Organizational Behavior in London Fire and Rescue Services - Literature review Example

Running Header: Organization Behavior Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Organization Behavior Introduction According to Sandeep (2002), organization behavior involves the study and application of individuals, people and groups actions in any organization. An approach referred to as system approach is used in interpreting the relationship between people and organization in terms of the entire organization, entire group, entire person and entire social system. It can also be referred as the study of the group and human behavior within the setting of any organization. Organizational behavior involves looking at the interpersonal relationships, productivity, attitudes, performance, commitment of employees, and job satisfaction. The main aim is to build better correlation by attaining social goals, organizational goals and human goals. Organization behavior is affected by several factors like leadership, corporate culture, and management style. London Fire Brigade Freebase (2010) maintains that London Fire Brigade is London’s statutory fire and rescue service based in England. It is operated by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA). It is the fourth largest fire service in the whole world with approximately 7,000 staff of which there are 5,800 officers and operational fire fighters. It is managed by London Fire and Emergency Authority (LFEA). Ron Dobson was appointed as Fire and Emergency Planning Commissioner in October 2007. This includes Chief Fire Officer Position that he took over from Sir Ken Knight. Sir Ken was in that position of a commissioner ever since 2003. London Fire Brigade attended 144,753 emergency calls in 2007/2008. These included 32,886 fires where serious nature or cases were 13,993. Other leading fire rescue services in the world are Tokyo Fire Department, Paris Fire Brigade and New York Fire Department. London Fire Brigade has four directorates who report to the commissioner Ron Dobson. Those directorates are community Safety, Fire and Emergency planning, Resource and corporate services and operational policy and training. London Fire Brigade (LFB) headquarters are located in Union Street, Southwark. This is adjacent to training center in Southwark. LFB has over 120 sites and 112 fire stations that include an independent river station in 33 London boroughs. It is staffed for 24 hours per day by members of the brigade who are full time based. London Fire Brigade (2010) has details that internal organization structure of LFB is associated with external environmental factors in several ways in order to enhance service delivery. London Fire Brigade works together with the community in ensuring community is safe and sound. They encourage people in London to be fire safety champions. This will make sure their families, neighbors and community in general safe from any fire incidences or threats. They encourage people from community to attended open days in their ten stations across London. This is a campaign that helps towards creating awareness to the community on the importance of keeping themselves safe. These open days also help and gives a lot of information to the community on how to prevent themselves from causing any fire incidences. London Fire Brigade has several teams involved in promoting the campaigns. One of such teams is Schools team; this is used in promoting campaigns across schools in Capital and other major events. These campaigns focus on working out with those people who are disabled and those with mobility problems. The organization helps them by ensuring they have improved life by means of providing them equipment that can assist them towards moving on with life. In some cases, the organization donates wheelchairs to those people and other supportive materials. Internal organization structure works with the community towards creating awareness on the effects of drug abuse. They also assist those people that have alcohol addictions and dependence problems. This is through the School Team that provides support in helping those people recover from abuse and addiction. They assist drug addicts on the ways towards recovering from the long-term effects. This is through seminars and other recovering strategies to drug users and abusers. London Fire Rescue & services helps the local community during various disasters that ranges from rescuing people during the time of floods, assisting towards cleaning toxic chemical spillage as well as dealing with bomb threats and terrorist attacks. These are some of the major challenges that LFB internal organization faces when dealing with the external environment factors. Some of these factors like terrorist threats pose a serious challenge and threat to the organization and in particular the staff involved. The organization does participate in fund raising towards the charity in the community. The money gotten is used in various community projects like helping destitute children and families. In another perspective, it promotes various company’s’ services and products which in turn give back in the form of funds. These funds are as well used in promoting and assisting community. Internal organization structure has partnered with several partners like Local business people, other emergency services, and London boroughs. This helps towards improving services as well as safety to local people. The internal organization structure is also thinking on how to team up with London Ambulance Service (LAS) towards running a pilot project in Tower Hamlets. This will ensure improved emergency services response to heart attack patients. Individuals and teams have a role to play within every organization. Individuals and teams have a role in learning from each other, communicating to one another and other team members among other aspects. LFB has over 7,000 individuals or staff employed. All those have a role that each of them is supposed to perform in the organization. Learning is the process by which one seeks to know more or gain knowledge be it general knowledge or specific knowledge. Learning is extremely beneficial to the staff and teams towards gaining new knowledge and other aspects of the organization. This helps towards the improvement of an organization’s weak areas. In LFB learning is of paramount towards enhancing service delivery. Every team member and individual must put a lot of efforts in ensuring that they learn new concepts and related information. Conrad & Darren (2003) maintains that communication is the way by which information is passed or relayed from one place or from one person to another. There must be a channel by which communication is taking place. Communication in any organization or working place is extremely vital. Effective communication especially in fire and rescue services organizations like London Fire Brigade is of paramount towards ensure effective delivery of quality and immediate services. Teams and individuals are expected to communicate well between each other to ensure enhanced delivery of the message. Perception is the process by which individuals organize, select and at the same time interpret their sensory impressions. This is mainly to give meaning to their surrounding or environment. Perception is a cognitive process that is exceedingly complex and it varies from one person to another in almost all situations. Perception entails getting raw data from senses and then filtering same data, transforming the same data through cognition process. Each person has a responsibility to play in perception. Every person must use his or her senses in interpreting the impression surrounding their working environment in any organization. That information is then supposed to be used towards making an organization effective and efficient towards delivery of quality services or products. Teams as well have that role of ensuring they use an individual’s perception towards quality service delivery. Each