News — One of the highly visible impacts as elected and appointed officials of cities and municipalities around the nation struggle to balance budgets and address the economic realities of these challenging times is the resulting reduction is staffing levels of public safety personnel, including firefighters and police officers.
Dr. Robert S. Fleming, professor of Management in the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.), a nationally recognized authority on fire and emergency services and the author of Effective Fire and Emergency Services Administration, published by PennWell/Fire Engineering, offers the following insights regarding the expectations that stakeholders have for contemporary fire departments.
The stakeholders
Fire department stakeholders fall into two categories: internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders include fire department members, elected and appointed officials, and other fire and emergency services agencies and organizations. Individuals who live in, work in or travel to or through the fire department’s response territory are considered external stakeholders, as are businesses within the jurisdiction.
Fire departments face a number of unique challenges in service delivery, including the fact that is extremely difficult to predict with any certainty when requests for services will be received, resulting in varying call volumes and unscheduled service delivery. Many of the incidents to which fire departments respond require time-critical services with immediate service consumption. These services are typically labor-intensive.
The expectations of fire department stakeholders fall into the following categories: accessibility, completeness, consistency, convenience, courtesy, effectiveness, efficiency, image, professionalism, responsiveness, safety and timeliness. Stakeholders expect that when they request the fire department to respond to an emergency, the fire department will be available to respond and that the fire department will deliver the services necessary to resolve an emergency situation. They further expect that regardless of the day or time of the response, consistent services will be delivered, and that fire department personnel will be courteous and professional in enacting their responsibilities.
Department expectations
The stakeholders of the fire department likewise expect that the fire department will operate in an effective and efficient manner and that its personnel will be responsive to their emergency situation, utilizing necessary strategies and tactics to ensure the safety of response personnel and the public. Last, but certainly not least, is the expectation that upon being dispatched to an emergency call, the fire department will respond, arrive and resolve the emergency situation in a timely manner.
(Fleming’s professional activities have included serving on the National Fire Academy’s Board of Visitors for more than 13 years, six years as vice chairman and six years as chairman. His current professional activities include serving as the chairman of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Fire Service Certification Advisory Committee and the Chester County Local Emergency Planning Committee. The focus of his teaching, research and consulting has been on enhancing organizational effectiveness, with an emphasis on fire and emergency services organizations. His new book, Survival Skills for the Fire Chief, will be published in February 2011.
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