Crisis Management and Disaster at Fair Oaks - Case Study Example

TOPIC: DISASTER AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT (INSTITUTION’S NAME) (NAME) (COURSE NAME) 7TH MAY 2008 Fair Oaks is a fire and rescue company. It was established in 1957 and sine then it has been providing fire protection and services that have been so vital during emergence cases. It has also been providing medical services to the businesses, residents and industry of Fairfax. Included in the group are volunteers who work alongside career personnel employed in the company. They are certified at all levels of dealing with emergence cases from the line officer, minimum staffing to the battalion chief. Alongside its 1000 career personnel Fair Oak has a total of about 80,000 volunteers in its different departments and who come with a range of professionalism. They are volunteer first responders through out the country. Deployment process is made fast and as smooth as possible through the pre-emergency planners who ensure that they have the require assets available and ready to deal with any emergence case. The company operates under section 501 (c) 3 which regulates the activities of not for profit organizations. Since its main objective is not to make profit but to provide emergence services to the communities it depends mostly on donations from the same communities in order to carry its functions more effectively. To assist those people with emergency social needs the company has its social needs registry which aims at addressing the problems from people with medical needs, that is, individuals with a high risk conditions of health that is either chronic or temporary and who can not manage for themselves in an evacuation or a shelter center. In addition it also addresses the problems of the people who will require help or assistance in performing daily living activities and lastly it aims at assisting those who need care for will require care for and health condition monitoring. To effectively deal with problems affecting the above category of people names and addresses from those who have medical needs are used by the company to communicate with people with medical needs especially during evacuation processes in order to provide them with adequate sheltering services and health care needs. Fair Oaks fire and Rescue Company is a private company that was established to perform its activities alongside the Fairfax County to provide the increasing need of rescue services that had been neglected for a long time. Individiduals and teams within the organization perform various roles. This is necessitated by individual learning .Individual learning is measured and controlled through evaluation. Learning helps to foster skills and knowledge so that the practical performance of the people undergoing through the training can be able to deliver quality services to the communities. Evaluation helps complete the total quality loop. (Wahba and Bridgewell 1976) Without evaluation no objective will be there on the way to measure and isolate the impact of learning. In an organization training or learning is taken as an investment and its returns on business should be taken as any other investment. Organizations that desire full benefit have to do their best to utilize all evaluation forms as much as they can in order to measure individual learning. To measure learning, learning can be divided into skills, knowledge and attitude. Acquisition of knowledge can be measured by tests and examinations. These include the use of multiple choice, open questions and oral examinations. To measure individual improvements tests can be administered in the beginning then the results are compared with later test results. Skill learning can be measured through practical tests where by the trainee is granted the opportunity to demonstrate the learned skills. Improvement in individual learning is determined by the difference between the first test and the tests at the end of the training. Behaviourist and cognitive perspective on learning involves the measure of the change in behaviour at work which comes as a result of a trainee undergoing through training. It measures the effectiveness of the training because it addresses the behavioural results. The best factor vital to this is to get the people conducting any training to get involved as much as possible in the job situation of their trainees. This is possible if the trainers are not external so that they can be able to intermingle with the trainees as much as possible. Behaviour can be measured by activity sampling, appraisal by superiors, self appraisal and observation of specific incidents. These methods can be used long before learning is done so that the results can be compared with post learning. Learning objectives and needs are defined by the evaluation of the trainee’s behaviour before they go through training. Change in behaviour evaluation measures the change in trainee’s behaviour as a result of the training. (David, 2001) This becomes the effectiveness of the training if the behavioural results are addressed. Punishment and reinforcements work to streamline the behaviours that tend to deviate from what is expected and behaviours in an organization are changed through intensive evaluation of the trainees after they go through learning. To further change the behaviours of employees in an organization the evaluation of the behaviours in the long term and in the short term is vital. The supervisor holds interviews with the trainees in order to identify the usefulness of training towards the change in behaviours of different employees. Learning in Fair Oaks fire and Rescue Company is done to foster the skills that are required during the emergence cases. This ensures that effectiveness and efficiency with which the employees and the volunteers carry out their duties is of high standard. The long term evaluation of learning in Fair Oaks Company is introduced to measure the concrete impact of learning on the performance of the company. Learning is measured and controlled in the company through the use of the appraisal report which shows whether the employees have utilized whatever they have learnt to improve on their performance. Behaviourist and cognitive perspective on learning in the company is done through the measure of behaviour at work and how the employees perceive their work. An organization is made up of various personalities. The different personalities do affect the workplace in one way or the other. The managers are supposed to take advantage of different personalities in their organizations to create an environment that is more productive where teams are also more effective. To understand the importance of personality it is worth understanding the various types of personalities that exists in the organization. The first is the artisan type of personality and people in this category are creative and they always desire new developments. The second is the sage type of personality where people in this category have a perfect gift of dissemination of information, they like speaking the truth and they are funny in character. The third type of personality is the server and people in this category are more respectful and more support. The priest types of personality are people who are more compassionate, they have a strong faith in things than other people and they are also visionary. The warriors are persuasive, protective and they like partnering with other people. The