Chapter # 11 Flashcards
True scalar structure is well suited for dealing with emergency situations for the following reasons.
– Span of control is maintained
– Information is centralized for decision-making
– Functional chain of command is maintained
The term used to describe the common organizational structure in the fire emergency services is ____. Which is defined as having on uninterrupted series or steps or a chain of authority.
Scalar
Line personnel
Those who deliver services to the public or external customers
Staff personnel
Those who provide support to the line personnel or internal customers
____ refers to the legal ability of an individual to make and implement decisions for which the individual is held accountable; there are two types centralized and decentralized.
Authority
Centralized authority
Decisions are made by one person at the top of the structure.
Decentralized Authority
Decisions are allowed to be made at a lower level, with the effects of the decisions reported through the structure.
Centralized
Regardless of level where decision-making authority is located, accountability for decisions is almost always centralized. The Fire Chief or CEO of the organization delegates to officers the authority to make decisions and implement plans, but ____ is still accountable for any decisions made.
Fire Chief or CEO
Decentralized
Ideally, decision-making authority should be delegated to the ____ organizational level possible.
Lowest
____ is a management principle that states that each subordinate must have only one supervisor.
Unity of command
The ____ is the pathway of responsibility from the top of the organization to the bottom and vice versa.
Chain of command
A type of breach of the unity of command principle, commonly known as ____, occurs when a subordinate sidesteps the immediate supervisor and takes a problem directly to an officer higher in the chain of command.
End run
____ is the number of subordinates that one individual can effectively supervise.
Span of control
There is no absolute rule for determining how many subordinates that one person effectively can supervise. The number varies with the situation but it is usually considered to be somewhere between ____ and ____.
3 to 7
The national incident management system incident command system model is based on a span of control ratio of one supervisor to3-7 subordinates or functions with an optimum of ____.
5
The ____ principal consists of dividing large jobs into smaller tasks that are then assigned to specific individuals.
Division of labor
At the broadest level, fire and emergency services organizations can be classified as either ____or____.
Public or private
____ fire emergency services organizations provide services to the public and are funded by the public through the collection of taxes and fees.
Public
____ fire and emergency services organizations are not funded to public taxes but instead receive funds raised through the sales of services, contracts, and revenue provided by parent organization.
Private
A ____ is a written agreement that obligates participants to provide personnel, equipment, and apparatus when requested by any of the participants.
Mutual aid agreement
It is estimated that 12% of all fire departments are ____ and protect 61% of the population. At the same time 88% of the fire departments are ____ and protect 39% of the population.
Career or mostly career
Volunteer or mostly volunteer
According to the US fire administration, ____ percent of fire and emergency service organizations are staffed by volunteer firefighters.
70%
____ is the result of a reciprocal agreement between the two or more fire and emergency service organizations.
Mutually aid
____ results from a formal, written agreement between fire and emergency service organizations that share a common boundary. ____ occurs whenever certain predetermined conditions occur.
Automatic aid
____ is similar to mutual aid except that payment rather than reciprocal aid is made by one jurisdiction to the other.
Outside aid
