The Leadership Practiced under Fire and Rescue Services - Research Proposal Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Leadership in fire and rescue services Institution : xxxxxxx @2010 Table of contents Introduction…………………………………………….………………………………………….3 The research proposal………………………………………..……………………………………3 Research justification……………………………………….……………………………………..4 Aims and objectives……………………………………………………………………………….4 Literature review…………………………………………………………………………………..5 Methodology............................................................................................................................…..10 Results……………………………………………………………………………………………11 Discussion………………………………….…………………………………………………….12 Conclusion..............................................................................................................................…...13 Timeline of activities………………………….…………………………………………………14 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..15 1. Leadership in fire and rescue services 2. Introduction The fire and rescue services deal with four main activities. They include ensuring fire safety, fire fighting, controlling road traffic accidents and responding to other emergencies apart from fire. Their main purpose is to save life as well as property. In order to achieve this purpose, all fire and rescue services or teams need good leadership and management. This research explores leadership in fire and rescue services including organization and management. This being a public service, there is need for proper leadership and supervision skills to be able to carry out the service effectively. This requires leaders who have good managerial skills with good understanding of the legal aspects of fire and rescue services as provided in the 2004 act of fire and rescue services. Of course discipline, generosity and respect of culture should be highly valued as they form part of the ethical and moral considerations in service delivery. Leaders need to exercise their leadership skills, duties and responsibilities fairly without any form of discrimination (Buckley 1967). 3. The research proposal The research intends to explore the leadership practiced under fire and rescue services. Under the management, various leadership methods or ways used and developed in Fire and Rescue Services will be analyzed. From the analysis, we intend to come up with the best methods and ways of leadership and how this can be implemented or carried out. These will ensure that fire and rescue teams improve on their service delivery. With good leadership in place, the services offered are expected to be of high quality carried out effectively and efficiently. The research proposal is also intending to look at various leadership contexts within the fire and rescue services and having a better understanding of them. Whether leadership model should be based on behavior or not is also one of the aspects to be explored in this project. Generally, the proposal will investigate all the above mentioned aspects and find out the hindrances towards effective management in achievement of efficient and effective services delivery in the fire and rescue service sector. 4. Justification There are many relevant reasons for undertaking this research project. Currently, the fire and rescue services are facing various challenges due to lack of improvement of leadership skills and capabilities by fire and rescue management (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2005). One of the key concerns in the current public service delivery sector is leadership. Therefore, there is need for a new leadership development focus in order to improve service delivery in fire and rescue service. In many cases, you will find that the current system of fire and rescue services prefers transformational leadership model to transactional model due to day to day dynamism in the sector. The scope and nature of fire agenda modernization requires positive as well as even response from fire services so as to meet the demands of improving standards. New leaders with flexible blend abilities as well as experience are required in order to increase accountability. In order for fire and rescue services to achieve and attain their expected goals or objectives, they must have be a new focus on leadership development. Without these, it will be a great challenge to discharge their functions of service delivery to the public. 5. Aims/Objectives To find out weather transformational leadership model is more appropriate than transactional form of leadership in modern fire and rescue services. To investigate which leadership contexts are necessary in ensuring efficient service delivery by fire and rescue services. To find out whether leadership models should be based on behavior. To gauge the preference for professional reference proposal for strategic leadership development in fire and rescue services. To find out the legal requirements of fire and rescue services and whether understanding of these requirements improves leadership quality and service delivery. 5. Literature review Leaders need to exercise good leadership qualities through understanding of the legal requirements pertaining to their field of practice. In this case, the management or the leaders of the fire and rescue services need to understand the fire and rescue act of the year 2004 so that they can be able to discharge their roles within the law. The management has to ensure that the four main functions of any fire and rescue services of ensuring fire safety, effective fire fighting, response to emergencies and control of road traffic accidents are well discharged (Barzilai 2008). Considering fire safety, the management needs to understand that the law requires any appointed authority in charge of fire safety as well as other rescue services make to provisions for promotion of fire safety in the areas under their management. This can only be done if the leaders provide adequate guidelines to the public on how fire safety can be enhanced and how the effects of fire can be contained. Information on how fire spread and property destruction can be prevented incases of fire outbreak and how individuals can rescue themselves from those sites is also vital. Incase of fire outbreak, the leaders need be prepared for fire-fighting by ensuring that their staff is in a position to put off all fire outbreaks in its area as well as making sure that both life and property are safe. For this to be realized, the leaders should ensure that the organization has enough personnel, tools and equipments for fire fighting. They should enhance this by providing for training of personnel, how to summon the personnel incase of an emergence call and how to deal with such calls of help (Barzilai 2008). Considering the road traffic accidents, the leaders of fire and rescue teams are required by law to make provisions that will see people rescued and serious injuries prevented in the event of tragic road accidents. In order to do this, it is mandatory that proper channels of communication be set for quick response to calls of help and that the