king personality are people who are masterly, they use energy when carrying out their duties and they have the leadership qualities. The scholar types of personality are people who are knowledgeable, they are flexible and they have easy integration with other people. Understanding all this types of personality in the work place makes it possible for the manager to treat, handle and practice their leadership over the employees in the most effective and efficient manner. This helps avoid conflicts that are persistent in the work place. Personality is also important because it results into diverse opinions and views which are necessary for the organization to perform it duties effectively. The difference in the personality of different people enables the organization to be diverse and the end result is only seen in the output. Personality has got its effects in the work place. The effects can either be positive or negative and it depends on the type of the personality. A priestly personality which is more visionary and can influence other employees to work even harder for the benefit of the organization. While the artisan personality can be important in coming up with new ways of performing different activities in the organization the server harmonises the different employees through their respective, supportive and good intentions. The sage ensures that the information disseminated does not have any flaws and this type of personality helps minimize conflicts in the organization. The integration of people and their ability to work as a team is determined by the personality that the organization carries. The perfect blending of personality in the work place increases the organizational productivity. Personality is measured through observation and close interaction with the employees in the organization. Personality assessment is useful because it helps the leaders in the organization put their employees in the right positions where they can perform best thus thus having a positive influence on others. Effective communication in an organization can be hindered by several factors which include ethics, law, gender bias and confidentiality. Ethics hinders effective communication in an organization because it is not advisable to answer a question that a person is not supposed to hear from you because it results in to conflict of interest. Law hinders effective communication because an employee is not supposed to put in an email something that can be used in court. Gender biasness hinders effective communication because there are things that a man can not reveal to a woman and vice versa. Confidentiality also acts a barrier to effective communication because of the need to keep some information confidential. Communication can be made effective through open discussions where all people regardless of their gender can communicate freely without fear of intimidation. In an organization such as Fair Oaks fire and rescue company communication is made possible through organization of open forums where the volunteers and career personnel come together to discuss issues that affect their performance in the work place. (Debra, 2001) Despite of the massive number of volunteers working in the company information from different stations spread all over the country is collected and the feedback disseminated through written form of communication and through gatherings. Sealing the gaps that exists in ethics, law, confidentiality and gender biasness ensures that communication becomes effective in the organization. Perception is vital in a work place because it determines the attitude that employees have towards the organization and also towards other employees. A positive perception creates a positive attitude which necessitates good performance in the organization. (Veryl, 2004) A negative perception on the other hand is detrimental to the organizational performance and also it affects the relationship between employees in the organization. Motivation on the other hand acts as a propeller that makes the employees work harder. It shows that the efforts the employees put in their work are recognized by the management. People in the work place are motivated by appreciation which can be in form of gifts, money and promotion. All this ensure that the good performers are rewarded for their efforts while the underperformers are challenged to work harder to reach the higher performers. Maslow hierarchy of needs is depicted as a pyramid which consists of five levels. (Maslow,1954) The four lower levels are taken to be in the same group because they are psychologically related while the top level is referred to as the growth needs associated with psychological needs. The four levels in the Maslow hierarchy of needs include physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self actualization. Individuals in Fair Oaks fire and Rescue Company learn through continued seminars that are held to impart the skills required in the organization. Different personalities are encouraged to join the company in order to make it more diverse. Communication in the company is made simple through the elimination of barriers to effective communication such as gender biasness. Motivation helps change the perception of the employees as they are rewarded handsomely for their tireless efforts to provide emergence services to the communities. Groups form and develop into teams through the need to bring the diverse personalities together for the common good. Groups are formed due to the dire need to support one another in the work place. Different teams have different roles that they are supposed to play in the organization. This is made possible through effective team leadership which acts as the light to lead others. In Fair Oaks fire and Rescue Company there are different types of teams. They are grouped according to the emergence cases they can handle. For example there are those who deal with rescue services while others deal with treating and attending to those who have been rescued and they need medical care. In conclusion, Fair Oaks fire and Rescue Company is one of the companies that have a high integration of different personalities. Individuals play different roles and this is necessitated by the knowledge and skills they poses about fire and rescue methods. Teams perform a variety of activities ranging from rescuing people because of the support they impart on one another. They are also able to deliver services more appropriately because they are formed by people who have different personalities. Roles are defined through the use evaluation criteria to place various employees in areas they can perform best. This necessitates organizational development which is core to assessing organizational management. REFERENCES David A. et al (2001), organizational Behavior: an Introductory Text, (New York, New York Press) Debra, G. (2001), the Seven Aspects of Sisterhood: Empowering Women through Self-Discovery, (New York, New York Press) Maslow, A. (1954), motivation and Personality, (London, Oxford University Press ) Rhoda, D. (2001), personality Puzzle: Solving the Mystery of Who You Are. (California, California Press) Veryl, H. (2004), understanding organizational behavior, (Oxford, Oxford University Press) Wahba, A and Bridgewell, L. (1976), Maslow reconsidered: A review of research on the need hierarchy theory".Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance (15): 212-240, (Oxford, Oxford University Press)   Read More