Organization Behaviour on Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Organisation Behaviour Name & ID Course Name & Code Instructor’s Name 29 November 2009 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 An outline of the case study undertaken 3 An examination of the organisational context 3 An analysis of the role of individuals and teams within organisations 4 An explanation of how roles are defined in organisations 6 An assessment of organisational development 8 An appraisal of organisational management 9 Conclusion 9 Reference 11 Introduction Numerous organisations are developed but most of them are developed based on certain requirement. Fire and rescue service is example of organisations that are developed based on the requirement of safety and health. Thus, the aim of this report is to analyse organisation requirements and organisation change, structure and conflict resolution. Most examples will be based on Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service. An outline of the case study undertaken Fire and rescue services are required to prevent, and mitigate emergencies. One such organisation that contributes immensely in provision of assistance to the community is Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service that serves Lincolnshire County. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) employ 900 staff and firefighters, with 200 full time firefighters. Lincolnshire County covers an area of 5,921 km2 with an estimated population of 750,000 people. LFRS was formed in 1974 and it has 38 stations with co-responder 20 stations. The distance between towns is large while the roads are Spartan and thus the comparative distances makes it the lowest response time in UK at a time of ten minutes. The county area is split into four Station Support Groups that supports the requirements of the 38 stations. An examination of the organisational context Organisation operates in two environments; internal environment which is the structure and provisions of an organisation that the organisation can control while the external environment, which are the forces that are beyond the control of the organisation but determines the success /failure of an organisation. Internal organisational structures should factor brining into consideration their aims in fulfilling the requirements of external environments. External environment factors include legal, economic, political, technological and societal requirements (Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue 2009). Before formulating or plan to undertake any strategy, it is important for an organisation to analyse its internal environment. International environment brings into consideration factors such as organisational structure, leadership, resources and competitive advantage (McKenna 2000). After an organisation analyses international environment, it introduces external environment to enable understanding on opportunities and threats to an organisation. This means that environmental analysis can be seen as process that consists of evaluating, monitoring and disseminating information that is obtained from both internal and external environment to strategies within an organisation. On the other hand, environmental scanning is the use of information about trends, events and relationship in an organisation’s external environment, in which the knowledge will assist management to plan for future action that the organisation will take (Cote 2003). Thus, fire and rescue service employs the idea of internal and external environment analysis in determining their future plans and timescale. The internal environment include the staff, fire engines and equipments while the external environment brings into consideration the government, communities, agencies and other controlling bodies (Shajahan 2007). An analysis of the role of individuals and teams within organisations No single organisation can operate without the help of different individuals; individuals in an organisation are supposed to accomplish certain tasks. Thus, different individuals with different behaviours, personality, talents and perceptions come together to form team s since major decisions are made by more than one person (Brooks 2006). Collaboration of a tem of individual from different backgrounds interact as peers thus pooling their ides, plans and judgment into accomplishing important tasks. The employees and teams are supposed to learn throughout development of their organisation by either attending trainings or learning through experience. The learning process provides an opportunity for an organisation to evolve and thus can fulfil changing requirements of environment (Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue 2009). It is evident that human beings want to have a voice in certain matters and sometimes want to hear contributions of other people. This means that it is important to encourage effective communication to allow proper transactions of ideas. Exchange of information and ideas through good communication will result in reduction of conflicts and instructions can be clearly understood. Communication is encouraged in LFRS since the views of different members are encouraged into ensuring that the specified requirements are fulfilled. Communication is a two way process while the major players in fire and rescue services are the communities, this means that the fire and rescue should communicate effectively with all stakeholders to foster success of organisational requirements (Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue 2009). In fire and rescue services, it is important to bring together different individuals to accomplish specific tasks. The teams should be built based on the requirements of the teamwork. The teamwork should bring into consideration group formation and structure. It is important to balance organisational structure/chart with structure of teams that have been formulated. This will prevent misunderstanding between the employees while at the same time each has an opportunity of ensuring that the most is achieved from the formed teams. For example, LFRS Marine Incident Response Team ensures that the coastal areas are protected while their accomplishments are monitored by Fire and Rescue Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). Thus, monitoring performance of employees with provide means of developing the appropriate framework that is beneficial to all team players. Moreover, employees and team members should be motivated. Motivation and perception are the important features that can determine the success of an organisation. Individual and team perceptions should be streamlined towards fulfilling the requirements of an organisation. This means that perception encouragement can be achieved through analysis the requirements of individual and at the same time, specific motivational strategy formulated to ensure the success of an organisation (McKenna 2000). An explanation of how roles are defined in organisations From the view of an organisation, roles accord more with features of roles in human organisations such as a business or bureaucracy. This means that roles perform certain tasks within an organisation. For example, if