Management and Leadership on the Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service, which in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Management and Leadership Name Course Instructor’s Name 9th May 2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 An outline of the case study undertaken 3 Roles and responsibilities of managers 4 Leadership styles 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Management in any organization is the act of getting people together so as to accomplish some given goal or objective. There are several components within this function, which include staffing, leading, organizing, staffing, controlling and organizing (Brooks, 2006). Management in any given organization is done by the management team whose size depends on the size of the organization (Mullins, 2007). The stakeholders especially in profit making firms and organizations always look up to the management team for the firm’s activities to be profitable. This is so because the stakeholders expect to make profit from the organization’s activities. In non-profit organizations on the other hand, the management is looked upon by the various donors to coordinate the resources well. Therefore, managers are a very important entity in any organization. This paper will focus on the roles and responsibilities of managers and also on the leadership skills they apply and the supportive theories. It will be based on the Lincolnshire fire and rescue service, which is located in East Midlands region in the United Kingdom. An outline of the case study undertaken Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) was formed in 1974 and it serves Lincolnshire County (Mullins, 2007). It mitigates and prevents emergencies, as is the mandate of any fire and rescue service in the above jurisdiction. It holds a capacity of 900 employees with only 200 being fulltime workers while the rest are part time (Brooks, 2006.). Either there are also others who volunteer in this organization .These are interns or people who work on charity as well as people from other organizations who are on exchange programs. The Lincolnshire County covers an area of 5,921 km and it has a population of approximately 750,000 people (Buckman, 2005). LFRS has 38 stations with co-responder 20 stations (Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue, 2010). The county has been divided into four station support groups that support the requirements of the thirty-eight stations. LFRS senior management is made up of the Chief fire officer and three other assistants who all manage different departments (Brooks, 2006). They are meant to ensure that the community receives efficient and effective service through maximizing on the service mission statement. The statement is to make Lincolnshire a safer place to live, work and visit.  Organization development, Community Protection and Risk Management, the Resources, and Policy, Planning and Performance departments they head. Roles define organizational culture as shared values, the norms, and expectations that determine the way employees accomplish their responsibilities and relate with each other. Roles and responsibilities of managers Managers have the mandate of fulfilling the purpose of the institution (Buckman, 2005). This includes making sure that the mission of the organization is achieved. They have a social responsibility towards their employers. The management function comprises of several elements such as: 1. Planning - This involves coming up with a clear goal of what needs to be done in the organization in the future. The future goals could be weekly goals, monthly half-early quarterly or even annual goals. Failing to plan is planning to fail (Cole, 2001). Planning is therefore viewed as a very core element of the management skills and is quite essential component of management. Planning in an organization ranges from human resource to the financial planning. Resources available in the organization have to be planned. Planning is important so as to allocate the resources, which are always scarce, and thus they always need allocation. In Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Services, planning function is done in the different departments by the various departmental heads (McKenna, 2000). Moreover, the planning process may take two forms, which are short-term strategies and long-term strategies. This means that the managers should utilise the short-term strategies to formulate long-term strategies that will illuminate the way for the organisation. Additionally, the manager understands that the requirements of projects changes with time, and thus they should be ready to embrace changes and introduce the changes in their plans. 2. Leading and directing - The management provides leadership by determining what needs to be done. This calls for a high ability to make decisions (Cote, 2003). Leading also involves getting people to do the specified function that needs to be done. In the leading function, delegation is sometimes called for especially when the functions to be done are too many or the group too large (Brooks, 2006.). In Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service, the management always have the function of dispersing their teams in such away that the workload in case of an emergency is carried out effectively. The east Midlands Regional management board has also put some measures of ensuring that these activities within LFRS are carried out effectively (Cote, 2003). 3. Organizing - The management of any organization also has a chief role of organizing the activities of the organization. This activity involves making optimum use of all the resources so as to ensure that plans are carried out effectively (Buckman, 2005). Optimization of resources calls for key emphasis and knowledge in the allocation skills. The managers have to lay keen emphasis on how resources are allocated to the various departments to allow optimization or maximum satisfaction achievement from the given resources. LFRS senior management allocates the resources that are available to the various departmental heads who later allocate the resources in their departments (Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue, 2010). 4. Staffing - It is the core duty of the management to staff the organization. They have to ensure that work force is sufficient to meet all the needs of the organization and to ensure that the duties that have to be carried out have enough people and resources to fill the vacancies up (Buckman, 2005). These activities include job analysis, which specifies what activities need to be carried out in a certain job and what the job entails. It also includes recruitment and the eventual hiring of individuals to fill these vacancies. The importance of this function is that without the appropriate resources an organization may not be able to be effective and thus human power or human resource is quite essential (Cole, 2001). This is normally done by the human resource management team. In Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service as earlier noted there are nine hundred workers. Seven hundred are part time workers while two hundred are full, time workers. These are hired by the management of the organization and after hiring, they are taken through orientation process and the training process (McKenna, 2000). 