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Copyright 1999 by Walter G. Green III. All rights reserved.
One of the largest challenges managers face is understanding why people individually and people collectively as members of organizations behave the way they do. Individual and organizational behavior set the underlying tone of our organizations, determine what our potential as members of the organization can be, and contribute directly to success or failure. Over time, a wide variety of theories have been developed to explain behavior, and each contributes to our understanding of why we act the way we do. It is important to understand that no single management or behavioral theory explains all behavior and none is universally applicable to all situations. They are guides to us as managers in being effective in our operational world.
At the end of this session each student will be able to:
(1) Describe factors in the emergency services environment that characterize the work we do.
(2) Identify key authors in the development of management thought and the major themes of their work.
(3) Select an older model of management thought and describe how it affects today's management practices.
(4) Analyze his or her organization and describe the organizational forces at work.
During this session, read the following material:
(1) Chapter 2: Management Theory - Its Roots and Growth in Carter and Rausch MANAGEMENT IN THE FIRE SERVICE.
(2) Chapter 3: The Impact of Behavioral Science on Management Theory in Carter and Rausch MANAGEMENT IN THE FIRE SERVICE.
(3) ORGANIZING THE EMERGENCY SERVICES: THE CHALLENGE OF UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, a paper by Walter Green.
Everyone answer three of the following four questions (one E-mail to the listserve 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. Remember to also comment on two answers by other members of the class.
(1) What elements describe your actual emergency services work environment (not the organizational environment, but how work is performed on the streets)? Is your work complex or simple, governed by protocol or requiring of great judgement, time constrained, etc.? If you are not an active member of an emergency service, what is your perception of the environment of a service you have watched work?
(2) Choose a management theorist described by Carter and Rausch and describe they key elements of that individual's theory as you see them.
(3) Choose a management theorist described by Carter and Rausch and describe how you might apply their theory to an ongoing management issue within your organization. If you answered question 2 choose a different theorist for this question.
(4) Using one of the models of organizational behavior described in Green's paper, indicate how your organization fits that model and give examples of behaviors that reinforce that fit.