Organizational Behavior in the Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Organization Behaviour Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Introduction Organizational behaviour refers to the application of knowledge on how individuals, groups, and people act in organizations. It interprets organization- people relationships in terms of the whole group, whole person, whole social system, and whole organization with the aim of creating better relationships by attaining social objectives, human objectives and organizational objectives. The base of the organization rests on management’s philosophy, values, goals, and vision which in turn impel organizational culture which is made up of the informal organization, formal organization and the social environment. The organizational culture determines the form of communication, group dynamics, and leadership within the organization. The employees then perceive it as the feature of work life that directs their level of motivation and the final outcome are individual satisfaction, performance, and personal growth and development (Hartman, 2010). Organizational behaviour in the Norfolk fire and rescue service The Norfolk fire and rescue service is a portion of the community protection service delivered by the Norfolk county council and helps in reducing the number of fires and injuries resulting from fire in Norfolk. The company is also working jointly with Norfolk councils to minimize the number of injuries and deaths on road accidents. The service scores 2 out of 4 for managing performance. This is because it responds excellently to emergencies and is assisting to reduce fire injuries, fire and traffic casualties in Norfolk. For instance, it has effectively decreased arson incidents in the country by 8 percent and has decreased traffic road accidents involving younger drivers in the perspective the general decrease in casualties of 55 percent. The service closely with national, local and regional organizations in delivering emergency aid and this has become significant as the threat of large scale emergencies like tidal flooding are increasing. Internal organizational structures and external environmental factors in Norfolk fire and rescue service Organizational structure is the formal model of coordination and interactions that managers design to connect the tasks of groups and individuals to attain organizational goals. The Norfolk fire and rescue service has a diverse workforce and has spent a lot in providing it staff with the right support and skills to do the job, such as establishing its own training facility.. The service has progressed on the way it manages and monitors illness among the staff and has ways of easily identifying workers who may require help and support. Internal structures like coaching and reinforcement system is put in place to make sure that coaching support is offered to workers as they undertake their job responsibilities. This factor also entails acknowledging and reinforcing desired performance and offering developmental feedback when required. Coaching and reinforcement on the task is important because it contributes to transfer f skills following a learning experience (Snow, & Miles, 2003). The external environment factors in the Norfolk fire and rescue service are social factors and cultural changes. The service is conscious that the society it serves has become more and more diverse and has increased its own diversity. The services has used the equality and diversity strategy to set out how it increases its diversity and has secured government funding to support this strategy. The service understands the needs of the local communities and is using a wide range of resources to create a more complete picture of the local population and its risks. Until recently, engagement of local communities had primarily with younger people through schemes like fire cadets and programmes linked with the Princes Trust, but this is changing with the fresh emphasis on old populace and home fire threat checks. A novel equalities officer has been selected and creating links with local society groups such as the Norfolk and Norwich racial equality council and youth groups from minority and black ethnic communities. The service also carries consumer satisfaction surveys on fires in commercial and domestic properties, home fire protection checks, and contentment with fire protection audits. Through these reviews universal public is actively engaged in the establishment of service standards. Roles of individuals and teams in the Norfolk fire and rescue service Individuals and groups use their knowledge and skills to assist in the accomplishment of the set goals. According to Mayo, (2005), optimum organizational performance depends on the performance of individuals in the company. When reasonable and clear performance standards, metrics, and practices are applied to develop objectives and offer relevant feedback, it may be helpful in motivation of workers. Communication on expectations and roles focuses on workers understanding specifically what their responsibilities and roles are relative to their job accountabilities and goals. This implies that workers understand that their responsibilities are diverse from other who is supporting a similar business goal. Effective organizations endorse and reward effective communication between employees, teams, and supervisors. Employee perception and understanding of the organizational goals enable employees to use their knowledge and skills in the accomplishment of these goals. Employees are also able to recognize their weaknesses when they fail to accomplish the goals and their strengths in their jobs when they attain these goals. Individuals and teams set attainable objectives to strengthen their weaknesses while still emphasizing on their strengths. Group work enables individuals to exchange knowledge and skills required in their jobs. When workers work jointly effectively and communicate suitably, the consequence is sustainable and continuous improvement. Effective communication on performance helps management to target areas of improvement and identify strategies and strengths that can be used to motivate employees. The overall objective of the organization to make sure that the company and its subsystems like employees, teams and departments are working jointly in an optimum style to accomplish desired goals by the company. Individuals and groups use their knowledge and skills to assist in the accomplishment of the set goals. Optimum organizational performance depends on the performance of individuals in the company. When workers work jointly effectively and communicate suitably, the consequence is sustainable and continuous improvement. Effective communication on performance helps management to target areas of improvement and identify strategies and strengths that can be used. Change is a crucial thing in organization development. Whether a change originates from outside factors or management decisions or external factors including the economy or industry, it should be implemented effectively and efficiently. Workers and teams assist in the change implementation. Definition of roles Role definition in the Norfolk fire and rescue service is done through job analysis which identifies the significant skills, knowledge and competencies or attitudes needed a role or job together with the associated responsibilities and accountabilities. The service designs and develops job descriptions that permit all stakeholders to comprehend how the task contributes to organizational goals. The Norfolk fire and rescue provide services in forecasting aptitude demands to attain objectives for present and future requirements. Through identification of specific knowledge, attributes and skills needed for the staff to effectively meet