This page has been visited
Copyright 1999 by Walter G. Green III. All rights reserved.
In this session we will start to look at the nature of managerial work. If you are going to manage any emergency services, whether operationally (as in the field during emergency response), administratively (the day to day business of people, facilities, equipment), or programmatically (budgets and plans), you have to understand what management is. A first step to this is to understand management as a profession and as a set of activities.
At the end of this session each student will be able to:
(1) Apply the characteristics of a profession to the analysis of a particular form of work.
(2) Identify his or her own professional goals and objectives.
(3) Develop a personal roadmap for professional growth over the course of a career.
(4) Identify and describe specific management skills and attributes.
During this session, read the following material:
(1) Chapter 1: Introduction to Modern Management in Carter and Rausch MANAGEMENT IN THE FIRE SERVICE.
(2) Chapter 2: What is a Profession? of the draft textbook MANAGING THE EMERGENCY SERVICES - AN INTRODUCTION (sent to you by e-mail).
Everyone answer three of the following four questions (one e-mail to the listserv per question, and make sure you include a subject line that identifies which questions you are answering). You may answer them in any order you wish. Then choose any two of your class members' replies and write a short comment on each.
(1) Based on your knowledge and perceptions, is contract or industrial security a profession? Is the "rent-a-cop" in the mall a professional? How would your perception change if he or she was a member of the International Brotherhood of Professional Security Guards, a union? What about senior management in the company that provides the security force?
(2) Describe your emergency services professional career plan as you see it today. Remember that volunteer service can be a key part of a professional career, and that hopes and dreams can establish a career path as throughly as anything else.
(3) Describe your professional reading and study program. What books about your chosen emergency service have you read in the last year? What trade magazines do you regularly read? Do you have a personal professional library - if so, what is in it?
(4) How would you describe the difference between management and leadership? Do you have to be a manager to be a leader, or a leader to be a manager?