rescue authority need appropriate personnel, tools and equipments to perform such services. Other than fires and road accidents, the law also provides for emergencies as follows. Provided the functions of the authority under section 7 and 8 are valid, the secretary of state may assign other tasks to the fire and rescue authority arising unexpectedly by order and when this happens, it may require that the authority discharges such functions outside its area of management. This means that incase of emergencies other than fire and road accidents, any fire and rescue team can be called upon to give help. The management and the leaders need to understand all these aspects in order to lead their staff effectively in service delivery (Barzilai 2008). The aspect of Leadership is a very vital requirement in fire and rescue services. It is a key requirement in enhancing service delivery. The development of leadership that is Transformational extremely contributes to provision of motivation, encouragement and inspiration in order to promote change through effective communication. It is important to embrace and introduce good management and leadership programs in order to deliver changes that are positive in fire and rescue services organizations. Transformational mode of leadership is very important in fire and rescue services as it ensures effective and efficient service by involved organizations. This type of leadership creates valuable as well as positive change to its supporters. A Transformational leader is able to note the need for change and create a vision to guide that change through inspiration. Although the change is executed by leader, there is need for commitment from the group members for the change to be effected efficiently and effectively (Mitchell & International Association of Fire Chiefs 2007). The leadership and development structure required by Modern Fire and Rescue services calls for leaders as well as mangers who are capable of making continual improvement in their organizations. Each and every leader across all fire and rescue services should aim at administering effective and efficient leadership development in their respective organizational structures. Effective leadership can be achieved through development and training of leaders and improving leadership models and skills. Leadership approaches that are formulaic and prescriptive cannot be effective ways towards achieving reduction in any form of risk in fire and rescue services in modern times. Leadership development requires an approach that is flexible, modern and risk-based. In order to achieve competent achievements, fire and rescue services require a more focused outcome through ensuring people have required skills, knowledge and understanding. Adequate and effective training as well as development is an essential and efficient management strategy that must be employed by leaders in order to reduce risks. Effective and efficient training of leaders themselves helps them refresh their knowledge and be able to learn more especially the new developments. Due to the rising level of technology, the leaders and the staff need adequate and continual training to keep up with it. It is the duty of the management to scrutinize its employees to make sure that all those staff members who have the ability to make good leaders get the opportunity to do so. This kind of leadership will set leadership opportunities equal to any one interested to be a leader and it will act a motivational strategy to boost the morale of workers in service delivery (Scottish Executive 2006). There are also some strategic leadership programs that can be put in place to achieve good leadership. One of these programs and systems is the integrated Personal development system (IPDS). This represents a change of approach in development of workforce for authorities in Fire and Rescue Authorities. This is also possible through high potential management development scheme which provide a progress towards developing those individuals identified to have potential of becoming managers or leaders. The management of Fire and rescue service requires transformation in its mode of operation and how the staff is managed. The only way to achieve this is by incorporating leaders who have exceptional qualities and qualifications. Such leaders will ensure that the above is achieved. There are various levels in which the fire and rescue service leaders operate and in every level, achievement is essential. The Transformational kind of leadership emphasizes on the type of leadership behaviors that are vital to motivate the staff towards improvement in the way they perform (Checkland 1997). The fire and rescue services should employ a model of leadership that is behavior based. The behaviors will guide the way the staff discharges their duties to the public especially in terms of ethical and moral conduct. Ethical considerations are rules or codes that govern the way a professional exercises his or her duties. Ethical considerations are very vital in the fire and rescue services and should be adequately dealt with. Ethical considerations involve recognition of human rights and protection of the reputation of the fire and rescue service itself when discharging its roles. It also involves good relation with the community that requires their services (Beauchamp 2001). The leaders should ensure that they establish a code of ethics which should be implemented and strictly followed by all members of the team including taking of the oath. There are four elements of behaviors. These include the core values, personal qualities & attributes, the capacity of leadership and the context of leadership. The Leadership context has three other model contexts. They include critical incident management which is an operational context, local government leadership which is a political context and team work which is a personal context (Natalie 2008). The capabilities of existing and aspiring leaders in terms of leadership skills require strengthening because it is vital for modernized fire and rescue services success in future. It is a requirement for managers to develop their skills at all levels of management when setting realistic objectives, taking action to improve individuals’ and teams’ performance, motivating workers or staff, analyzing data, considering other ways towards achievement, and performance monitoring. In order to acquire the new changes in terms of management, new skills demands and better working methods, the whole fire and rescue service team need to dedicate itself and work as one team work spirit will ensure that new ideas are shared and developed and it will minimize changes of making mistakes in service delivery. Team work spirit will enhance harmony and respect of authority and it will make the work of the leaders easy. New emerging demands in fire and rescue services will require managers capable of analyzing what is required while identifying available options to meet the needs while organizing their workers and other resources in order to achieve these effectively. Lastly, for leaders of the fire and rescue service to exercise their roles properly, they need to be competent. A competent leader will always perform his or her duties and produce outcomes that meet the expectations of the standards set. Such standards in this case include the health, safety and occupation standards which assess the performance of the fire and rescue services in terms of the services they have delivered to the public and their ability or how well they are prepared to discharge such functions (Tausch 2009). 