Organizational Behavior Issues of a Fire and Rescue Services in the UK - Case Study Example

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Insert name: Insert course code: Instructor’s name: 5 October, 2010. Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0Introduction 3 2.0 Case study – Ais Gill Train Accident 3 2.1 Overview of accident scenario 3 3.0 Development (or Revision) of Plans in Response to the Incident 5 4.0 Current issues facing West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service 6 5.0 Performance management 9 VI.0Crisis management 10 7.0 Conclusion 11 References: 12 1.0 Introduction “West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service” is a countryside county inside the South East of England. It caters for an area with about 750,000 populations. The retirement age population is higher than average whereby the part of population of working age is below average. West Sussex has several cities, towns, villages as well as coastline. Most of the residents there are whites whereby the non-whites are below the national average. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is a portion of West Sussex County Council and normally has an estimated budget of and 28 fire stations with about 800 operational officials and firefighters and about 115 individuals in support responsibilities. The fire and rescue service has four priorities which include management of change and deliverance of improvements, sustainability, partnerships as well as performance management (Thousand 2000). 2.0 Case study – Ais Gill Train Accident The analysis aims at identifying beliefs and knowledge arising about the situation and the linked communication. The case study shows the need for good sharing of beliefs across a distributed team so as to coordinate a response successfully. 2.1 Overview of accident scenario On 31st January, 1995, UK Emergency Services were alerted that a train had been derailed at some point between Kirkby Steven and Blea Moor in the county of Cumbria. After six minutes, a second train crashed into the derailed train causing a further escalation of the incident. The train conductor was killed while six travelers as well as the train driver were seriously injured. A considerable period of time elapsed (around one hour) during which the exact location of the train crash was not clear. At first, the emergency services were not aware that the second train had crashed into the derailed train and that the number of the injured people were more than the two they had known. Several agencies were involved in the response: Ambulance, Fire, Volunteer Mountain Rescue, as well as Rail Track. It was not easy to access the accident site via the road and the first to arrive at the incident scene were fire crews thirty minutes after the accident. By the time the ambulance crews from Brough were arriving (fifty five minutes after the accident), it was realized that the number of injured people were close to thirty and one deceased. An hour later after the location had been identified and the number of the injured people had been known, decisions concerning how to transport the injured to the hospital had not been fully settled. The seriously injured driver was carried the train track to meet the ambulance at a road bridge. It was raining and this proved hazardous. Earlier, a request was made inquiring about the option of sending a rescue train to transport the injured through the rail to Carlisle train station, and then to be picked by an ambulance. This became a reality and thus the other injure people were kept dry in the train waiting for the rescue train. There occurred communication difficulties due to poor dissemination of this decision: ambulances were not informed in a timely way and continued en-route to the disaster site rather than being directed to go to the Carlisle train station. This resulted to further delays for the injured to be attended. Other crises arose due to communication barrier: the rescue team could not cooperate, no enough pre-hospital services to the injured as well as lack of good rescue equipment. The rain also posed great challenges to the rescue team in addition to slowing the speed of the whole rescue process (Vouros G. et al., 2009 p. 93). In any incident, the main goal is to resolve the disaster. For instance, in the Ais Gill Train accident, the main goal was to resolve the disaster by transporting the injured and also clearing the rail so as to avoid more accidents (Vouros G. et al., 2009 p. 95). However, there were other sub-goals as indicated by the table below: Sub-goal Group allocated to enact this goal 1. Railway traffic protection Rail track 2. Hazard reduction: fire, instability Fire and regional railway company 3. Immediate medical care Fire and ambulance 4. Casualty transport (to hospital) Fire, Ambulance, Volunteers, Rail track, Regional Railway company 5. Full Medical care Hospital 6. Casualty Accommodation Regional Railway Company 7. Notification of friends and relatives Police 8. Casualty and Site Protection Fire and Police 9. Site Search Police 3.0 Development (or Revision) of Plans in Response to the Incident In this case of disaster management at least, there was the need to maintain a multiple possible goals as well as enacting multiple, possible alternative (partial) plans based on available information. It is practical to wait and establish facts in isolation before any action is taken, so it is better to enact multiple options until it becomes clear which will be fully enacted. Plans are revised or dropped as more details are established. During an incident, decision making occurs to assign resources to operational or management tasks. Such decisions are made known by the current incident plan as well as the knowledge of the current situation. The incident plan is initially based on generic predefined plans described at an organizational level; it is then developed or revised in response to the actual situation. In disaster management, there are typically two kinds of coordination: Filling the unknown details into existing predefined default plans (e.g. location of incident, type of incident, number and types of casualties); and revising a chosen plan recipe in response to the situation, (e.g. the decision regarding the transport of injured to hospital) (Vouros G. et al., 2009 p. 96). 4.0 Current issues facing West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service are working very hard to protect the local population. Within the last year, damages and injuries resulting from accidental fires within the homes have reduced by 28% and also in the present year there have been 44 less accidental fires within homes and only a single individual has passed on this year as a result of accidental fire when compared to three which occurred the previous year. “West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service” work efficiently to make the area safer. For instance, the sum of arson linked emergency incidents has gone down by 140 over the year. This has been accomplished as a result of the Service working jointly with Councils which even includes advising and educating the school children regarding the dangers associated with fire and arson(Thousand 2000). However there are various challenges that the organization is facing: I. The sturdiness of the commerce cases as well as impacts on local ‘value for money’ priority. A regional breakdown of the FiReControl Outline Business case has not yet been provided and there are no intentions of providing greater clarity of financial issues at the regional level. There are considerable concerns caused by the lack of sufficient information on these projects as the recent announcement of the settlement