Fire Service Specific Leadership Style - Report Example

Fire Service Specific Leadership Style. Name: Course Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Fire Service Specific Leadership Style Abstract There has been a great move to encourage the need for top managers and other executive officers in organization to acquire formal training in leadership. Leadership is a key structure in an organization that is mandated to decision making. In the wake of increased competition due to globalization, knowledge, skills and experience are three major tools the management takes into account in hiring their employees to explore and dominate their market influence [Jor11]. Such skills in leadership enable the organization to increase it[Ric07]. market control helping it to leap profits. Essentially, leadership determines the future state of the company. This paper focuses on fire service specific leadership style that can be applied in a number of instances to create positive results. Key words: Training, organization, decision making, competition, globalization, knowledge and skills, and fire service specific leadership style. Introduction Large organizations require strong leadership skills to ensure that the organization’s needs are fulfilled. These needs may be categorized into socio-emotional needs and task needs[Hay13]. To effectively deliver services in the most appropriate way, there is great need to practice good leadership skills that incorporates management of all activities of the organization. According to Hayes (2013), there is legitimate power in a position one hold in the organization. Effective leadership is a combination of competence in managing task and the employees as well. This paper will critically review the management strategies applied in an organization, challenges occurring within the leadership context of that organization and the possible approaches that may help reduce problems and focus on achieving the desirable goals of the organization effectively[Ric07]. Furthermore, essential measures are discussed on how effective leadership can be applied to increase effectiveness of fire service departments across the UK and other parts of the world (Jordan, 2011). Scope of the Study This paper will focus on leadership in organizations with a concentration on the case of a fire service department. This study will draw documented facts from different researchers and also from case studies. Furthermore, it will focus on theoretical arguments laid out by different scholars and a review of their arguments on real life situations[Sco07]. The information presented will be critically analysed. In addition, it will focus on the challenges experienced in the implementation phase of the recommendations made and analyse the possible solutions that may be applied to solve the gap in leadership. The role played by leadership in the development of an organization forms the foundation of this stud (Pat, 2011). Leadership Leadership is viewed as the ability of a person influence others to adhere to your views. It comprises of a series of behaviours. According to Bales (1950), leadership is classified into several categories depending on the purpose and type of skills required. Leadership has both task oriented roles as well as social-emotionally oriented. All these skills are required for promoting two key roles that lead to goals achievement and maintenance of the organization. On the other hand, socio-emotionally roles facilitates good relationship among the team to meet the employees demands through compensation, motivation, encouragement and rewarding that are key services to the employees. With such moves, one can determine the productivity of the business or organization. Good working relationship between the employees will facilitate effective management within the organization. Distributed leadership (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka et al., 2001) Charismatic Leadership This form of leadership is highly concentrated on the abilities in terms of strength and an example of their leadership. According to Nadler and Tischman (1990, p. 109), this form of leadership encourages the three pillars of envisioning, energizing and enabling roles in the organization. Charismatic leadership is based on the visions of the organization, motivating the employees or those around the organization in working towards a common vision for the organization. With this form of leadership, there are a number of activities that may lead to its failure[Sco07]. However, they mainly contribute the failure of leadership and not the task at hand. Some of these problems are discussed below. (a) Situational Leadership Situational leadership relates to the readiness of the employees to taking a step forward towards meeting the organizations dream. With this form of leadership, one should be able to read how ready the followers are taking towards a certain responsibility. The readiness is defined by the employee’s willingness and ability to perform the task and produce a desirable result. To achieve these tasks as expected, it encourages day to day follow up by the leaders in ensuring the task are not only performed but to the specifications. Favreau (1973) argues that this form of leadership is the leader has to have a well-trained and ready staff to meet the goals. (b) Contingency Leadership The contingency leadership style involves the interaction between asking-orientation and relationship-orientation. According to Utecht and Heier (1976), the relationship between the followers in this case the employee of the fire service and the leader is enhanced and critically assessed to fit the requirement of the organization. This improves the productivity of the team leading to better services. Fire services are normally given in times of stress and trauma from the affected communities. Both emotional and healthcare engagements should be provided to them within a short duration of time. A strong and able team is essential in such kind of leadership in the case of fire service stations (Pat, 2011). (c) Citizen Leadership This form of leadership exists in free sand democratic societies. Democracy and leadership relate at especially in convincing people to follow their ideology. It is based on the fact that without the followers no leadership can exist. The need for equality in treatment forms the basis of this form of leadership. Relating it to the fire departments, it may well fit the volunteering members of the society. With it, the time that the leader gets his position is dependent on the society where only successful leaders and with more influence would stay long enough in the organization. The leaders in this position through this style is expected to work within the restrain of these people in the implementation of policies. Such leadership has more preference of the person more that the task [Hal07]. (d) Servant Leadership Servant leadership is based on the deeds of the leaders towards the employees that may motivate or discourage the