Fire and Rescue Service in the United Kingdom - Case Study Example

Running head: Management and Leadership Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Contents Running head: Management and Leadership 1 Contents 2 Management and Leadership 3 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Historical Background 4 3.0 Roles and Responsibilities of Managers 4 4.0 Management Theories 6 5.0 Leadership Styles 7 6.0 Conclusion 8 References 8 Management and Leadership 1.0 Introduction The main aim of this paper is to highlight the whole structure of management of fire and rescue service in the United Kingdom, thereafter giving a report on the same. It is worth noting that any outbreak of emergency is primarily covered by the determined and hardworking team of fire and rescue service. It is also imperative to ascertain that fire and rescue service is incorporated in the United Kingdom’s legislation and by all the departments within the government. This therefore implies that the fire and rescue service enjoys its funding from a fire authority. It is the same fire authority that is mandated to govern the fire and rescue service. The purpose of this paper is to give a detailed analysis of the managerial structure as a whole, by putting into consideration the managers’ roles and responsibilities, thus assessing the leadership theories and styles while giving comparisons with other emergency services. A summary of the historical background of the fire and rescue services will also be highlighted in this paper. 2.0 Historical Background The fire and rescue service legislation was incorporated in 1865, when an Act known as Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was successfully passed in the United Kingdom (Bain 2002, p. 7). This resulted into fire and rescue becoming its own entity since it was withdrawn from the insurance companies. Furthermore, there was an urgency of fire and rescue service to be incorporated in the local authorities, hence the passing of the Fire Brigade’s Act in 1938, which saw the legal incorporation of fire and rescue service in the local authorities. Initially, the fire and rescue in the United Kingdom used to offer its services under different legislative and administrative entities in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and in Wales. However, the Second World War saw the merging of all these different administrative and legislative entities to form a sole National Fire Service. 3.0 Roles and Responsibilities of Managers Bain (2006, p. 778) clearly highlights the roles and responsibilities of managers. In the United Kingdom, the managerial structure of the fire and rescue service is composed of various positions. The different managerial positions have unique roles and responsibilities, that together in harmony, see the smooth running of the whole fire and rescue services. Some of the managerial positions include; the crew manager, watch manager, station manager, group manager, area manager. The Crew Manager is entitled to educate and give informative talks and materials to the community, in order to enhance and improve the safety awareness within the residents. This will in turn contribute to the overall fire safety solutions, thus minimizing risks that can be undertaken within that particular community. The Crew Manager is also entitled to lead the duties of his team and individuals in ensuring that the goals and objectives are successfully achieved. The manager is also supposed to initiate the development of the team and of the individuals. Furthermore, the Crew Manager offers investigative analysis for future reference. On the hierarchy of management, there also exists the Watch Manager, who is also entitled to be in the leading front of teams and individuals in ensuring that they do achieve their goals and objectives. Together with the roles of the Crew Manager listed above, the watch manager is obliged to lead and aid individuals to find solutions to the operational incidents and ensure that there is efficient use of the resources that is allocated to the team. This therefore implies that the watch manager acquires, stores and allocates resources to teams and individuals. This enables the watch manager to assess team’s and individual’s performance, thus responding to poor performances. On the other hand, the Station Manager is entitled to avail solutions to risks that are as a result of investigation and inspections. The station manager is entitled to plan and give implementations that will oversee the acquisition of service delivery needs. The station manager is obliged to choose and select the individuals who will be members of a particular team. The Group Manager is entitled to be the implementer of the fire and rescue service strategy as well as being the one who initiates the changes that occur in the different departments. He/she has the role of determining the efficient use of physical and effective use of physical and financial resources. 4.0 Management Theories According to Arvey et al (2006, p. 2), there exist several management theories that oversee the effective and successful running of an organization. Henry Fayol’s Classical management Theory asserts that the management has a duty to forecast and plan, and to organize command and offer coordination and control any system. However, the Human relation management Theory gives analysis of how every organization ought to operate. In this theory, there are incidents of contingencies, which implies that something is bound to happen, but is not given a priority of anticipation by an organization. However, contingencies, though not fully anticipated, advocate for proper planning. It is imperative to assert that an organization is encouraged by selecting the necessary interactions that the managerial groups or any sole manager of any organization would want to consider. Checkland (1997, p. 35) states that the managerial role is therefore important at this juncture as he continues to assert that a good manager is judged by how he/she carries out the roles and responsibilities that are designated to him. The manager is entitled to be transparent to his subjects. Therefore, the manager is supposed to have good communication skills with his/her subordinates. Managers are entitled to apply the McGregor’s X and Y Theory of communication. In this theory, X is considered as the De-motivated side, whereas the Y is the motivated turn. Theory X is entitled for direction and control mechanisms, whereas Y is based on the incorporation of individual and organizational goals. According to Buckley (2007, p. 23), through these assumptions, a good manager is responsible to be the leader of his staff and effectively delegate duties on an impartial manner of the entire staff. A good leader gives focus on people rather than on the machines or economics. A good leader is able to motivate and build his team. 5.0 Leadership Styles Different styles of leadership are acquired by different leaders. There are those leaders that are of democratic temperament, which implies that these leaders are guided by the principle that every member of a society has equal opportunity o accessing power. Moreover, they have a belief that every member of a particular society has the responsibility of embracing and recognizing the universal freedoms and liberties. There are also some leaders who posses dictatorial temperament. According to this type of leadership, the leaders assume that a single leader is entitled to hold power that is non other than him/herself. On contrary, the laissez-faire, which literary means “let do” is an initiative that maintains personal liberty, peace, security and property rights (Bartlet, 1998, P. 34). When McGregor’s Theory is incorporated in the laissez faire leadership style, it is imperative to ascertain that there is less overall control of X, since in this category, there exists de-motivation of the dictatorship and Y, that where motivation of democratic leadership style exists. Therefore, when a leader embraces this leadership style, there is ample potentiality that the leader will ensure that all the work is completed. 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it is imperative to incorporate some research that was carried in the United Kingdom. One of the prominent research reports was conducted by Professor Sir after being mandated by the government to carry out a review and give a report of the fire service in the United Kingdom (George 2002, P. 778). In his report titled “The Independent Review of The Fire Service, he highlighted amazing growth and changes in the fire and rescue service. Later on, this report was known as the Fire and Rescue Services Act of 2004. In all the circumstances, the role that any positive leader has is to effectively deal with anxiety. A good leader is obliged to relevant and enabling factors in any given working environment especially in the fire and rescue service organization. The role and responsibility of fire and rescue managers is to ensure that there is harmony in promoting equity and embrace diversities within such a vast organization. Leaders should ensure that there is transparency and accountability and that all members feel equal to each other, and can communicate freely with their authorities. References Arvey, R.D., Rotundo, M., Johnson,W., Zhang, Z., & Mcgue, M 2006. ‘The Determinants of leadership role of Occupancy: Genetics and Personality Factors’ The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 1, no. 7, pp. 1-20. Bain, G 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service, Secretaries of State, UK. Bartlet, B 1998 ‘Laissez Faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth-Century Britain’ Journal of Economic History, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 78-105 Buckley, W 2007, Sociology and Modern Systems Theory, pp. 2-57. Checkland, P 1997, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester. George, J., M 2006. Leader Positive Mood and Group Performance: ‘The case of customer Service’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol. 25, no. 9, pp. 778-794. Read More