Chapter 6: Understanding people: Management concepts

Question 1

Compensation and benefits

Answer 1

Human Resources systems to identify and determine the pay, leave, and fringe benefits for each position in the organization.

Question 2

Direct supervison

Answer 2

A type of supervision in which the fire officer is required to observe the actions of a work crew directly; it is commonly employed during high hazard activities.

Question 3

Heath, safety, and security

Answer 3

Human Resources activities intended to provide and promote a safe work environment.

Question 4

Hierarchy of needs

Answer 4

Maslows description of human needs as a pyramid or ladder that starts with physiological needs and ends with self-actualization.

Question 5

Human Resources development

Answer 5

All activities to train and educate employee’s.

Question 6

Humand Resources planning

Answer 6

The process of having the right number of people in the right place at the right time who can accomplish a task efficiently and effectively.

Question 7

Humanistic management

Answer 7

A management strategy that emphasized human need and attitude; motivation comes from within the employee and not from authoritarian control. It leads to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Question 8

Performance Management

Answer 8

The process of setting performance standards and evaluating performance against those standards.

Question 9

Scientific management

Answer 9

The breakdown of work tasks into constituent elements. The timing of each element is based on repeated stopwatch studies; the fixing of piece-rate compensation based on those studies; standardization of work tasks on instruction cards; and generally, the systematic consolidation of the shop floor’s brain work.

Question 10

Staffing

Answer 10

The process of attracting, selecting and maintaining an adequate supply of labor, as well as reducing the size of the labor force when required.

Question 11

Theory X

Answer 11

McGregor’s description of the management assumption that people do not like to work and must be closely watched and controlled.

Question 12

Theory Y

Answer 12

McGregors description of the management assumption that people like to work and need to be encouraged, not controlled.

Question 13

The fire officer has the responsibility of directing and supervising these resources to achieve these outcomes.

Answer 13

Resources
firefighters, apparatus, equipment, and facilities.
Outcomes
Protcting people and property, safely, efficiently, promptly, and in accordance with a long list of rules, regulations, procedures, and additional concerns.

Question 14

The two generalized schools of thought that human resources management is built upon.

Answer 14

scientific management, and humanistic management.

Question 15

What caused the evolution of management?

Answer 15

Adam Smith noticed it took several hundred years for a region to develop the expertise in manual and managerial skills needed to support the industrial Revolution. The engineering approach to management, education, and training speed this process up.

Question 16

Who developed scientific management?

Answer 16

Frederick Winslow Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management 1911.

Question 17

What experiments did Taylor perform to measure the most efficient way to perform each task?

Answer 17

Time and Motion studies, using a stopwatch, measuring a workers sequence of motions.

Question 18

The four principles of scientific management.

Answer 18

1. Replace “rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each worker, rather than passively leaving workers to train themselves.
3. Cooperate with the workers to ensure that the scientifically developed methods are being followed.
4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks.

Question 19

What is one problem with scientific management?

Answer 19

People are treated like carbon-based cogs in a scientific production line. Taylor considered workers as cheap, stupid, and interchangeable.

Question 20

Who started the study of humanistic management?

Answer 20

George Elton Mayo, a Harvard University industrial psychology professor.

Question 21

Hawthorne Effect

Answer 21

A phenomenon in which people improved their performance or behavior not because of any specific condition being tested, but simply because of the extra attention they receive as part of the study.

Question 22

Who developed Theory X and Theory Y?

Answer 22

Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist and professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Question 23

According to McGregor, what controls a workers motivation?

Answer 23

Autonomy and responsibility, workers with greater autonomy are more likely to be motivated in their jobs.

Question 24

Three situation in which a fire officer must temporarily behave as a Theory X manager?

Answer 24

1. When operating at a fire or other high-risk activity.
2. When taking control of a workplace conflict.
3. Near the end of a series of negative disciplinary measures.

Question 25

Who developed the hierarchy of needs?

Answer 25

Abraham H. Maslow

Question 26

The five levels of the hierarchy of needs.

Answer 26

1. Physiological Needs
2. Safety, Security, Order
3. Social, Affection
4. Esteem, Status
5. Self-actualization

Question 27

Physiological Needs

Answer 27

Basic human physical needs like air, water, food, and shelter.

Question 28

Safety, Security, Order

Answer 28

Safe working conditions, on and off the fire ground. Security is more closely associated with maintaining employment or status within the organization. Order could be a factor when a fire department is undergoing a significant reorganization.

Question 29

Social needs, and Affection

Answer 29

Psychological of social needs are related to belonging to group and feeling acceptance by the group.

Question 30

Esteem and Status

Answer 30

Promotions, gold badges, special awards, and take-home fire department vehicles and membership in an elite fire department unit, are all symbols that apply to the esteem and status level.

Question 31

Self-Actualization

Answer 31

Peak experiences are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, when a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient, and yet a part of the world-that is, more aware of truth, justice, harmony and goodness.

Question 32

Who developed the managerial grid theory, and does this theory assume?

Answer 32

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, and their experiments designed to increase leadership effectiveness assumes that every decision made and every action taken in the workplace is driven by peoples values, attitudes, and beliefs.

Question 33

What two fundamental concerns at an individual level drive a managers values?

Answer 33

A concern for people, and a concern for results.

Question 34

The five models of the managerial grid.

Answer 34

Indifference: Evade and Elude
Controlling: Direct and Dominate 
Accommodating: Yield and Comply
Status Quo: Balance and Compromise
Sound: Contribute and Commit

Question 35

Indifference: Evade and Elude

Answer 35

The lowest level of concern for both results and people. Key word neutral, least visible person in a team, a follower who maintains distance from active involvement whenever possible.

Question 36

Controlling: Direct and Dominate

Answer 36

Demonstrates a high concern for results, but a low concern for others. Brings determination, focus, and drive for success, but prevents this person from being aware of others involved in the activity. Expects others to keep up.

Question 37

Accommodating: Yield and Comply

Answer 37

Demonstrates a low concern for results and a high concern for people. Maintains a heightened awareness of the personal feelings, goals, and ambitions of others, and always considers how proposed actions will affect them.

Question 38

Status Quo:

Answer 38

Believes their is an inherent contradiction between the concerns for results and for people, but does not value one concern over the other. Sees a high level of concern for either people or results as too extreme and tries to moderate both in the workplace.

Question 39

Sound: Contribute and Commit

Answer 39

Sees no contradiction in demonstrating a high concern for people and results at the same time. Feels no need to restrain, control, or diminish the concerns for people and results in a relationship, the consequence is the freedom to test the limits of success with enthusiasm and confidence.

Question 40

Typical human resource management functions

Answer 40

Human resource planning
Employee (labor) relations 
Staffing
Human resource development
Performance management
Compensation and benefits
Employee health, safety, and security

Question 41

What is a mission statement designed to do?

Answer 41

Guide the actions of all employees.

Question 42

The four boarders of managing Human Resources.

Answer 42

Federal laws, a union contract, city regulations, and departmental policies.