
AB to ask AL & CS for their updates – AL for Mental Wellbeing & CS for Health.
DRAFT TERMS OF REFERENCE:
The group agreed for an amendment to be made to the group’s purpose as stated on the first draft of
the ToR. The statement should make it clear that the purpose of the group is to advise School
Executive on issues of creating a positive working environment rather than the group itself being
solely responsible for creating a specific environment within the school.
The group agreed with CS’ comment for the promotion of staff development courses available from
the University such as dealing with conflict & working under pressure. These courses or the
availability of such courses should be made more explicit in the ToR. We should also perhaps note in
the ToR that we want to monitor staff uptake of these opportunities also.
Chris’ comment re: liaising with other University groups/bodies with expertise and a remit for PWE
related matters to be included as a separate bullet point within the Scope section.
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Re: membership, the group asked if we should include an Arena representative. WF to
consider.
The group agreed to approve the ToR following these changes.
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE DOCUMENT:
A document that appears in Edgar Schein’s book ‘Organizational Culture and Leadership’ regarding
organisational culture was tabled for review. The Chair asked the group to consider how PWE /
SSPAL may use the document on organisational culture to further a positive working environment
PWE members were also asked to mark where they think we are on the provided scale against each
cultural characteristic e.g. the nature of corporate culture, the Essence of diversity, the nature of
company values.
Finally, the group were asked to discuss what may move us to where we want to be on the scale.
The group went through the organisational culture document and marked where they believed the
School to be against each characteristic. 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest (furthest right of
the scale) the group agreed the following markings:
CHARACTERISTIC (10 = ideal unless stated)
The Individual’s locus of control
The nature of an individual’s value
The power of mankind
The Natural Environment
The organisations central paradigm
The nature of company values
Public image
The nature of organisation
The inert and the human = 5
Core purpose
Workforce-Organization relationship
Organization<->external stakeholder relationship
Organization<->Business environment
relationship
Bad News and Whistle blowing
A threat = 1
Decision Making
Ownership for learning and development
Communication
How best results are achieved
Self and group interest = 5
Speed of response to customer demands
The service providers
Emotional Expression
To be encouraged and managed = 5
SCALE (1 FAR LEFT TO 10 FAR RIGHT)
6
5
3
9
6
8
5
10 academic
7 administrative
5
5
7
5
5
8
8
7
5
Externally 3 Internally 9
10
6
The group agreed for the document to now be taken to staff departmental meetings for consideration.
Staff will be asked to give ratings as above but from a departmental perspective instead of from a
School wide perspective as above.
Adam to forward document to reps. Adam to create a document explaining each characteristic
in more detail. Adam to forward this guidance sheet to reps for their department meetings.
The group went through the rating of characteristics in depth and it was not possible time wise to
consider how to move our ratings further towards where we want them to be. This may be revisited in
a future PWE meeting.
DONM: Thursday 3rd February 2011, 2pm, Room TBC
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