Organization Structure Based on Lincolnshire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Organisation Behaviour Name & ID Course Name & Code Instruction’s Name 3rd April 2010 Introduction All organizations are formed with a particular requirement. They all have a vision and a mission, which are well stated in their vision and mission statement respectfully. There is also a particular requirement for the formation of any of these organizations. For example, fire and rescue services organizations are formed with the requirement of safety and health. The aim of this report is to analyze organization requirements, organization change, and organization structure and finally conflict resolution. Most of this is based on Lincolnshire and Rescue Service. An outline of the case study undertaken Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Services (LFRS) were formed in 1974 and it serves Lincolnshire County. 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. 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. LFRS has 38 stations with co-responder 20 stations. The county has been divided into four station support groups that support the requirements of the thirty-eight stations. An examination of the organizational context An organization has two environments, which affect its successes, or failures .These is the external environment and the internal environment. The external environment refers to those forces that affect the organization but they are beyond its control. They are factors that the company cannot influence at all but instead it has to adjust its self to fit and actually benefit from these factors. These are the inherent measures, which are beyond the organization. They include the legal structure, economical and ideological factors political and technological factors. Internal environment on the other hand refers to those factors within the organization like the structure of the organization the leadership composition and all those factors that are determined within the organization. An organization should intensively analyze its internal environment, which includes such factors as the leadership structure, the organizational resources and their source, and the competitive advantage as well as its legal structure. This is of great aid to the organization before it formulates its operating strategy. After this, it now introduces the external environment and now strategizes on how to utilize its strengths. This enables the organization to identify its strengths, weaknesses opportunities as well as gauge threats that are presented to it by the competitive environment to come up with the best and most competitive strategy. Thus, an environmental analysis is very important and it consists of evaluating, monitoring and analyzing information gathered from both internal and external environment. After this now, the organization can put its best foot forward. This is different from environmental scanning which is the use of information about market trends to plan future plans (Cote 2003). The fire and rescue service employs the idea of environmental analysis in determining their future plans. An analysis of the role of individuals and teams within organizations Every organization consists of people of different potentials gifts and talents coming together towards the form a team. These individuals come to accomplish certain goals in their lives like career fulfilment and advancement as well as earn livelihoods. On the other hand the organization also benefit from them as they provide labour and skills as well as presenting their gifts and talents that help the organization to be competitive. These people pool ideas, judgments, and plans and accomplish important tasks. No single organization can operate without the use of individuals as these individuals are meant to accomplish different roles. This coming together of people from backgrounds that differ makes it possible to form a pool of opinions and ideas. Other than the opinions they gather judgements that differ as well as coming up with strategic plans. This way they are able to effectively carry out organisational tasks. The employees and teams attend training and learning. This learning process provides an opportunity for organization to evolve and grow. This exposure also gives them the ability to air their views, as individuals commonly humans love to be in a place where they can air their opinions and be heard and this is one such platform that they can do this is in organizations. They also love to hear other people’s opinions so as to sharpen their views and opinions. Thus, it is of utmost important that the important tool of communication be utilized fully as well as encouraged to grow in organizations. This in turn makes it possible for these individuals to get into effective and functional transactions .Proper communications should thus even be taught in organisations as this reduces the number of conflicts as communication skills are then improved. It also enhances the understanding of instructions at a proper and more competent level. This is one of the chief areas on which the management of LFRS lays emphasize. Members are given a basic course that helps them learn the basic communication skills. 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 the people involved for successful operations. Failure to communicate effectively will often result 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 curbs cases of miscommunications 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 team. Employees and team members should also be motivated .Motivation as well as perception are very important aspects that largely affect the organization. Individual perception should be channelled towards achieving organizational roles, An explanation of how roles are defined in an organization Roles of human in an organization are such as business or managerial or even subordinate roles. They perform certain tasks within an organization. The role could be a node in the structure of the organization and it then has associates or other connections with more than one role player (Brooks 2006).Roles are mostly in pairs such as supervisor - subordinate, buyer – seller, predecessor- successor. Roles are within the structure of an organization such that each role is independent of individuals such that if an individual resigns today from an organization then that position remains vacant and it then needs to be filled. That means that a person’s resignation does not make the role now non-existence (House of Commons 2006).It is not important that Ganee Ree is the manager because John Mark can accomplish the same task if both have the same qualifications. In organisational structural charts, nodes can be seen as the roles while the connectors are the interconnection between authorities, and this unique phenomenon is common in Lancashire Fire Rescue Services organisational structure (Buckman 2005). Commonly, this means that the basis of an organisational structure is not designed for design purposes only but it is used to define relationship between roles that can be manipulated or maintained separately 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. .In a nutshell roles and responsibilities are responsible for determining the way employees accomplish their tasks. LFRS senior management is made up of the Chief fire officer and three other assistants who all manage different departments. They are meant to ensure that the community receives efficient and effective service through maximising on the service mission statement. The statement is to make Lincolnshire a safer place to live, work and visit. Organisation development, Community Protection and Risk Management, the Resources, and Policy, Planning and Performance departments they head. Roles define organisational culture as shared values, the norms, and expectations that determine the way employees accomplish their responsibilities and relate with each other. An assessment of organisational development Organizational development is the process of improving the effectiveness and health of an organization. This process makes it possible for the organization to get used to the environment. This environment includes the niche market the organization identifies, the technologies and as well as the ups which it faces. It also changes attitudes values and the configuration of an organization. The issues that arise from organizational change can bring either bring affirmative or unconstructive change. It is the process that Organizational change that is crucial in order to bring the organizational processes and systems in line with the factors that prevails in the internal and external environment of an organization. Thus, the forces of organizational change that include exterior and interior forces should be analyzed. This means that organizational development is a skeleton consisting of planned change interventions that involves human exchanges that aims targeting better organizational effectiveness. This approach will ensure that organizational conflicts are mitigated. Organizational change management encourages valuable and proper approach to ensure that conflicts are managed. 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. 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. An appraisal of organisational management The way and style that an organization is managed is very crucial because when the centre does not hold things fall apart. Organization is managed based on the requirements and aims of an organization. In strategic management, organizational management brings into consideration various factors such as conflict, decision making, politics and power. Decision-making is an important requirement to y organization and the process of decision-making should be instilled into the organization. This means that decisions should factor into consideration the views of stakeholders and other employees to reduce risks associated with conflicts. Hence, such decision making approach ensures that the decision reached is inclusive. 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 dais that can be used to administer and effectively control an organization. Conflict is intrinsic 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 essential organisations in the community. They help in averting and sinking consequences associated to risks, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue Service the organisation is focussed on in this document is an example of organisation that edify and assist communities to live safely and healthy. In addition, as such it increases the chances of long life to the citizens of the jurisdiction within which it falls. 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. Thus, it is important to study environmental analysis as well as environmental planning. 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, 2009, About Us, Available from http://microsites.lincolnshire.gov.uk/LFR/section.asp?catId=12785 [accessed on 2nd April 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