IFSTA Company Officer: Ch. 2 Flashcards
Organizational Structure
Why is Organizational Structure important to fire and emergency services?
It permits effective, organized and efficient use of resources
What helps fire and emergency services organizations provide the highest level of service to their customers at the lowest possible cost?
Organizational Structure
The top official in most North American public fire and emergency service organizations is called what 4 things?
Fire Chief, Chief, Commissioner or CEO
What are SOP/SOGs used to define?
organizational policy and behavioral/performance expectations of employees
What is Scalar Structure?
Having an uninterrupted series of steps or chain of command.
Direct communication at lower organizational levels allows for what?
quicker actions and reactions
Within a scalar structure, information is generally ___________ for decision-making
centralized
Personnel who deliver services to the public or external customers are called?
Line Personnel
Typical functions of Staff personnel are:
Training, Logistics and Personnel Administration
What is defined as the legal ability of an individual to make and implement decisions for which the individual is held accountable?
Authority
What are two types of decision making models?
Centralized and Decentralized
Which decision making model works well in very small organizations?
Centralized
As a leader in large organizations, what can be done to exceed span of control?
Delegate authority
What must a chief ensure that all members understand in a decentralized system
Direction, Values, and Goals of organization
Under which decision making model, is decision making authority limited to those tasks which personnel have been given authority?
Decentralized
Which decison making model allows for the expeditious handling of most matters?
Decentralized
What is a negative drawback to a decentralization of authority?
duplication of effort may occur
What is defined as the process of providing subordinates with the authority, direction and resources need to complete an assignment.
Delegation
Under Unity of Command, each subordinate has how many supervisors?
One
Unity of Command depends on the use of:
Chain of Command and Function Supervison
The process of going around a link in the chain of command to deal with an issue is defined as?
Sidestepping
What is Skip Level Notification?
Notifying one’s supervisor that one wishes to take an issue to the supervisor’s supervisor
Four ways you can reduce sidestepping?
Be available to listen
Listen to problems sincerely
Take action and notify the employee
Take a problem to the next level if it can’t be solved
What is an organizational principle that allows workers to report to more than one supervisor?
Functional Supervision
Functional supervision deviates from _____________ when personnel are assigned by a senior officer to perform duties that fall under the authority of another supervisor
Unity of Command
What is defined as the number of subordinates and/or number of functions an individual can effectively supervise?
Span of Control
NIMS-ICS model suggest an optimum span of control is ______
Five
What consists of dividing large jobs into smaller tasks to be assigned to specific individuals?
Division of Labor
What are 3 reasons division of labor is important?
Assigning responsibility
Preventing duplication of effort
Making clear cut assignments
Emergency service organizations are organized into what 3 divisions?
Emergency Response Service
Community Services
Internal Services
Work groups can be created based on what elements?
Type of Task Geographical Area Time of year/Season Available Resources Skills
Depending on how the organization is funded, fire and emergency services can be classified as either ________ or ________
Public —- Private
The primary means of categorizing public fire and emergency service organizations is by ______________
jurisdiction the organization serves
What are the 6 common public jurisdictions that provide fire and emergency service protection?
Municipal, County, Fire District, State/Provincial, Federal, Tribal
Staffing for municipal departments may be what 3 types?
Career, Combination/Composite, Volunteer
Municipal is defined as:
Functional division of the lowest level of local government
The size of municipal fire and emergency services organizations depend primarily on __________ and _________
Size of population
Geographical Area
County is defined as:
Political subdivision of a state, province, or territory for admin purposes and public safety.
A county is also known as a _________
Parish
What is considered the second level of local government?
A county
Fire District is defined as:
Designated geographic area where fire protection is provided, through a supportive tax or an area where fire prevention codes are enforced.
What are (2) other names for a fire district?
Fire Protection District
Regional Fire Authority
Fire districts operate under a ____________ or ____________ who represent the residents of the district.
Board of Trustees
Commissioners
What is the term giving to an area that lies outside of taxpayer supported or funded jurisdictions?
No Man’s Land
What are state/provincial emergency fire suppression companies organized for?
Forest, Wildland and urban interface fires
What does USFA stand for?
U.S. Fire Administration
What does NFA stand for?
National Fire Academy
What does EMI stand for?
Emergency Management Institute
How many federally recognized Native American tribal governments exist?
562
Private emergency service organizations fall into which (3) categories?
Industrial Fire Brigades
For-Profit
Non Profit
Who’s rules permit non-profit fire and emergency service organizations to request and receive Fire Act Grant funds.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Approximately how much percent of fire and emergency service organizations are comprised of Volunteer firefighters?
70
What is reciprocal assistance from one fire and emergency services agency to another during an emergency?
Mutual Aid
What is a written agreement between two or more agencies to automatically dispatch predetermined resources to any fire or other emergency reported in the geographic area covered?
Automatic Aid
Assistance from agencies or fire departments that are not part of the agency having jurisdiction is called?
Outside Aid
Outside Aid and Mutual Aid are similar except that:
Pay per response or annual fee is made.