5. Controlling - this activity is also called monitoring and it involves measuring the progress against the plans. This is used to give feedback on the activities of the organization (Cote, 2003). The management uses this to know what course of action needs to be taken so as to improve the services and bring better results to the organization. In Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Services, the controlling action is deemed as very important as the organization normally reviews its activities so as to improve on its weaknesses as well as build on its strengths (House of Commons, 2006). 6. Decision-making – appropriate decision-making is inherent in organisations since it could determine all the factors that affect the organisation. Timely and strategic decisions that are made by the managers guide and direct all activities that can be accomplished in an organisation. Moreover, the approach that managers should utilise in decision-making is that of inclusiveness, this means that all stakeholders should be involved in the process of making decisions so that all stakeholders can embrace decisions that are made. 7. Motivating – motivation can be defined as directing internal urge of an employee towards fulfilling efficiently a given task. The role of managers is to ensure that the team members and employees are motivated. Motivated employees posses view challenges to human resource and the entire management team since they can operate with minimal supervision, they produce quality work, and decreases employee turnover. Thus, managers should formulate and implement strategies that allow motivation of employees, and hence reducing challenges that human resource management has to deal with. 8. Co-ordinating – the managers are supposed to co-ordinate different stakeholders to ensure value for their investments are achieved. Some of the common stakeholders include the consumers, suppliers, government agencies, shareholders and community, and hence managers are supposed to ensure that the requirement of each stakeholder is addressed in a way that the value of an organisation would be improved. Leadership styles There are different kinds of leaders. Some are autocratic, these are leaders who are dictatorial and they do not consult their workers before arriving to a decision (Brooks, 2006.). Others are democratic. These allow the team to give their input before decisions are made. The other type of a leader is a Laissez-faire leader who allows the team to make the decision and they do not interfere with the decisions that are made. The leadership styles that are used in different organizations include: 1. Transformational leadership - A leader who employs this style sets clear goals that need to be achieved. He also clearly communicates the vision to his workers, team in general, and acts as a good example to the team because he leads by example (Cole, 2001). Such a leader is also very actively involved in motivating his workers and makes sure that the kind of duties and assignments he assigns his workers are motivating (Shajahan, 2007). He is also very integral and very inspiring to his team. He teaches people to put the interests of the team before their personal interests so as to avoid goals conflicting within the organization. Many organizations assimilate this style of leadership that motivates the workers and make them look beyond their personal goals (Buckman, 2005). This type of leadership also promotes teamwork and ensures that organizational goals are achieved effectively. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Services highly employ this style of leadership because it is very important for the employees to understand that organizational goals are more important than personal goals. This is especially so in the rescue missions where people are assigned the roles that will captivate them to work effectively. This ensures that the team works to their optimum ability (House of Commons, 2006). 2. Charismatic leadership - This type of leader applies charm in his daily endeavours. These type of leaders sometimes consider themselves and their interests more than any one else in the group. They however can elevate an entire company and they never intend to harm any one. They share some qualities with transformational leaders (Cole, 2001). 3. Participative leader - This type of leader does not take autocratic decisions. He rather involves other people before arriving to a decision. He includes the subordinate’s superiors and even the stakeholders (Cote, 2003). This kind of leadership is also applied in LFRS so as to ensure that everyone is involved in decision-making as this captivates workers and gives them morale to work harder. It is a democratic style of leadership. Conclusion Managers are an important entity to any organization whether it is profit oriented or non-profit oriented. The expectations of the stakeholders ought to be met or fulfilled by the direction of the management team. As such, it is quite essential for the management to be well versed in their main chores of staffing, leading, controlling, organizing, motivating, decision-making, coordinating and planning. The management also ought to be well versed with the leadership styles, which could be autocratic, democratic or even laissez faire, oriented. The leaders ought to understand clearly whether they will employ the charismatic style of leadership, the participative style, the situational style or any other that the organization would deem as appropriate for the achievement of its goals. The fire and rescue services also ought to employ these leadership and management styles as illustrated in the Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue service. References Brooks, I. 2006. Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation, 3rd. New York: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Buckman, J. 2005. Chief Fire Officer’s Desk Reference. London: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Cole, G. 2001. Organisational Behaviour: Theory and Practice. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA. Cote, A. 2003. Organising for Fire and Rescue Services. London: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. House of Commons. 2006. The Fire and Rescue Service: Session 2005-06. London: The Stationery Office. Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue. 2010. About Us. Available from http://microsites.lincolnshire.gov.uk/LFR/section.asp?catId=12785 [accessed on 8 May 2010] McKenna, E. 2000. Business Psychology and Organisational Behaviour: a Student’s handbook, 3rd Ed. New York: Psychology Press. Mullins, L. 2007. Management and Organisational Behaviour, 8th Ed. New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Shajahan, S. 2007. Organisation Behaviour. New York: New Age International. Read More