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Gary Yukl’s definition of leadership
“The process by which a person influences others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, …………..the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives .
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Followership
The concept that leaders can be effective only to the extent that others are willing to accept their leadership..
A leader cant lead if others are not willing to follow. An effective leader uses persuasiveness and motivation to overcome resistance.
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What are the three major leadership styles?
Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-Faire
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Autocratic leadership
Iron hand approach is used when the FO needs to maintain high personal control of the group. In these cases the FO is telling subordinates what to do and expecting immediate and complete adherence.
Required in two situations:
- When involved in high-risk emergency scenes such as primary search.
- When the FO needs to take immediate corrective supervisory activity such as during “control, neutralize, command” response to confrontation.
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Democratic
A consultative approach, takes advantage of all of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the grouping determining how to meet an objective or complete a task.
Can be used by the FO when planning a project or developing daily work plan, and some low risk emergency scene ops.
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Laissez-Faire
A free-rein style of leadership moves the decision making from the FO to the individual fire fighters. FO depends on the firefighters good judgement.
Laissez-Faire works well with experienced firefighters and when handling routine duties, that pose little threat.
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Power
The capacity of one party to influence another party
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French and Raven describe types of power in their 1959 “Studies of Social Power” as a result the target person’s response from the “agent” making the request. (5)
- Legitimate power- Target person believes that the agent has the right to make the request and that the target person is obligated to comply.
- Reward Power- Target person complies to obtain rewards believed to be controlled by the agent
- Expert power- Target person complies due to a belief that the agent has special knowledge.
- Referent power- target complies due to admiration or identification with the agent and seeks approval.
- Coercive power- target person complies to avoid punishment believed to be controlled by the agent.
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Professor Gary Yukl updated French and Raven taxonomy to define two types of power.
Yukl provides two additional position-based powers descriptions.
Personal power- reflects the effectiveness of the individual. (includes Expert and Referent power)
Positional power- defined by the role an individual has within the organization. (includes Legitimate, Reward, and Coercive power).
Information power- control over information: target assessment of agents ability to discover/obtain relevant information rapidly through cultivated network.
Ecological power- control over physical environment, technology, or organization of work.: target behavior based on perceptions of opportunity and constraints.
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What is a method for helping FO make assignments under pressure at a fire/emergency scene.
Developing standard method for handling situations. Making standard decisions in a consistent manner will assist in the decision making process. Develop mental checklist that is rapidly completed at every incident will create predictable outcomes.
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How can SOPs help with assigning task that allows for more participation and reduce the number of decisions the officer need to make?
If the FO discusses with the crew various routine emergencies, they can discuss needs of the incident and steps that must be taken to mitigate it, and who be responsible for each task.
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What type of leadership is required during dangerous situations during incidents?
Fire officer must use the autocratic leadership style when immediate action is required.
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Maydays require complex response from the company operating within a hot zone or burning structure. What are the two obligations during a Mayday?
- The first obligation is to maintain radio disciple so command can determine the mayday location and situation.
- The second obligation is to maintain company or group integrity.
The FO needs to maintain company integrity to facilitate the Mayday rescue and continue to fight the fire.
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Initial radio report should include (size-up)
- Identification of company on scene
- Brief description of the incident
- Conditions
- Brief description of actions taken
- Declaration of strategy to be used
- Obvious safety concerns
- Assumption, identification, location of command
- Request or release resources as required
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The city has the expectation that the firehouse is a workplace, what two general rules for nonemergency activities should be followed?
- Do not compromise the ability of the fire company to respond to emergencies in the district
- Do not jeopardize the public’s trust in the fire department.
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What are the key factors that keep volunteers active and loyal when there is no paycheck?
Pride, group identity, and personal commitment.
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What are the four phases of volunteer participation?
- Large loss of applicants during initial fire fighter training-candidates cant make the time commitment.
- Small loss during probationary period-members are consistent participants
- moderate to high loss of FFers between 3-6 years- off to start families
- recommitment between 15th and 18th years- those who never left significantly increase there time as children are grown- core group
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What are the five overriding principles of motivation?
- recognize individual differences
- Use goals
- ensure goals are perceived as attainable
- individualize rewards
- check for system equality
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Reinforcement theory
theory suggest that behavior is a function of its consequences.
to motivate employees to preform officer must provide reinforcers to encourage employee to act in desired manner. Reinforcement must immediately follow an action to increase the probability that the desired behavior will recur.
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What are the four types of reinforcers?
Positive reinforcement -giving reward for good behavior
Negative reinforcement- removing an undesirable consequence of good behavior
Extinction- ignoring bad behavior
Punishment- punishing bad behavior
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What do extinction and punishment do?
decrease the likelihood of bad behavior. Does not guarantee good behavior
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What is the most effective reinforcement for FO?
positive reinforcement, pat on the back after a job well done.
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Example of extinction?
parents ignoring a bad behavior to decrease the likelihood of it occurring again.
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What was the method of motivation described by Fredrick Heezberg?
motivation-hygiene theory which breaks the motivational process into two parts hygiene factors and motivation factors.
Hygiene factors- are external to the person such as pay and work conditions.
Motivation factors- are the individual’s internally determined motivators such as desire for recognition, achievement, responsibility and advancement.
Hygiene factors do not motivate but if not met the worker is not satisfied with external condition and will not be motivated.