6. Methodology The research project will employ a quantitative type of methodology to find out the solutions to the objectives stated above. A questionnaire will be prepared which will be presented to various respondents expecting various responses from them. A survey will be will also be conducted to get views and opinions of other people in fulfillment of the objectives. The data that will be collected from both the questionnaire and the survey will assist in determining the kind of leadership strategies and developments that are required. The data that will have been collected will be evaluated by determining the percentage of responses reflected on the questionnaire. Considering the survey, the number of respondents who will strongly agree, agree, those who will be neutral, those who will disagree, and strongly disagree will be determined by adding these agreement and disagreement levels and making comparisons between the agreement and disagreement side. Incase the number of those disagreeing is less than those agreeing then the interpretation shall be that the overall opinion is on agreement with the question. The respondents will represent the overall preference of people and their opinion will be determined through the percentage size. Therefore a true representative sample has to be employed when carrying out a survey or when looking for respondents. 7. Questionnaire The questions will be as follows: Q1. Is transformational model of leadership appropriate than transactional model in a modern fire and rescue services? Q2. Should leadership models be based on behavior? Q3. Does understanding of legal requirements of fire and rescue services improve leadership qualities and service delivery? The chosen respondents will be required to fill in the questionnaire provided to them with either a yes or no. 8. The Survey This will be conducted on face to face basis. The respondents will be required to give their opinion as whether they strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree or nil. The respondents will be expected to give their opinion on the following expressions. “Do you agree with three types of leadership contexts that includes critical incident management, local leadership, and team leadership. Which of the above three leadership contexts would you prefer most for the fire and rescue service? 9. Results Questionnaire Question Total no. of respondents Yes response No response. Q1 40 36 4 Q2 37 35 2 Q3 42 30 12 Survey Total no. of respondents Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Nil 57 9 15 22 7 4 0 Out of 57 respondents, 50 recommended for team work leadership, 5 recommended for critical management leadership while the remaining 2 recommended for local government leadership. 10. Discussion of the results/findings Considering the questionnaire, many respondents preferred a transformational mode of leadership compared to the transactional leadership model. This is mainly because the current world is a world of dynamics and requires a leadership system or model that is flexible and can adjust to various requirements other than a model that is single handed (Tausch 2009). Many respondents also seem to propose that the leadership of fire and rescue service should be based on behavior. This is mainly because the behavior based models will sharpen the staff to work under the code of ethics in consideration of morals, culture and mutual respect to human rights. This will ensure effective leadership and service delivery that will earn the organization a good reputation (Beauchamp 2001). Almost all the respondents supported the fact that understanding of legal requirements of fire and rescue services improves leadership qualities and service delivery. The main reason is that with good understanding of the legal aspects, there will be less friction with the authority and the organization will carry out its mandate within the law and this will contribute to meeting the required standards and specifications of operation (Barzilai 2008). Considering the survey, many respondents were neutral on the level of agreement and disagreement with the expression. However, there were more respondents on the agreement side than the disagreement side. This means that the respondents generally agreed with the three contexts of leadership. By agreeing with this, almost all the respondents recommended team leadership as the best leadership model for fire and rescue services. This is because team work leadership is a democratic form of leadership and it gets all the staff involved both in discharge of duties and making of decisions (Handlin 1943). 11. Conclusion From the results, it can be concluded that leadership in modern fire and rescue services should employ transformational other than transactional model f leadership. This leadership model should be based on behaviors and the need to understand the legal requirements pertaining fire and rescue services. But all in all, the team work mode of leadership is the way to go for all fire and rescue service providers. 12. Timeline The activity of carrying out this proposal and overall data collection will take several days as follows. Day Activity 1, 2 & 3 Writing a proposal 4 Setting up questions 5 Questionnaire preparation 6 Plan on areas and people to survey 7 8& 9 Carrying out survey 10 Analyzing the data 11 Interpreting the data 12 Discussing the collected data in proposal 13,14 & 15 Writing dissertation 13. References Barzilai, G 2008, The fire and rescue law in United Kingdom, International law journal, vol.12, no.14, pp. 395–416. Beauchamp, T 2001, Principles of Ethics and behavior, Oxford University Press, New York. Buckley, W 1967, Sociology and Modern Systems Theory, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Checkland, P 1997, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. Handlin, O 1943, Laissez-Faire thought in Massachusetts, Journal of Economic History, vol.6, no. 8, pp. 246-257. Mitchell, R & International Association of Fire Chiefs 2007, Fire Service Leadership: Theories and Practices, Jones & Bartlett Learning, London. Natalie, L 2008, Stafford Fire and Rescue values strong leadership culture, Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 27-29. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister 2005, Leadership & Development in the Fire and Rescue Service, viewed 23 May 2010, . Scottish Executive 2006, Leadership & development in the fire and rescue service: consultation paper, Scottish Executive, Scotland. Tausch, A 2009, The role of fire and rescue service management, Nova Science Publishers, New York Read More