Emergency services and fire department operations

Emergency Services Fire Department

In this paper the method of creating and sustaining a very efficient fire department is discussed in terms of the system, motivation, and sustainability of the department. Further modern leadership and motivational methods along with the professional considerations of the problems that fire fighters face and which ought to be addressed are highlighted.

Major Hypothesis:

The fire department deals with acute emergencies that require split second decisions and reactions and also high grade equipment and very dependable personnel who are dedicated and trained. It involves the leadership of many and team work. Hernon (2010) says rightly that for such systems to be effective there must be a network of leaders, and there must also be transformational leadership and these must necessarily hark to the aspects of emotional intelligence, resonant leadership and shared leadership. In this case it is recommended that a shared leadership team is created.

Creating the Team:

Motivation is one major aspect where training is imparted to create better fire fighters who can stand up to any challenge. Being a team work, the approach to leadership itself involves multiple paradigms. For example there is the trait approach, - or the 'great man theory' where a single individual was idolized as the leader. This prevailed for a long time and in the end of the 1900s the relational approach came to the front where more of the relations between individuals and how the relations were maintained and networked created the relational leadership concept. The modern or new leadership approach calls for the transformational leadership trait where the situation can be transformed from the existing to the ideal seamlessly by the initiative of the person or persons concerned. There are many more theories that are being revealed now. (Northouse, 2011)

The dependence on technology and modern gadgets has made it imperative that the personnel be trained to effectively handle the machines and become experts. Along with that they have to be trained to adapt to any situation and in other words show self propulsion and situational leadership. The situation creates the leader, and according to the contingency theory this is practical because the leadership style is determined by the situation and needs. The situational approach is more useful in this context along with the contingency method. The situational method asks the leader to adapt the developmental position of the subordinates. The task characteristics involve the leadership quality especially in the case of fire fighting. There are primary work groups as teams and the team members with their experience provide the leadership with established norms. (Northouse, 2009) There must be a system that can accommodate fast response and faster decisions with responsibility. For that some negative traits that are common have to be vanquished.

Workplace Considerations:

The common ethics, hazards and stress between the personnel in ambulance services, fire fighting and police are identical. These three services provide emergency services and have identical problems. Researchers have therefore spent lot of effort in finding the problems and developments in these three sectors with an interdisciplinary approach. Thus Brough (2005) in studying the work related problems of ambulance workers, fire fighters and other personnel shows that their work and work related stress often result in undesirable issues like family conflict, neuroticism, job satisfaction issues, and these groups namely the fire force, ambulance and police have identical set of functions and risks. Of these the police had the least stressors while the ambulance service respondents had severe work-related pressures and problems of psychological well-being. The research showed that the work-family conflict, neuroticism and job satisfaction were similar for all these services. This is an issue that must be addressed if the fire department has to function properly.

While training the personnel to be leaders, there must be a way of removing the stress factor. This is important because the stress can cause problems in inter-personnel behavior. There is a problem of work stress and definition of roles within the system. The study by Bennett et al. (2005) says that personnel of both sexes are subject to high levels of stress and will develop trauma and depression. Some of the reasons cited are that there is no supportive environment to the staff and secondly there is no social support for the relief of stress associated with emergency responses, and these contribute to anxiety. The study was based on a survey of emergency ambulance personnel of one British ambulance service. This is applicable to fire services also. (Bennett, et al., 2005)

Thus the major issues does not revolve around the use of better technology but the bringing in of a better system that can enhance leadership qualities and at the same time ease out the negatives. One another negative that can come in the field will be gender bias and this is a very singular thing. Leaders can get promoted on skills especially interpersonal skills, and in course of time role models and ideal perception of who or which type of person will be most suited to the situation will evolve. Yet bias is not erased completely from the human psyche. The solutions provided by Barrett and Davidson (2006) are that women who are employed in the services must forcefully express their dislike of gender bias especially with regard to professional and technology bias in the service shown to them.