The Organization of Fire Services at New York City Fire Department - Case Study Example

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Background Fire service at The New York City Fire Department The New York City fire department is mandated to “protect the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as providing first response to biological, chemical and radioactive hazards”. The fire fighting and emergency response unit has Brooklyn as its headquarters. It is the largest organization in the United States of America that is non profit making and deal with the cases of fire breakouts. In the analysis of the number of employees it is estimated that the department alone has “11,600 officers under uniforms in addition to firefighters plus above 3,200 EMTs who are also uniformed as well as paramedics.” The organization is faced with a lot of challenges some of which go beyond the basic fire fighting procedures. The organization of fire services at New York City Fire Department At New York City Fire Department the socialization process is in line with the organizational culture and history of the company. The company has the audacity to show concern to organization’s socialization process which eventually creates an enabling working environment for the new employees of the company in building confidence while discharging duties of which is always reflected by positive results realized by the organization. At New York City Fire Department new recruits are first given an overall orientation of the usual daily activities of the company and then organized into their specific units and working groups. These working groups provide an interactive environment to both the coworker s (unofficial) and their superiors (officials) (Kramer, 143-67). Exposure to the different company activities and working in different units and groups is one of the company norm that would enable an employee continue working successfully at New York City Fire Department .It is through units and groups that an employee comes to understand the values that are embraced at the company enabling them to achieve a forward progress with fellow coworkers as w ell as their superiors. New York City Fire Department Company embraces a cordial relationship among its employees. Therefore every employee is required to maintain this good relationship in order to succeed in its or her endeavourer to accomplish its or her assigned work. This will enable an employee to stay for long at New York City Fire Department Company (Kramer, 145-67). Environment The environment in the workplace determines the success of good working relationships. The idea of the fear of attending to the workplace is not appreciable among the majority of the workers. The reduction of the work load among the workers and their employers will help solve this situation because the stress that is associated with work is significantly minimized that may result to the unpleasant environment of work. The driving of innovation is dependent on the extent of the friendliness of the environment of work. The creation of the environment that is friendly depends on the styles of leadership in addition to the efforts of improving the motivation of the employees. Initiative in addition to creativity are required if this has to be accomplished (Deci & Ryan, 56-76). The management strives to hire the employees who are upbeat and positive so as to derive enthusiasm in the work. Although it is impossible for the employees to be cheerful throughout their working life, it is good to promote a sense of self confidence among the employees and make them realize their abilities in an attempt of creating of the positive attitude as they work. The employees are treated in a manner that they are coworkers and also adults. They are therefore trusted and held accountable for the time as well as the decisions that they make. Although some parameters of work should be set, the responsibility of the employees should be trusted by the management. The temptation of the participation in the conversations that may result to a toxic workplace is avoided. The rumors related to the changes in the workplace are dismissed that may bring about some fears because most of the people fear changes which in most of the cases results to a decrease in the morale of the workers. The thorniest issues are addressed in a direct manner. In the case that the performance of the employees is appreciable, it is usually good to show a sign of appreciation. This is a gesture that is good and it has some important implications in the process of initiating innovations in the organization (Deci & Ryan, 112-43). The success in the driving of innovation in the organization depends to a great extent on the extent of the management of team work through the adoption of the most appropriate styles of leadership. The understanding of the appropriate styles is important towards the development of distinct styles that leads to more efficient leadership performance that will bring about innovations in the organization. Leaders need therefore to understand the various leadership theories and decide on the ones to adopt and which ones to abscond. For example, in the case of a type of leadership that is characterized by autocratic leadership, there is a tendency by the leaders to exercise absolute powers on the subordinates as well as the teams leaving a minimum room for their suggestions irrespective of the benefits that is anticipated from the suggestion so the workers. This is consequently detrimental to innovations. Majority of the workers would not perform well under a treatment of this nature. Autocratic leadership is therefore likely to increase the rate of work place absenteeism in addition to a high rate of the turnover of the employees. In the case of the routine as well as the routine chores in the organization, there may be a high level of ineffectiveness as a result of the advantages that are attributed to the control tending to outweigh the potential advantages. Another possible approach of leadership is the bureaucratic style of leadership. They use the rules of the organization in a manner that is rigorous in an attempt of ascertaining that all the procedures that are required in the workplace are adhered to precisely. This style can only result to innovations in the situation that there are safety risks that are involved in the work. This includes working with the use of machines, the use of toxic substances, involving huge amount of money and positions of work that are dangerous (Lepper & Nisbett, 136-76). This type of leadership style is partially implemented at N Y City fire fighting department. Success among the followers in the organization highly depends on the output of the charismatic leaders and therefore they are supposed to show a high degree of responsibility in addition to a commitment on a long term basis. Good working relationship in the organization is achieved through the adoption of the laissez-faire style of leadership in which case the workers are given the freedom to do what they have been taught are the requirements of the organization. The role of the leaders in this style is monitoring the achievements of the workers followed by a regular communication of the effectiveness of their performance. This works best in the situation that the workers have a high degree of experience as well as skills (Reiss, 154-85). Good working relationship within the organization is also be achieved through the adoption of the task oriented style of leadership. This is more similar to the autocratic style in that the people are made to get the work moving through an active definition of the work in addition to the roles that are required of the people. The structure of the work is also reflected and a more active role is taken in planning, organizing as well as monitoring. One defect of this style is that lack of the consideration of the welfare of the workers that may result to a high