for local government cannot address these unannounced costs. There are back draws for the successful implementation of these projects due to lack of timely information with which to plan for the future, while the government highlights the specter of Local Authority capping. II. Increased costs of local project delivery and interim business continuity. The intensity of New Burdens financial support remains a considerable area of distress. Even though the recent statements have clarified that the net additional expenditure may be met, there remains areas of uncertainty and disagreement. These largely are associated with the costs of making certain that the existing control rooms continue to be well-designed awaiting cut over to the Regional Control Center (RCC) such as preservation systems for personnel and support for acting technological upgrades needed due to the extensive mission schedule as well as the financial expenses linked to the relocation like education for a broad variety of personnel due to alteration in measures in addition to innovative technology (House of Commons, 2006 p. 178). III. The ongoing funding arrangements and local impact of revenue costs, once established. There are two key issues that can be identified; additional costs related to higher security standards that currently are in place as well as the residual costs of ‘out of scope’ activities remaining in services. The Fire Authorities position remains that as National resilience is not a fire authority responsibility any additional costs should not be accrued. There is great worry concerning the ongoing revenue effect of those tasks currently carried out in the Control Room, which cannot be fully transferred by the Regional Control Center. IV. Legal liabilities, accountabilities and the structure of governance for the control centre. The authority has dire worries over the undeniable complication of the governance structures at a regional level as well as the remaining legal liabilities that may continue to fall on West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Even though there are consultations on the governance arrangements for the RCC, there is still the issue of the transfer of legal liabilities of operational failure at the regional level to the constituent fire authorities who individually appear to have little direct control over the regional entity (House of Commons, 2006 p. 179). V. The consequence of fire authority personnel of the scheme, in terms of capability, preservation and continuance. The national project has not given sufficient cognizance of the limited capacity available in individual brigades to successfully complete projects with their inter-related but yet indistinct project timetables. Staff and manager accountable for the projects continue to be aggravated with the noticeable lack of information concerning service matters. This can be resolved by addressing governance issues so as to allow for the creation of an employing entity. Maintaining the current Fire and Rescue service is the Service’s main concern and thus retaining the current staff as well as their expertise is the biggest challenge in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. These uncertainties debilitate the staff and also adversely affect their morale. VI. Project delivery issues. There are issues concerning the transitions involving projects, principally with the essential deficiency of information owing to no full company case for either mission prior to their arrangement. The PRINCE2 project methodology has not yet been consistently applied and thus regional and local teams cannot fully utilize this best practice approach. This affects the quality of accomplished tasks in limited timescales, increasing the stress on staff that faces potential redundancy. Furthermore, the staff resources provided at the expense of the authority may not be fully utilized (House of Commons, 2006 p. 179). 5.0 Performance management West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service are devoted to improving their services to the local population. The Chief Fire Officer offers strong leadership and he is strengthening the focus on effective management to ensure that things at the Service endeavor improvement. The Service revises its performance repeatedly to ensure that it is enhancing yet it requires putting more focus on holding the people responsible for deliverance of the service to account. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service seem not to be fully utilizing the performance management structure to assist it in improving its services. The Chief Fire Officer is ensuring this improves and is as a result establishing new arrangements into place. There is good leadership in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service whereby the Chief fire Officer is focusing on competent management to ensure that service continue to get better and has made several changes to the management system and they are major changes to the personnel within senior positions. Councilors together with the managers work well jointly to offer a competent and efficient fire series to the local community. They have of late requested the local people regarding on what they think is important for the Service to focus in future. This is entirely assisting the Service in setting out its ambitions more clearly (Davis 2006). The quality of some of the information the service is utilizing is poor, nevertheless, action is being taken to improve this sector. VI.0 Crisis management Crisis supervision is if at all possible carried out at the local level in West Sussex. If home actors are unable to control a disaster, disaster management is extended, for instance by taking in extra police districts along with fire divisions. The appropriate agency, for instance the ‘Home Office’, confines its exertion to following expansions, and informing the Parliament, and the media as well as the public. Once an incident is so widespread that the systems at the local as well as regional level are unable to deal with the disaster, crisis administration accountability is then transferred to the ministerial rank. The department that takes responsibility is determined by the catastrophe at hand. The division that takes accountability for a disaster turns out to be the ‘Lead Government Department’ (Fors, Newlove and Deverell, 2005 p. 13). 7.0 Conclusion In conclusion, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service have ensured that Councilors and senior managers take an active role in their duties as well as in their communities. For instance, senior officers have a vital role within the six District-based Crimes and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, and the West Sussex Strategic Community Safety Partnership. Both of them also have an active responsibility and involvement in the development of the fire service regionally and hence West Sussex is leading on developing a regional control centre due to its effective management system. References: Davis, K., 2006, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, McGraw-Hill, Sydney. Fors, F., Newlove L.M. and Deverell E., 2005. Shaken, not stunned. Swedish National Defense College. Accessed October 5, 2010 House of Commons, 2006. The Fire and Rescue Service: Session 2005-06. London, The Stationery Office. Accessed October 5, 2010 Thousand, J., 2000, A framework for thinking in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service change, Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore. Vouros G. et al., 2009. Organized Adaption in Multi-Agent Systems: First International Workshop, OAMAS 2008, Estoril, Portugal, May 13, 2008. New York, Springer. Accessed October 5, 2010 Read More