Decision-Making Plans and Workers Involvement - Research Paper Example

Title: Management and Leadership (Course Name) (Student Name) (Student Number) (Tutors' Name) Institution 26 May, 2008. Abstract. Fire services are significant in day to day actions. There are certain situations such as when a fire breaks out or a road mishap occurs, in which it cannot be handled easily by the general population and sometimes may require specialized equipments and trained personnel. This then makes the need for Fire Service which is well managed to come handy. The management skills and theories are discussed and their different branches in maintaining the success or the improvement of success of the said organization. Table of Contents. 1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1 2.0 Managers…………………………………………………………………………….1 2.1 Classical Management and Human Relation………………………………...1 2.2 Classical Management Theory……………………………………………….2 2.3 Human Relation Approach…………………………………………………..2 2.4 System Approach…………………………………………………………….2 2.5 Contingency approach management………………………………………....2 2.6 Communications……………………………………………………………. 3 2.7 Managers Roles and Responsibilities………………………………………..3 2.8 Team Building…………………………………………………………….…3 2.9 Lead Staff……………………………………………………………………4 3.0 Leadership…………………………………………………………………………...5 3.1 Democratic Leadership or the Participative Leadership…………………….5 3.2 Autocratic Leadership……………………………………………………….6 3.3 Laissez Faire Leadership…………………………………………………….6 4.0 Summarizing………………………………………………………………………...6 4.1 Motivation…………………………………………………………………...6 4.2 Team building………………………………………………………………..7 4.3 Communication……………………………………………………………... 7 4.4 Historical Background…………………………………………………….... 7 4.5 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..8 4.6 Management Theory…………………………………………………………8 5.0 Compare and Contrasting National and International Fire Services………………...8 5.1 National Fire Service………………………………………………………...9 5.2 International Fire Service…………………………………………………….9 6.0 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………9 7.0 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………11 1 1. Introduction. The purpose of this report is to view the role of fire service department in UK and to see how the day to day running of the organization is achieved. Various management theories are discussed, management of the workers, an example of a fire service and the relationship of various international fire departments. 2.0 Managers 2.1 Classical Management and Human Relation. The classical management mostly focused on the jobs, this is contrary to the human management relation. Human management relation which emerged in the 1920’s is a type of management which uses the human aspect in managing the organization. It was also used to control or correct the short comings that were associated with the classical approach to management (Richard, 2005). 2.2 Classical Management Theory. There are usually three types of established theories that are associated with classical management; Administrative theory- Fayol, Theory of Scientific Management- Taylor, and Theory of Bureaucracy- Weber. All these schools of theory complement with each other. Taylor, in his scientific management theory arose due to the need to increase the productivity in USA. To help raise the productivity, to him, it was important to raise the efficiency of the workers. Weber on Bureaucracy, which is a hierarchically organized service and its part of legal domination in which to him leads to effective and a rational 2 way of organization management. Fayol in the administrative theory was mostly concerned with the achievement of the rational organization in terms of coordinating the tasks that are associated with labor (Patrick, 2000). 2.3 Human Relation Approach. The approach of human relation in organization was a way of being nice to the workers in deviation to the materials, machines and abstract functions that are usually found in an organization. This is through the understanding of the worker in terms of the response that the worker gives, and the inter-personal relationship. 2.4 System Approach This system of approach to management is based on the general system theory. This theory states that to be able to understand the operation of certain entity, the said entity should be viewed in terms of a system. This, then means that, requirements should be seen in the interdependence of its different parts (Ord, 1980). 2.5 Contingency approach management. In this approach, the management is viewed that it is impossible to choose one way of management that works best in all types of situation. Contingency management merges the scientific management theory, administrative theory and human relations approach into a solution that is adaptable to that specific circumstances. 3 2.6 Communications. This is the way in which duties are communicate between different workers and how such information should be transferred. This is due to the fact that there are many people who are associated with a single activity. 2.7 Managers Roles and Responsibilities. The most important aim of managers is to supervise and take charge of the activities that are associated with the workers and their productivity. Also, there presence is seen in the career development, employee selection, succession planning and the benefits of the workers (Kibbe, 2006). There roles and responsibilities are; Decision making. Goal setting, organization and planning. Guiding and giving directions. Empowering others. Communication and people skill Evaluating and analyzing Being a role model. Good managers have to fulfill the above points. 2.8 Team Building. At the end of each day a worker is fully satisfied on what he did and has great pride with it, while another worker may view it as a burden and a way to survive. Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist viewed two contrasting theories that were directed to 4 motivation and management; Theory X and Theory Y. McGregor mostly promoted Theory Y as a basis of good quality management practice, revolutionary the argument that employees were / are not merely mechanism in the company machinery, as Theory X organizations seem to believe or think. This means that the Y theory is usually associated with the motivation of the employees while the X theory is associated with the de-motivation of the employees (Douglas, 2005). 2.9 Lead Staff Responsible or good leaders recognize that in obtaining or building productive and successful teams, they have to understands and take care of the needs of the team members. This is an example of “emotional contract” between the teams and the leaders. To think about the workers needs, the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is popularly used. This speculation contends that as human struggle to meet our most basic needs, we also try to fulfill a higher set of needs (Thompeter, 2001). These needs are presented as; Bodily needs. Safety needs Belonging needs Self esteem Self actualization. 5 The delegation of responsibilities is also important. The managers are supposed to distribute duties to the entire work force since ‘an idle mind is the devils workshop’. This makes all the employees fill they have some importance in the team. 3. Leadership Leadership style determines the successes of an organization. There are various styles of leadership that can be employed (McDonald, 1983). 3.1 Democratic Leadership. The democratic leader usually makes the last decision but invites different opinions from different members in the organization during the decision making processes. This then leads to increase in job satisfaction and develop people skills. The employees and the team members then feel that they control their destiny, and hence, are motivated to work harder. Even though the style is related to slow decision making but the result is better, through the communication of the development of the decision to the people who are concerned (McGlynn, 2007). 