CO Book Chap 10 Outline PDF

**CO Book Chap 10** =================== - FO 2's are tasked with improving individual and company level performance through training, coaching, evaluating and feedback. - Just Culture is the change in focus from errors and outcomes to the behavioral choices made by subordinates. - T...

**CO Book Chap 10** =================== - FO 2's are tasked with improving individual and company level performance through training, coaching, evaluating and feedback. - Just Culture is the change in focus from errors and outcomes to the behavioral choices made by subordinates. - Transformational Leadership is described by Peter Northouse as a process in which engages with others and creates connection that raises the level of motivation and mortality in both the leader and the follower. - Transformational Leadership changes and transforms people because it aids leaders in understanding individual emotions, values, and ethics; establishing standards; and achieving long-term goals. - A Transactional Relationship is a relationship where all parties are in it for themselves and they do things for each other with the expectation of reciprocation. - Transactional relationship remains important when we are engaged in high hazard emergency scene activity, where there is one incident commander and a direct chain of command. - Achieving transformational leadership includes assessing the follower's motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings, not simply workers. - When incorporating charismatic and visionary leadership, a transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. - Each of the components of transformational leadership helps build followers commitment in four different ways: - Idealized influence: - Leaders who behave consistently with values they espouse can more easily build commitment to a group or organizations values, goals, or standards of behavior. - A charismatic relationship cultivates trust, respect, admiration, and commitment to the leader and the future of the organization. - Inspirational motivation: - The major characteristics of inspirational motivation include optimistically and enthusiastically articulating a clear and appealing view of the future while expressing confidence, encouraging teamwork, and inspiring high standards of performance. - Leaders use inspirational motivation to build emotional commitment to a mission or goal. - Intellectual stimulation: - In order to raise followers' awareness of problems as well as develop their capability to solve such problems, transformational leaders foster a climate that favors critical examination of commonly held notions, beliefs, and the status quo. - Leaders use intellectual stimulation to get followers to reexamine assumptions, seek different perspectives, and encourage nontraditional thinking. - Individualized consideration: - A transformational leader applies individual considerations by listening to each follower's needs and concerns, expressing words of thanks and praise as a means of motivation, making public recognition of achievements and initiatives, and undertaking individualized career counseling and mentoring. - Goals should be specific and challenging, but attainable; clear, specific, and measurable. - Goals should be consistent with the fire department mission, goals, and objectives. - SMART: - Specific: describing the who, what, when, where, how and conditions. - Measurable ex. lost 15% body fat. - Attainable during the evaluation period. - Relevant to current or future fire department job responsibilities. - Timeline to complete. - An **activity log** is a list of the fire fighter's activities by date, along with brief description of performance observations. - **T-Account** is a more sophisticated documentation system, similar to an accounting balance sheet listing credits and debts. - Single sheet form is used to list the assets on the left and the liabilities on the right, with the result resembling the letter "T" - A debriefing that occurs immediately after an incident to identify issues needing prompt attention as well as procedural or systemic problems needing later follow-up is a hot wash. - Departments encourage fire officers to conduct informal performance reviews with each fire fighter throughout the year. - The fire officer uses feedback, coaching, and performance appraisals to improve unacceptable performance or behavior. - High performance organizations that have significant dangers utilize culture approach to address behavior and performance issues. - Just Culture changes the focus from errors and outcomes to systems design and management of behavioral choices of all members. - Daily training at the fire station and having company operations regularly assessed by the chief are ways that organizations can stay close to complete and perfect performance. - Just Culture focuses on the behavioral choices that individuals make that lead to unacceptable behaviors. - Unfortunately this type of evaluation may only occur after a high-profile incident or a horrific outcome event. - A behavioral choice is benchmarked against the organization's mission, values, and goals. - The just culture process classifies the spectrum of human intentions as follows: Human Error, At-risk behavior, reckless behavior, knowingly causing harm, and purposely causing harm. - Human Error: an advertent action such as a slip, lapse, or mistake - Outside factors may include process, procedures, training, design and environment. - At-risk Behavior: is a behavioral choice that increases when risk is not recognized or is mistakenly believed to be justified. - Correcting At-Risk behavior is the most significant impact a fire officer can have on a subordinate in terms of recognizing an at-risk situation and providing an informed opportunity to change a behavior. - The first goal in correcting at-risk behavior is to understand the thought process that lead up to the action. - Reckless Behavior: a behavioral choice to consciously disregard a substantial and unjustified risk. - The member recognized the risk and decided to continue the behavior. - The fire officer has to understand the firefighter's thought process to determine if the member understood the risk. - The determination whether