objectives and goals, ineffectual or bloated structures are minimized and the most effective organizational structure attained. The service facilitates improved resource allocation and decision making by assigning decisions and functions to business units together with their responsibilities and roles to where process and work product are ratified. The company is able to determine the structures which accelerate work flows to attain expedited efficiencies. The organization resources development, the company is able to recognize the most suitable workforce model based on the relations among the resourcing, work flow and capability requirements for organizational business units. The company focuses on determining the most effective alignment of strategy, capabilities, people, and culture. It quantifies and compares the costs and benefits of maintaining or moving several roles and in turn designs a new plan for organizational capacity within every unique environment context of the organization. When defining roles, organizational structure must be shaped and implemented for the main purpose of facilitating the accomplishment of organizational goals in an effective way. Organizational structure determines the way and extent to which power, roles, and responsibilities are controlled, delegated, and coordinated and how information is transmitted amid levels of management. The structure is dependent on the objectives of the organization and the strategy chosen to accomplish them. Effective definition of roles requires an organizational structure that is acclimatized to process requirements, seeking to optimize the ratio of effort and output to input. Ashforth (2004) argues that an efficient organizational structure promotes working relationships amid several entities in the company and promotes the working efficiency in the organizational units. Organizational strategy envisions the future of the company, developing value in the eyes of the consumers and creating and maintaining a strong position in the marketplace. Organizational strategy assessment reflects on the organizations approach to collecting and analyzing crucial market data. When the company is defining roles, it should include this data to study the micro and macroeconomic information and identify if the workforce has skills and knowledge to cope with present and future threats and opportunities in the fire and rescue service. Definition of roles is greatly affected by organizational culture. Organizational culture describes the attitudes, beliefs, experiences, values, and psychology. When defining roles, the organization should consider the ideas and beliefs about the kind of objectives each member of the organization must achieve and the suitable standards or kinds of behaviour the organizational staff should use in order to accomplish these goals. The company should use organizational values to develop organizational guidelines, expectations, or norms that prescribe suitable kinds of behaviour by staff in particular roles and regulate the behavior of organizational staff towards each other. Organizational development Organization development is a planned effort to increase the viability and effectiveness of the company in response to change. Sisaye (2004) argues that organization development attempts to to influence organizational staff to increase their candidness with one another on their views of the company and their experience in it, and to have more responsibility for their actions. The presumption behind organizational development is that when individuals pursue objectives simultaneously, they are likely to realize novel ways of working jointly and effectively in achieving personal and shared organizational objective. Significant organizational change takes place when a company changes it entire strategy for success or wants to alter its operation. In order for an organization to develop, it must undergo considerable change at several points in its development. Organization development actions intervene in the relations of individual systems like the informal and formal groups, work climate and culture and organizational design to increase their efficiency. Typically, employees display great resistances to change. They are always anxious about the unknown and many feel that things are fine in the organization and therefore do not understand the need for the change. Many employees doubt if there are efficient ways of achieving chief organizational change. Usually there are conflicting objectives in the company such as increasing resources to achieve the change and concurrently cut costs so as to remain viable. Organizational change usually goes against the values held by the employees and therefore the change may go against employees believe on how the organization must operate. Resistance can be addressed by increased and sustained education and communications. For instance, the leader must explain reasons for change to all staff and mangers. Organizational management appraisal Performance appraisal benefits the organization as well as its employees. Use of performance appraisals enables the company to identify areas of opportunity and strength. It also provides a suggestion for areas of training and also direction of leadership development, succession planning and performance improvement. Results of performance appraisals may be evaluated to recognize areas of strong performance on all employees, by demographics or by departments. Standardized performance evaluations allow the organization to calculate, aggregate, and analyze results to illustrate areas of strong performance. These strong areas are than used as opportunities and benchmarks for sharing of excellent practices for other organizational areas ( Bacal, 2007). Evaluation of performance appraisals results provides managers, human resource department, and the entire organization with an illustration of areas which need additional training and development. For example results may indicate that workers are collectively scoring low as a result of use of new technologies or consumer service. These may then become targets for the development and implementation of training programs which are designed to advance employee performance and competence. Performance appraisals offer an indication of staff with leadership ability or leadership development requirements. The management can then develop interventions or programs to either provide workers with a chance to build their skills or practice their leadership competencies. Performance appraisals can act as a tool to succession planning by recognizing workers with particular competencies that the company is aware it will require in future due to retirement and turnover. Conclusion Organizational behavior is important as it helps in integration of individuals, groups, and social environment. The Norfolk fire and rescue service has focused on the reduction of of fire accidents and injuries and minimization of injuries through road accidents. The company provides its employees with the right skills and support required in the accomplishment of organizational goals. The service has also recognized the needs of the local population and has therefore created links through which communities can air their views on service delivery by the company. Bibliography Sisaye, S, 2004, Organizational change and development management control, Blackwell, Boston. Mayo, A, 2005, The human value of the enterprise: valuing people as assets, Nicholas Brealey, London Ashforth, B, 2004, Role transitions in organizational life, International Publishers, New York Hartman, S., 2010, Organizational behavior, Scrinber, New York. Bacal, R, 2007, Performance management, McGraw-Hill, UK. Snow, C, & Miles, R, 2003, Organizational strategy, structure and process, Stanford University Press, Stanford. Read More