3.2 Autocratic Leadership. This is an extreme form of the transactional leadership in which the leader has all the power and authority to govern the employees or the team. The employees and the team members have little or no opportunity in making any type of suggestion. 6 Most workers don’t feel comfortable when they are treated in this form which results in absenteeism and low staff turnover. But, sometimes it is applicable in the unskilled or routine jobs that the control bares more advantages than the disadvantages. 3.3 Laissez Faire Leadership This is a French term which means that “leave it be”, which to a leader is used to refer to that leader who leaves the people he leads to get on with their own work. This usually is successful when the leader constantly monitors what takes place and gives the employees the feed back on what they have developed. It is mostly applicable in those cases where the teams that are very skilled or they have high standards of skills. On the other hand it may refer to those cases where the managers don’t exert enough control (McGlynn, 2007). 4. Summarizing 4.1 Motivation. The idea of motivation in the fire service is not easy to address since most of the people who are attached to the fire service will never need to be motivated since they are self motivated and others are hard charging. But, they require the motivation on the ups and down in their careers. Others are motivated in the branches in the organization that they are involved with e.g. the Special Operation; since they don’t only become firefighters but, there something else in their specialty that they apply. Also, an important idea is the delegation of the duties to other employees. 7 4.2 Team building. In a fire service department the team building capability is different from other emergency services. This is because the duties that are assigned to different groups are hurriedly made and the introduction of different members of expertise. The issue of volunteer workers also makes it to differ from other services, since they don’t have many restrictions but they are allowed to work in a field that they can feel comfortable. 4.3 Communication This is the method in which an incident is reported. There is command structure in which communication in the teams and in the carrying out of the emergency is controlled. This makes it possible for effective or successful managing of the incident. This includes the methods in which the information is exchanged in the scene and how the general public is informed and whose is supposed to inform them. 4.4 Historical Background. The organization began operation in 1899 after the Keroche Incident. Keroche Incident was a disaster that occurred in early 1899 in which a storey residential building caught fire and it resulted in many deaths and loss of million worth of properties. The county legislative then passed a resolution in which it permitted its creation and funding. Currently, it services a large population and is involved in many rescues and emergency calls. 8 4.5 Introduction Keringet Fire and Rescue Service organization is an organization that deals with all types of incidents and emergencies that they can occur during the day to day activities. The organization is usually divided into three departments; Operations department, Personnel Services department and the Business Service department in which each is headed by an Assistant Chief. The organization has 1350 career workers with volunteer base of 400 workers which usually responds to about 24,500 suppression incidents and 70,000 emergency medical incidents yearly. There are 42 stations that are fully equipped with engines and supported by trained firefighters and paramedic. The Department covers an area of 123,000 ha (Ricklefs, 1991). 4.6 Management Theory Due to the fact that the organization began because of the disaster, different people collaborated in starting up the organization, and the organization was funded by the county. The organization management began with the idea of administrative management which later, in 1940 changed to contingency approach of management. The organization saw that the contingency type of approach yielded more fruits compared to the administrative theory. Currently, they continue to employ the contingency type of management. 5.0 Compare and Contrasting National and International Fire Services. Fire services in each country have mostly the same principle but the difference is how they operate and how they go about in their day to day activities. 9 5.1 National Fire Service Civil defiance is when the general public tends not to respond to instructions. During an emergency rescue, the rescuers usually face stiff opposition in incidents that are related with buildings and homes. The houses occupants try salvaging some household and personal items contrary to the regulations of the rescuers. But, of late through community assistance the general public is being informed in the importance of their personal safety and the importance of insuring their properties. This as a result has drastically reduced the civil defiance. 5.2 International Fire Service There are many organizations that work in the fields of emergency and suppression of incidents. An example is the NYPD that was involved with the 9 / 11 disasters in USA. The services of the fire service have drastically and continuing changing due to emerging threats like the terrorism and natural disasters that result into fires. 6.0 Conclusion. Manager is the core to effective running of an organization. The manager should have a wide experience and have a wide knowledge in dealing with the workers to make the organization successful. There are various leadership styles that can be employed by the manager in effective management; democratic, autocratic, and lausez-faue. This when well analyzed in different scenarios the result may be negative or positive. 10 The management theory can be applied in different forms and also depends on the flexibility of the organization and how they view change. There are those organizations that began when new management theories had not been developed and may not respond to change but follow their original theories while there are those flexible organizations that accommodate change. Fire organizations all over the world differ a lot in terms of the equipments and methodologies that they use. Due to the changes that are associated with changes in the morale and norm of the people the applied fire service also differs a lot. 11 7.0 Bibliography McGlynn, J. (2007), Decision Making Techniques and Processes, (Jakarta, Cambridge University Press). Ord, W. (1980), Economics of the World and Management, (London, Oxford University Press). Ricklefs, M. (1991), the Development of Keringet, (Stanford, Stanford University Press). Taylor, J. (2003), Plans and Developments in Keringet, (New Haven, Yale University Press). Douglas, M. (2005). Human Resource Management, (Jakarta, Prentice Hall of India.) Patrick, J. (2000). Management. (New York, Barron’s Educational Series.) Richard, P.(2005), Micro Economics and Business Management, (New York, New York Publishers). Kibbe,M.(2006), Economics of Minimum Wage and Motivation, (Washington, Washington Publishers). McDonald, H. (1983), Decision Making Plans and Workers Involvement, (Australia, Fontana Books). Thompeter, M. (2001), Business Policy Implementation, (Basingstoke: Palgrave). Read More