2 Organizational Structure Flashcards
Fire departments follow basic principals of organizational structure, those include
Scalar structure Line and staff personnel Decision making authority Unity of command Span of control Division of labor
Scalar structure
Uninterrupted series of steps or chain of command
Authority
Refers to the legal ability of an individual to make and implement decisions for which the individual is held accountable. Empowered duties of an official to perform certain tasks
Two decision making models
Centralized authority
Decentralized authority
Centralized authority
Decisions made by one person at the top, works well in very small organizations like individual fire company.
Accountability for decisions is almost always
Centralized
Decentralized
Depictions made at lower level (delegation of authority) should be delegated to lowest level possible
In decentralized model, decision making authority is limited to
Only those tasks over which personnel have been given authority.
Delegation is the process of
Providing subordinates with the authority, direction and resources needed to complete an assignment.
Concerns about delegating a task can be alleviated through
Training program that builds knowledge, skills, abilities, trust.
When assigning a task the officer must ensure the employee is
Capable of doing the job
Unity of command states that each subordinate must only have
One supervisor
Problems with following more than one supervisor
Last order completed when first isn’t
Tasks done poorly while trying to do both
Employee plays supervisors against each other, not knowing what employee is doing
Employee is frustrated with conflicting tasks and gives up
Sidestepping
Process of going around a link in the chain of command to deal with an issue.
Sidestepping can be destructive to
Organizational unity and cohesiveness.
Side stepping is acceptable when
The immediate supervisor does not solve the problem or is part of the problem, use skip level notification
Skip level notification
Notifying ones supervisor that they wish to take a problem to the supervisor’s supervisor.
To reduce side stepping, officers should
Be available to listen to their subordinates problems
Listen to problems sincerely
Take action and notify employee of your actions
Take a problem to the next level in command chain it unable to be solved.
Functional supervision
Reporting to two supervisors, a different one than usual for a specific task. All things pertaining to that take fall to that supervisor
Sop and sog are used to
Define organizational policy and describe behavioral and performance expectations of employees
Span of control refers to
The number of subordinates reporting to one supervisor
Optimum number of subordinates for span of control
5
Effective span of control may need to be reduced when
The task being completed is dangerous or life threatening
The primary means of categorizing public fire and emergency services is by
The jurisdiction the organization serves
Municipal
Functional division of the lowest level of local government
Second level of local government
County
Generally state emergency fire suppression companies are organized for
Forest, wildland, and urban interface fires
Example of non emergent state fire
Fire Marshall
Private emergency services generally fall into three categories
Industrial fire brigades
For profit fire and emergency services organization
Private non profit for and emergency services
Outside aid generally involves payment for
Services provided by the outside authority