extent of flaws that are evident in the autocratic style of leadership as a result of the difficulty that is associated with the motivation as well as the retention of the staff Motivation in the organization Motivation by definition is perceived as the activation or the process of instilling energy among individuals who are originally oriented to the goals they are meant to per take within a given organization. Motivation was initially used in the management of humans but the knowledge has now been extended to animals as well. Motivation may be grouped in extrinsic or intrinsic categories. The role and the responsibility of a manager are to find the best way possible through which things can be done (Reiss, 115-65). The success depends on the efforts of the managers in motivativating the employees. It is imperative to understand the fact that there exists no distinct formula for motivation. As stated by Maslow in his theory of the hierarchy of needs the manager is fully entrusted with the responsibility of knowing the levels in which each of his employees fit so that he can find the best way possible.”This is easier than done”. Having said all these, it is important to note that the subject of motivation is not yet clearly understood by humans. In order to understand motivation, one needs to understand the human subject in relation to his needs. Human nature can be very complex on one side and very simple on the other side depending with the amount of effort and the interest the manager has put in place to understand his employees (Lepper & Nisbett, 143-56). The workers at the New York fire department are motivated through appreciations and presents as a way of showing recognition for their good services. Yet another motivation method that is working and is practiced at the New York fire department that directly translates to good performance among the employees is giving rewords to the successful employees. There exists a high profile of oppositions as most managers find it extremely had to define success with work performance. Some argue that success should not be relative to the other person’s productivity but rather to the productivity of what that particular individual would have achieved. There happens to be a group of people with the arguments to the effect that including the poor performers have to be rewarded for their minimal contribution. It still rests with the manager to determine what motivates his employees best at different categories of individual. Motivation can only be achieved if there is a correct balance between effective communication channels, as well as provision of incentives. The following are some of the tactics that may be applied within that organization. It is still imperative to note that the same technique may not suit or motivate every individual since each person is motivated differently by different forces (Reiss, 221-45). The first one is to desist from using threats on employees as this may instill fear, depression and job insecurity on the individual. Provision of rewards for pleasure is yet another method of motivating employees in the organization. This is also to say avoid rigidity by giving the employees an opportunity to earn more for whatever they do by earning more for you. This can be done by giving opportunity for overtime and its associated rewards (Deci & Ryan, 134-56). Instilling a culture of team spirit to the employees so that they may be able to identify with one another and at the same time enjoy the job by developing love for the kind of work they do. Lean to recognize all sorts of achievements that the employees have made and made them aware of that as well as developing the culture of trust and laying confidence in them. Give the employees another opportunity of facing the challenges of the organization by making them part of the challenges as well. This will enable them appreciate the constraints and the challenges that are faced in the business world. One of the best ways of dealing with the employees is by keeping all the major channels of communication open so that in case of any problems in the organization they are involved in all aspects of decision making process (Reiss, 132-54). Management We are living in a dynamic world, a world where everything seems to be taking a new course of change. It would be ridiculous to imagine a static business world, in an environment of technological innovations and dynamic economic ideologies. Nation-states, societies, organizations, individuals and notably, business industries have to constantly evolve to cope up with the dynamic world; otherwise you will be left lagging behind time. In a nut shell, change is a must, and managing change is even mandatory. Success of any company relies totally on good and proper management structure and responsibilities of various individuals entrusted with the duty of managing the company. New York City Fire Department is not excluded in this. New York City Fire Department is run by the board of directors consisting of nine people with the founder as one of the board members. The election of the board members is done through the voting system and those members who fail to gather the necessary majority votes are made to resign and new members are elected. It also has several committees which are entrusted with the approval of financial decisions, governance as well as other committees that act to safeguard the interest of the company. PESTLEs-analysis By definition, this is the analysis of the political, economical, social as well as the technological situations that have necessitated the thriving or the failure in any profit making company such as New York City Fire Department .These are sets of laws and policies that govern the way operation of any company. New York City Fire Department as a company has been met with several unfriendly environments which have deterred their activities to exploit their fire fighting procedures including accessibilities of the fire fighting points, delayed responses from the fire victims among others. There exist a direct connection between the level of education and the need for fire fighting training and application. The demand for fire fighting gadgets in any organization is strongly dependent on the education level as well as the economic stability of that particular organization. This was also away to enable the company explore all the ideas and capabilities in the expansion as well as the investment sector. The general demand for logistics and fire fighting services and its associated factors is mainly dependent on the level of education among the citizens in a particular country. There is a strong direct relationship between the level of education and the need for fire fighting training and application. The demand for fire fighting gadgets in any organization is strongly dependent on the education level as well as the economic stability of that particular organization. Fire fighting sector is considered one of the fastest and most evolving sectors in the world. This has been due to the level of research and the urgent need for the technology in the evolving world. New York City Fire Department as a company offers various aspects of technical support in various perspectives for example the New York City Fire Department’s consumer division that is known to offer the victims of fire the services that go beyond business hours where the victims of fire are given the opportunity to call at any time of the day and night seven days a week to give an answer to the need of the victims of fire. Through this package, several options are made available to victims of fire based on the sizes of their businesses as well as for institutions. Works Cited Kramer, M. Organizational Socialization. NY: Praeger, 2010. Deci, L. & Ryan, M. Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, N Y: Plenum, 1985, Reiss, S., Basic desires that motivate actions and define personalities. N Y: Tarcher/Putnam, 2000, Read More