this was an at-risk or reckless behavior is clarified using the "reasonable person" standard. - Reasonable Person is the actions that similar person with the same background would take given the same situation. - Conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustified risk requires negative reinforcement to discourage future reckless behaviors. - Consulting with the fire officer's supervisor and considering the factors in each specific incidence would include remedial training, formal discipline, punitive action. - For employee evaluations, jurisdictions typically require a supervisor to provide a formal notification to an employee who is likely to be evaluated below the level necessary to obtain a pay increase or a "satisfactory" rating. - The notice must identify the aspect of the job performance that is substandard and indicate what the employee must do to avoid receiving a substandard annual evaluation. - Common practice is to require such notification as soon as an issue arises, or at least 10 weeks before the annual evaluation. - If the employee receives a substandard annual evaluation, then the municipality might require a work improvement plan. - This plan should cover a specific span of time, such as 120 calendar days that would be designated as a special evaluation. - HR division requirements that could be applied to a work improvement plan: - In writing, state the performance deficiencies and listing the improvements in performance or changes in behavior required to obtain a "satisfactory" - Reviewed and approved by a senior management officer. - Employee should receive regular progress reports. - The time-in0rank pay increase will start as the first pay period after the work improvement period. - At the end of the special evaluation period, the employee rating remains unsatisfactory, then no time-in-grade pay increase will be issue; the supervisor will determine whether additional corrective action is appropriate. - Negative Discipline: If an individual does not respond to positive efforts to correct a problem, the next logical step is to punish continuing unsatisfactory performance. - Progressive discipline moves from mild to more severe punishments if the problem is not corrected, with the ultimate goal remaining that the firefighter's performance improves. - Typical steps in a progressive negative discipline system include: Counseling the firefighter and ensuring he understands the requirements, ascertain theirs no issues contributing to the poor performance that are not immediately obvious to the supervisor, verbally reprimand, written reprimand, suspend the firefighter from work with escalating number of days, and finally terminate. - A fire officer is often required to consult with his supervisor before issuing formal negative discipline. - Many jurisdictions provide detailed description of the "due process" and just culture principles that guide the administration of progressive negative discipline under labor-management contract. - Informal oral or written reprimand: Reprimand is issued by a supervising or managing officer. Reprimand remains at the fire station level and expires after a time period of no longer than 1 year. - Formal written reprimand: Document initiated by a fire officer (usually after consulting with his or her supervisor). Some organizations require a battalion chief or other command officer to issue a written reprimand. A copy of the letter goes into the individual's official personnel file. It expires after a set time period, usually 1 year. - Suspension: May be initiated or recommended by a fire officer. The suspension notice is usually issued by a battalion chief or a higher-level command officer after consultation with the fire chief or designee. The record of a suspension remains permanently in the employee's official file. Occasionally, the record is removed after a grievance, arbitration, or civil service hearing, or in the wake of a lawsuit. - Termination: Although a termination is usually recommended by a lower-level command officer, the fire chief issues the formal termination notice after consulting with the personnel office. - When there is willful misconduct, as opposed to inadequate performance, implementation of negative discipline immediately may be required. - Personnel regulations usually provide a list of behaviors that will lead to immediate negative discipline, such as: - Knowingly providing false information affecting an employee's pay or benefits or in the course of an administrative investigation - Willfully violating an established policy or procedure - Being convicted of a criminal offense that affects the ability of the employee to perform his or her job - Displaying insubordination - Behaving in a careless or negligent way that leads to personnel injury, property damage, or liability to the municipality - Reporting to work when under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance - Misappropriating fire department property or funds - Formal written reprimand represents an official negative supervisory action at the lowest level of the progressive discipline process, often prepared by a fire officer and consulted with personnel regulation and departmental guidelines when preparing a written reprimand. - A written reprimand should contain: - Statement of charges in sufficient detail to enable the fire fighter to understand the violation, infraction, conduct, or offense that generated the reprimand - Statement that this is an official letter of reprimand and will be placed in the employee's official personnel folder - List of previous offenses in cases in which the letter is considered a continuation of progressive discipline - Statement that similar occurrences could result in more severe disciplinary action, up to and including termination - The formal paper trail of a progressive disciplinary process starts with a written reprimand and if not repeated, may be removed from the employee file after a designated time period, typically 1 year after the reprimand was issued. - Fire Officer must focus on the work related behaviors and clearly explain the behavior or action that generated the reprimand. - Predisciplinary conference or hearing must be conducted before suspension, demotion, or involuntary