workforce. How the leader treat them is how they react towards the leadership plea. It focuses on the morality within the leadership of an organization. Moral interaction between the workforce and leadership relates greatly to the resultant performance of the employees. Success will be verified in an organization bearing this form of leadership when it has put them first and created a good cohesive team. In the fire department, it may help building trustworthy bond between leadership and the team on the ground. Such leadership skills would impact positively the entire organization positively improving on service delivery [Hal07]. (e) Transformational leadership Administrative literature view the study and practice of transformative leadership as crucial and new to most of the managers. According to Burns (1978), transformative leadership should essentially be stressed to organizations. The exploration into this form of leadership has been accounted for by increased competition, advancement in technology and globalization. Different from transactional leadership, transformative leadership essentially concentrate on development, progress, authorization, self-confidence and complement. Formulating workable strategies and work plans are greatly enhanced in this form of leadership. It does not only contribute to the success of the organization, but also improve on the employees’ motivation and appreciation (Chen & Silverthorne, 2005). The diagram below illustrates the essential principles: The competencies for a Transformational Leader are similar to those of Emotional Intelligence. Source: www.gu.edu. Chemjong (2004) argues that transformative leadership is indiscriminate of gender, race, religion nor colour. It also promotes the efforts of transnational leadership on followers. Changing an employee’s personal values and encouraging them to change their mentality and work towards creating innovative ways of helping the organization attain its objectives, vision and mission. This has been the reason more focus and training is given on transformative leadership. Burns (1978) have a superior view on transformative leadership as the act of empowering the employees to transform their thoughts and feelings that encourages them to work towards the goals and mission of the organization (Pat, 2011). Cartel View on Leadership in Fire Service Concepts laid out by cartel on leadership has a lot of application to the organization in today’s setting. He views leadership in different styles that are dependent on the type of organization and tasks involved. Application of leadership style in an organizations leads to healthy administration that is responsible for the implementation of the set goals. However, one cannot discus about leadership and forget its role in motivating the employees who hold a great portion of the organization. In the case of firefighting operations, the team has to be equipped with knowledge, skills and modern inputs to extinguish fires and respond to emergency services including first aid in a more professional way [Hal07]. Development of an effective, who command respect, loyalty and solve challenges arising in the organization in a professional manner would improve on service delivery, customer relations and improved workforce motivation. Such an organization would attend emergency cases effectively and efficiently control the disastrous situation. Good leadership ensures effective communication within the relevant departments. Encouraged employees, motivated and well rewarded can improve the status of the fire departments and solve most of the hazardous situations. Coleman (1978) explains that leadership plays a critical role in service delivery in any organization. It is independent of the organization being a private or public. Effective leadership is viewed as the oil that drives the organization Failure in leadership slows down the operations of organization before it falls. This shows that there is great need to practice effective and efficient leadership to the entire organization setting. In an emergency department, such a halt in activities may lead to massive loss of life and properties that is hazardous. Paulsgrove (2003) argues that diminished leadership skills may be risky not only to the organization but to the servicemen in the emergency departments. Considering the dangers posed by low skilled management team, there is need to equip the organization leadership with knowledge and skills in order to protect lives and properties both to the citizens and emergency teams. To understand this, leadership styles are discussed briefly pointing out to the relevant distinguishing characteristics of each form of leadership. Challenges affecting effective leadership There are several challenges that has seriously affected the organizations globally. They hinder effective service delivery and lower the efficiency of the organization. They relate to the inability of leadership or management to developing necessary skills in the dynamic leadership that continuous changing especially with the new era of technological advancement that has led to globalization. Strategic thinking and decision making is a challenge influencing the development of companies and organizations. Most of the projects in an organization are influenced greatly by the strategic plans. Poor strategies formulation and planning may lead to gross failure in the organization [Ade01]. Inspiration of the employees play an important role in the entire organization. Most of the work in an organization is done by the workforce with the leadership only evaluating the work after completion. Most of leaders lack know how on the ways they can motivate their employees to work efficiently. This may lead to failure of the organization’s project. With the emergency in fire service departments, this failure might be catastrophic to employees who place their life at risk and the entire society that depends on their services. Development of employees with time has been another highlighted challenge in leadership [Ade01]. Managing the teams in a project or organization has greatly influenced the success of the organization. This failure arises from team building, team organization and development. It is dependent on the leader’s ability to encourage, build and work within a team to implement the desirable project. Team building is essential in any organization. More emphasis have to be realised to meet the fire services to a number of deserving members of the society. This failure may account to more deaths of employees due to poor team management. Furthermore, conflicts management within the organization is a major factor determining the success of the organization. Lack of conflict management skills within the organization may make some of the workforce team feeling alienated from the affairs of the organization. Such side-lining feeling may lower their productivity within the organization [Arm03]. Evaluation of Leadership in Fire Services Dynamism in leadership and organizational