IFSTA Fire Co Officer: Ch 2 Flashcards
Supervising
Act of directing, overseeing, or controlling the activities and behavior of employees who are assigned to a supervisor
Managing
Act of controlling, monitoring, or directing a project, program, situation, or organization through the use of authority, discipline, or persuasion.
Leading
Acting of controlling, directing, conducting, guiding, and administering through the use of personal behavioral traits or personality characteristics that motivate employees to the successful completion of an organization’s goals.
Behavioral Leadership theories
- Basic Leadership Style (autocratic, democratic, laissez faire)
- Two-dimensional leadership stylers (job & employee centered models)
- Contingency leadership theory (no single best style exists)
- Contemporary leadership styles (charismatic, transformational, transactional, symbolic)
- Theory X (average worker dislikes work)
- Theory Y (workers believe work is natural)
- Theory Z (workers performing w/out supervision)
Autocratic leadership
Form of Basic leadership style
- Tells subordinate what and how w/little or no input
Negatives
- may result in significant challenges from subordinates
- not effective in daily operations
- Positives
- appropriate for emergency ops
- Examples
- Giving emergency scene orders/commands
Democratic leadership
- Form of Basic leadership style
- Includes employees in decision-making
- Allows them to work with least amount of supervision
- Works for daily operations and special operations (HAZMAT, technical rescue) where knowledge and skills more important than rank
Laissez-faire leadership
- Form of basic leadership styler
- French for “allow to do”
- Employees make all decisions, leader does not supervise at all
- Good for routine station/community tasks
Negatives
- Can result in loss of respect from followers if dominant leadership style.
- Potential for challenge from strong informal leader
- Never used at emergency incidents
Two-dimensional leadership style
- 4 quadrant chart compares degree of job structure to degree of employee consideration
- referred to as job-centered and employee-centered
Contingency leadership theory
- No single best leadership style
- Match situation to leadership style
Success or failure depend on answers to:
- How good is the relationship between leader and subordinates?
- Is the task structured or unstructured?
- Is the leader working from a position of strong or weak power?
Contemporary leadership styles
Currently popular theories
- Charismatic
- Transformational
- Transactional
- Symbolic
Charismatic leadership
- Form of Contemporary leadership
- Inspires loyalty and creates enthusiastic vision others work to attain
- Leaders have strong personalities
- Difficult to separate personalities from that of the organization
- When leader dies/leaves difficult to replace.
Transformational Leadership
- Form of contemporary leadership
- Depends on continuous learning, innovation, and change within organization.
- Leader involves followers in change process
- Challenges them to attain their full potential
- True x-formational leadership is a rare quality
Transactional leadership
- Form of contemporary leadership
- Involves exchange between leader and followers
- Followers perform tasks effectively in exchange for rewards from leader
Symbolic leadership
- Form of contemporary leadership
- Theory based on strong organizational culture that holds common values and beliefs.
- Leadership starts at top and extends down to first-line supervisor
- Employees have full faith and trust in leadership
- Leaders viewed as infallible.
Negatives
- Employees fail to question leadership decisions or speak openly when management makes errors.
Theory X
- Average worker is lazy, dislikes work, avoids it
- Workers must be coerced into performing adequately based on threats and punishment
- Average worker prefers to be closely supervised and shuns responsibility due to lack of ambition
Theory Y
- Work is as natural as play or rest
- Workers will perform adequately with self-direction and self-control without coercion
- Workers will support organizational objectives if associated with their personal goals
- Average worker learns not only to accept responsibility but to seek it
- Only a small part of the worker’s intelligence, ingenuity, and imagination is ever harnessed but can excel with proper leadership
Theory Z
- Based on Japanese firms with high level of commitment and production from workforce
- Involved workers are key to increased productivity
- Can perform autonomously because they’re trustworthy
- Leadership style focuses on the people
- Employees remain with company for life
- Close relationship between work and social life
- Goal to produce economic success futures togetherness
- Participative approach to decision making
Situational Leadership (3 theories)
Style of leadership based on type of situation
- Leadership-continuum theory
- path-goal theory
- results-based theory
Leadeerhip-Continuum theory
- Which style (autocratic to democratic) to apply
Weaknesses
- Leader must be good judge of situations and people
- Assumes leader has all the necessary information
- Assumes no external forces (political or social)
- Oversimplifies complex situation by making it two-dimensional
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