Fire Service Administration - Coursework Example

Fire service administration Introduction Motivation can be defined as a set of psychological attributes that stimulates an individual to act in a certain manner to achieve a desired goal. It may be considered as a dynamic force that emphasizes one or multiple actions towards a specific desired goal. For example, hunger is core motivational factor or stimuli that elicit the desire or willingness to eat. The success of any organization depends upon the effectiveness of the management and the leaders. Across organizations, leaders or managers are strategically placed in various departments to ensure overall organizational productivity. Therefore it is important for the managers to motivate the employees. (French, 189). The study looks to focus on Baker City fire departments belonging to the state of Oregon, US. Oregon is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the US. It is situated in the Pacific Coast; with California located in the south and Washington in the north. Baker City is located in the state of Oregon. It has been named after Edward D. Baker. Mr. Baker happens to be the only Senator to have killed in military combat. The study looks to analyze the way the authorities of the Baker City fire department looks to motivate the employees. The study looks to focus on various motivational theories, Maslow’ Hierarchical theory in particular to analyze how the fire department motivates the employees with the issues such as selection, promotion, compensation and benefits, performance appraisal, and employee and labor relations. (McShane, 235). Personnel management functions and your organizational culture Abraham Maslow is one of the founding fathers of the management learning theories. In 1943, Maslow published a motivational theory know as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According the theory the human need can be classified into five different hierarchies. The five different hierarchical needs are physiological needs, safety and security, social needs, esteem needs, self actualization. According to the theory once an individual achieves a certain hierarchy of needs, then that the next set of needs act as a drive for motivation and so on. The basic of physiological needs includes air, shelter, water, clothes, etc. the security needs refers to the need for social security in family and security to avoid hunger or violence. The social needs refer to the need for love and belonging needs. This includes need for love, appreciation, friendship in society. The esteem needs refers to the need to be a unique individual with self respect and to enjoy general esteem from others. The self actualization refers to the stage when an individual has realized and achieved the true worth. When it comes to selection the Baker city fire department motivates the prospective employees to join the fire department by using emotional aspects. The department motivates the employees by saying that the people who would join the department would have a great dynamic career ahead. Add to that the applicant would also be contributing lot to society by saving lives of people. Also the applicants would be taken care of well financially. In this way the fire department uses the basic or the physiological needs and esteem needs to motivate the people to join the fire department. Once selected the organizational culture of the fire department emphasizes upon the fact that there is ample opportunity for growth. During the training and induction program the rookies are shown an organizational chart or hierarchy. This shows that the initially the employees may join as a firefighter. But the passion for work and performance can help the individuals to have a long term career. The rookie after firefighters after gaining some amount of experience could be promoted to Fire Fighting shift inspector, then to firefighting acting officer, then to captain, then to deputy chief of operations and finally to fire fighter chief director. This way the department using the esteem needs to motivate the employees. Each and every year the organization performs yearly performance appraisal to make sure that the employees are aware of the strengths and weaknesses. This way the department uses the need for self actualization. Another important parameter to focus upon is the relation between the employees’ as well as the relation between the management and the employee. This way the authorities use the social needs to develop a sense e of belongingness among the employees to ensure harmonious organizational culture (Bhattacharya, 401). Theories of motivation with respect to the daily activities In order to relate the theories of motivation to the daily activities XYZ Theory have been used. In the year 1960, Douglas McGregor developed this effective motivational theory that suggests two main aspects of human behavior. One is negative called Theory X and one is positive called Theory Y. According to Theory X, employees inherently do not like working. The employees would try to skip work whenever possible. Therefore the employees need to be monitored all the time. (Miller, 92) At some times the employees need to threatened with punishment to achieve desired goals. It also says that the employees do not like responsibilities and resist changes. According to Theory Y, employees of an organization can perceive the job as quite normal and relaxing. The employees exercise mental and physical efforts inherently in the job. The employees may or may not actually need threat but they can practice self direction. If the job is rewarding then it would lead to satisfaction, loyalty and commitment. Employee can themselves have the skills and capabilities and learn to admit responsibility. Although the fire fighting is a very physically and demanding job it is believed that the authorities mostly use theory Y to motivate the employees. The department encourages the employees to take work as a natural activity. The department believes that if suitably motivated the people are self directed to achieve objectives. The department encourages commitment from the employees that can be obtained through job satisfaction. The department also encourages the employees to be imaginative and creative. Here it must be added that during the initial training period there may is existence of theory X. This is done to make sure that the recruits understand the seriousness of the job. As the decision taken by the recruits in future can save or even take lives of the peers or the civilians. Hence, a lot of supervisory activities are usually performed during that phase. (Goswami, 205). Suggestions The department should consider starting quality circles to find out means to improve the quality of the service. The Baker City Fire service department should initiate employee assistance program to increase employee satisfaction just like Boston Fire Service department. Conclusions Out of all the professions in the world, the people belonging to the Baker city fire service department consist of some of the most of motivated and dedicated employees. The department motivates the employees by saying that the people who would join the department would have a great dynamic career ahead. During the training and induction program the rookies are shown an organizational chart or hierarchy. This shows that the initially the employees may join as a firefighter. But the passion for work and performance can help the individuals to have a long term career. The rookie after firefighters after gaining some amount of experience could be promoted to Fire Fighting shift inspector, then to firefighting acting officer, then to captain, then to deputy chief of operations and finally to fire fighter chief director. This way the department using the esteem needs to motivate the employees. Each and every year the organization performs yearly performance appraisal to make sure that the employees are aware of the strengths and weaknesses. This way the department uses the need for self actualization. Another important parameter to focus upon is the relation between the employees’ as well as the relation between the management and the employee. This way the authorities use the social needs to develop a sense e of belongingness among the employees to ensure harmonious organizational culture. Works Cited Bhattacharya, Dipak.. Human Resource Planning. India: Excel Books, 2009. Print. French, Ray. Organizational Behavior. UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print. Goswami, Rahul. Organizational Behavior. India: Matrix Educare, 2010. Print. McShane, Steven. Organizational Behavior.UK: Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2011. Print. Miller,, Katherine. Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. UK: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print Read More