member of the group must contribute to his/her group sufficiently. Motivation is the intentions, goals, needs, and desires that determine the behavior of a person in any organization. It can also be referred as the inner strivings of a person that directs his or her behavior. It is a drive or force that compels somebody to act mainly because a person is directed towards an aim or goal. Every individual needs to be motivated to some extent in ensuring effective delivery of services. Individuals need to be motivated if an organization wants persistence towards service delivery. Motivation is of enormous importance for any organization that wants to ensure there is maximum delivery and output from the employees. LFB uses all ways possible to ensure there is total delivery of services. Motivation is not only crucial to individuals but to teams or groups as well. London Fire Bureau ensures that all teams or groups are motivated or encouraged. One technique used by London fire bureau is better payments than other organizations. Teams and individuals are also provided with protective clothing and other quality equipments. Individuals have a role to play towards group formation and structure. Several individuals must come together towards forming a group and the organization structure. It the role of an individual to ensure commendable group is formed. Individuals come together to ensure they form an effective and working organization structure. Teams have the greatest role in ensuring the organization formed is effective and reliable in the organization. This is mainly to ensure all activities run well. Team work in any organization is crucial because without team work it is impossible to deliver effectively the services. Teamwork is not possible if every individual does not take part in his part effectively. Individuals come together towards forming a team. A team must ensure that its responsibility of working together is achieved through a firm and stable cohesion between its members. Team work in London Fire Brigade is the first priority. That’s reason why it has for years been successful in service delivery. Roles are the responsibility or tasks that one is supposed to undertake as per his position. Every individual has his defined roles in any organization. Every person has his defined roles within any organization. Every team has its defined roles they are supposed to undertake in their working place. This applies to individuals as well. However, these roles can sometimes be affected by some factors. They include organizational design, structure, culture and strategy. Structure affects the roles of individuals in that one has to perform his roles according to how they are defined in the organization structure. No person is supposed to perform or do those activities that he is not assigned. Organization design is set of decision and procedure used in an organization. Every person has a responsibility to undertake in making organization decisions and procedure. Therefore, if a certain decision can be made, it may end up affecting the roles defined to teams and individuals. Change of position in an organization structure by an individual automatically leads to change in his responsibility or roles. Each organization or business has its culture which has been developed gradually for years. Delegated roles to individuals can change mainly due to culture. Culture has been seen to change the defined roles of individuals and teams as well making them perform duties that are not assigned to them. Strategies are ways by which organizations or companies come with various ways and approaches in ensuring their goals are achieved. Strategies are usually led to change in the roles of people. This is when an organization tries achieving certain goals. In the process of an organization trying to achieve specific goals, certain roles of individuals are affected. Changing ways of service delivery is the main reason behind the change in roles change within an organization. Organization usually develops from one stage to another. Any organizational development is accompanied by change in various aspects like culture, strategies and even the whole structure change. Organization change is the adjusting of how way things work out to a different perspective. For any organization to develop there must be accompanying change. London Fire Brigade has developed for a long time from management to ways in which services are delivered. Culture in most instances is associated with stagnant organizational change. Change in culture leads to organizational development. Any organization development is associated with change in organization culture. Culture is any behavior that has existed in a business for sometime. Therefore, for any change or development to occur, there must be change of culture associated with it. Organization developments from one position to another are usually associated with some conflicts between interested groups or persons. Some may want the change while other may be against it. This eventually leads to a conflict due to variation of views. Organization change may involve the change in management like it happened in London Fire Bureau recently. Sir Ken Knight who was commissioner from 2003 to 2007 was replaced by Ron Dobson in 2007. It has been implied (WINTO 2009) that decision making in any organization involves is the role of management. They usually sit together and come out with a solution towards a certain problem or issue. Boards of management are usually involved in this decision-making process. Decision can take time to make while others are made immediately. Decision making by management needs a lot of care so as to evade any quarrel that may occur due to wrong decision making. Conflicts sometimes arise from organizational management as they try to make decisions. However, management is supposed to deal with those types of conflicts quickly because they can affect the organization operations. On the other hand, it is the responsibility of management to solve any manner of conflict that may arise within the organization departments. Power and politics are some of issues that arise within management. They are particularly common within any organizations as individuals struggle to head organizations as well as taking certain positions in the organization structure. Power and politics are the key factors that may lead to crises within an organization. They have affected many organizations to an extent of collapsing. Management should ensure that they are no power struggle or politics within the organization. Conclusion Organization behavior is of enormous importance because they investigate individuals, structures and groups impact to an organization. They influence a lot the delivery of effective and efficient services. Organization behavior determines how different teams or groups and individuals interact to ensure delivery of quality services and high outcomes. London Fire Brigade is one fire service organization that has been remarkably effective and efficient in ensuring there is effective delivery of services in the region. Study of organization behavior ensures there is better correlation achieved through attainment of social goals, organizational goals and human goals in an organization. References Conrad, L & Darren, L 2003, Organization Behavior for leisure services, Butterworth- Heinemann, London. Freebase 2010, London Fire Brigade, Metaweb, viewed 10 April 2010, http://www.freebase.com/view/en/london_fire_brigade London Fire Brigade 2010, HOW 7,000 PEOPLE SHARE THE SAME PASSION, viewed 10 April 2010, http://www.lfbgraduates.co.uk/aboutus.aspx London Fire Brigade 2010, Keeping community safe and sound, Mayor of London, viewed 10 April 2010, http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/CSCampaign.asp Sandeep S 2002, Organization Behavior, IVY Publishing House, California. WINTO 2009, The London Fire Brigade, viewed 10 April 2010, http://www.winto.org/thelondonfirebridage Read More