set up is one of the major influencing factor affecting many industries today. Diversity in strategy and workforce management is a fundamental requirement for any organization. Satisfaction of the clients is not the only goal today, but it includes basic necessities such as the ability to maintain the workforce for a long duration. However, these strategies and policies have to be reviewed to identify their impact on the organization’s performance. Most of these strategies are aimed at promoting diversity and equality [Arm03]. The measurements undertaken in evaluation process are grounded mainly on cost-benefit analysis of the strategic initiative. For example, all projects implemented in UK, both the central government and donors have to carry their own evaluation of the project. According to a survey carried out in 2005 by English Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), it is noted that majority of the firms observe diversity initiatives objectively. Lack of documented work on diversity and equality initiatives, scholars have agreed on several measures to take in evaluating the firm training. These models of evaluation were introduced by Kirkpatrick, Hamblin and Warr, and Bird and Rackham in the 1970s. Training in an Fire Service Organization Scott Somers argues that though training in fire service departments might be challenging and expensive, alternative methods should be in consideration to ensure that affordable training is given both to the leadership and other employees. In addition, induction seminars have also been found to encourage good working relationship between management and workforce. With the diversity in technological measures and equipment, such technology might solve most of the problems associated with the organization. Most of the organization offering fire services are advocating for technology enhanced training in their organizations [Arm03]. With the view of reducing the cost associated with training in the classroom setting, fire service department are now embracing computer based training. It covers a large number of learners, diversified approach and is available anytime anywhere. In EMT training, computer based training has been achieved successfully with the view of their impact to an organization. However, the organization leadership should ensure that they provide better facilities to their employees to ensure that the program is effectively managed and maximum benefit leaped from the training. It is true that global leadership has changed greatly with the advancement in technology and accessibility of leadership information through the internet facilities. In addition, it is agreed that for the organization to withstand the current competition, it has to initiate programs that favour the implementation of workforce and initiatives that can improve on service delivery and facilitate good market command. Training directed towards enlightening the workforce on global development and changing. The challenging issued being faced by the fire departments are similar in manner to other related organizations [Arm03]. Competition is due to most organizations taking serious measures to ensure they provide affordable, excellent and unique services. The company has to encourage the employees to demonstrate their talents and efforts towards the organization achieve the strategic plans. In the case of this organization, it will help improve their services, care and concern of their customers and other stakeholders. In realizing the strategic plans, the organization has to diversify in demonstrating their abilities in exploiting the market and meeting their visions. In competition, transformative leadership is essential to maintain the organization market demands that will influence their line of service [Arm03]. Recommendations There are a number of recommendations that can be made through critical analysis of the challenges in fire departments as well as other organizations. It has been notably agreed by many scholars and researchers that the challenges facing the fire departments are similar in nature to other organization globally. These challenges are similar irrespective of the country in which the organization operates from. To begin with, there should be more technology enhanced induction and informative seminars and workshops to facilitate training to ensure that the knowledge of the employees is equally distributed to all levels of the organization [Arm03]. Furthermore, the organization should focus on a wide range of services to ensure that they are able to communicate effectively in all levels of administration and workforce departments. Good communication will promote effectiveness and facilitate the decision making process. In addition, the leadership should encourage, motivate and commit reward system that is unbiased and treat the workforce equally without gender, religious or political differences. They should ensure that they create an organization that is family like through conflict management skills training to the management and employees [Arm03]. Conclusion Observing the progress made in discussion, the leadership styles used in fire service departments can be applied to all other non- fire organization. Different organization suffers similar challenges relating to employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, conflict management, and effective communication and non-bureaucratic management structure that allows effective coordination, planning and organization of activities in the organization. Efficiency in delivery of services is the key factor to consider to effectively deliver the desired solutions to the community dependent on the organization. In conclusion, there is coloration between leadership in fire service departments and other organizations. All these practices will allow effectiveness in delivery of service. A motivated employee will commit their efforts, energies and talents towards achieving the goals of the organization. Facilitating their contribution, the management plays an important role in effectively delivering good managerial and leadership qualities that are admirable, attractive and efficient in all levels of the management. Bibliography Adeyemi-Bello, T., 2001. The Impact of Leadership Style on Organizational Growth. Work Study, 50(4), pp. 150-154. Armstrong, M., 2003. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 5 ed. London: Kogan Page. Bartolo, K. & Furlonger, B., 2000. Leadership and Job Satisfaction among Aviation Fire Fighters in Australia. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 15(1), pp. 87-93. Burns, J., 1978. Leadership. 4 ed. New York, NY. : Harper and Row Publishers. Chemjong, M., 2004. Transactional or transformational leader? Spot light, 24(2), pp. 261-63. Chen, J. & Silverthorne, C., 2005. Leadership Effectiveness, Leadership Style and Employee Readiness. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26(4), pp. 280-288. Chiok Foong Loke, J., 2001. 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