the roles are nodes in an organisational structure, then the role may have associates or other connections with more than one role player (Brooks 2006). In most cases, roles come in terms of pairs such as buyer-seller, predecessor-successor, auditor-auditee and supervisor-subordinate. Sometimes roles may be temporarily unassigned to players since it is a position that should be filled. For example, when an employee resigns from their role as a transport manager within transport industry, the role does not cease to exist (House of Commons 2006). The position within the organisational structure may be empty but the company has to operate without the need of that player for short time. Since orders can be taken and goods can be transported thus, roles are not dependent on a person but it is within the structure of an organisation. It is not necessary that Jane Smith is the manager; John Doe can accomplish the same tasks if both have the same capability (Mullins 2007). Generally, this means that the basis of an organisational structure is not for design purposes only but also it is used to define relationship between roles that can be manipulated or maintained independently of players that are given opportunity to play the roles. In organisational charts, the roles can be seen as the nodes while the arcs/connectors are the relationships between authorities. This phenomenon is common in LFRS organisational structure (Buckman 2005). Role and responsibilities determine the way that the employees will accomplish their tasks while ensuring conflicts are minimised. LFRS has a Senior Management Team that brings into consideration the Chief Fire Officer and three Assistant Chief Officers. There main responsibility is to ensure that the community receives effective and efficient service through championing the Service mission statement that states, “Making Lincolnshire a safer place to live, work and visit”. The three Assistant Chief Fire Officer are supposed to manage different departments, which are Community Protection and Risk Management, Organisational Development and Resources, and Policy, Planning and Performance. Roles define organisational culture as the norms, shared values, and expectations that determine the way people fulfil their duties and interact with each other. Some constituents of organisational culture are humanistic-encouraging, achievement, self-actualising and build relationship (Shajahan 2007). The strategy that an organisation employs is determinant on the aspirations and requirements of vision. Different strategies are employed for different requirements, and thus during formulating strategies, it is important to ensure that roles are clearly defined. This will increase chances of effective implementation and reduce chances that are associated with conflicts. This has been achieved by LFRS through developing strategies based on roles and means of using different roles can coalesce resulting in a successful strategy (Cole 2001). An assessment of organisational development Organisational development is defined as improving the effectiveness and health of an organisation. An approach is intended to change attitudes, beliefs, structure of organisations and values so that the organisation can adapt to new markets, technologies and challenges. Moreover, organisation development may bring into consideration anything that improves an organisation and may include system improvement, organisational processes change, planning, organisational reflection and self-analysis. Organisational development brings into consideration different provisions that can influence an organisation both positively and negatively (Mullins 2007). Organisational change can be defined has an ongoing process that is required in order to bring the organisational processes and systems in line with the factors that prevails in the internal and external environment of an organisation. Thus, the forces of organisational change that include external and internal forces should be analysed. This means that organisational development is a framework consisting of planned change interventions that involves human interactions that aims improving organisational effectiveness. Hence, organisational change should balance with the requirements of organisational development. This approach will ensure that organisational conflicts are mitigated. Organisational change management encourages effective and appropriate approach to ensure that conflicts are managed (Buckman 2005). Organisational conflict can be defined as a state of discord that is caused by perceived or actual opposition of values, needs and interests between individuals working together. Conflict can take different approaches in an organisation ranging from organisational development to introduction of unique changes. Conflict management and conflict resolution should be championed so that complexities associated with change are encouraged resulting in organisational development (Brooks 2006). An appraisal of organisational management Organisation is managed based on the requirements and aims of an organisation. In strategic management, organisational management brings into consideration numerous factors such as conflict, decision making, politics and power. Decision-making ensures that the organisation employ approaches that changes operation of an organisation. Thus, before making any decision, the organisation should employ decision-making that brings into consideration views of team members and other interested parties to reduce chances of conflict. This will result in the entire decision making process to be inclusive. Power is important in controlling the way business or other activities can be accomplished. Managers have the powers to make decisions while human resource managers have the power to determine the future of an employee (Buckman 2005). This means that power provides a platform that can be used to manage and effectively control an organisation. Conflict is inherent especially in issues that are associated with change. Conflict should be controlled and the approach that is used should ensure that conflict is minimal. On the other hand, politics is a major issue especially in a fire and rescue service because of election of councillors and other bodies who are elected based on political affiliation. Conclusion Fire and rescue services are important organisations in the communities. They help in averting and reducing consequences associated to risks; risks are usually inherent. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service is an example of organisation that educate and assist communities to live safely and healthy. Organisation brings into consideration internal and external environments in determining approach that an organisation will employ and at the same time, ensuring future plans can easily be formulated. Organisation comes with different requirements and structures that can be analysed in terms of organisational behaviour. Reference 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. 2009. About Us. Available from http://microsites.lincolnshire.gov.uk/LFR/section.asp?catId=12785 [accessed on 27 November 2009] 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