termination can be invoked, providing the firefighter an opportunity to formally respond to the charges. - Known as a Loudermill Hearing, the process resulted from the 1985 US Supreme Court Case in Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill. - The court ruling indicated that a pretermination hearing, including a written or oral notice, so the employee can present his or her side of the case, and an explanation of adverse evidence were essential to protect the worker's due process rights. - Serves as a check against a possible mistaken decision, as it seeks to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that the charges against the employee are true and whether they support the proposed action. - Not all disciplinary actions require a Loudermill hearing before suspension; the rules vary state to state. - Examples of the process: - The fire officer investigates the alleged employee offenses promptly and obtains all pertinent facts in the case (time, place, events, and circumstances) including, but not limited to, making contact with persons involved or having knowledge of the incident. - The fire officer prepares a detailed report outlining the offense, the circumstances, the individual's related prior disciplinary history, and recommended disciplinary action. - The report is submitted to a higher-ranking officer in the chain of command. - The fire department representative consults with the human resources director or his or her designee, if necessary, when suspensions are contemplated. - The disciplinary board hearing is scheduled, and an advance notice letter is prepared. - The disciplinary board considers the charges and hears the employee's response. - The disciplinary board makes a recommendation to the fire chief, who issues the final decision. - At the hearing, the accused can refute the charge or present additional information about mitigating circumstances. - An alternative or lower level disciplinary action might be proposed, based on past department practices. - The firefighter might or might not have the ability to appeal the disciplinary action through grievance procedure depending on the personnel rules of the organization. - Final resolution usually resides with civil service commission or city personnel director with some agencies using arbitration to resolves these issues. - Variety of alternate disciplinary actions could be imposed: - Extension of probationary period, establish a special evaluation period, involuntary transfer or detail, make a financial restitution, loss of leave, demotion. - Suspensions are the next step of a progressive negative discipline path, removing the firefighter from the work location and prohibits them from performing any fire department duties. - Usually results from a willful violation of a policy or procedure or another specific act of misconduct. - Usually run 1-30 days. - Some organizations allow a fire officer to immediately suspend for the balance of a work period, pending a formal disciplinary action. - Can be suspended with pay or on restrictive duty while an administrative investigation is being conducted. - Suspension can happen before the investigation is completed if employee is being investigated by the FD or LE for an offense that is reasonably related to FD employment or when an employee waiting to be tried for an offense that is job related or a felony. - Termination means the organization determined the member is unsuitable for continued employment. - The top municipal official such as mayor, county executive, city manager or civil service commission can terminate an employee with many delegating this task to the agency or department head such as a fire chief. - Documenting performance with two additional time milestones provide clarification for both the evaluator and member. - Mid-year review is another informal performance review where the officer assesses the progress of his or her annual goals. - Firefighter should conduct another self-evaluation 6 weeks before the official annual evaluation. - The fire officer should recognize outstanding accomplishments, encourage improvement, and in some cases, identify those personnel who should be considering another career option. - The fire officer who maintains an activity log or T-account, conducts bimonthly informal reviews, conducts a mid-year review, and has the fire fighter complete a self-evaluation 6 weeks before the annual evaluation will have a wealth of information with which to present an accurate, well-documented, and comprehensive annual evaluation. - Evaluation is a largely subjective process that is vulnerable to unintentional biases and errors. - Having a detailed record of activities, experience, and accomplishments over the evaluation period helps create an accurate assessment. - Be aware of these 7 evaluation errors: - Leniency or Severity: rating all firefighters either higher or lower than their actual work performance. - Leniency reduces conflict, common when done face-to-face. - Rating of "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" thinking it will motivate firefighters to work harder, often a mistake made by new officers who haven't received adequate training in preparing performance evaluations. - Personal Bias: evaluation error that occurs when the evaluator's perspective skews the evaluation without appropriately evaluating the knowledge, skills, and abilities. - This is the most common reason for employees to file a hostile workplace or discrimination charges. - Recency: an evaluation error when only the last few weeks are looked at not all the events throughout the evaluation period. - Central tendency: when the middle range is used for all, holding little value for the firefighter or evaluation process. - Frame of reference: evaluation error on the fire officer's personal ideals instead of classified job. - Halo and Horn Effect: fire officer only focuses on one aspect of performance, the good or the bad, applying the perception across the board in all aspects of performance. - Contrast Effect: evaluation comparing ones performance to another's instead of classified job standards. - Evaluation forms may be received a month or two before the evaluation is due. - Consists of 4 steps: fill out standardized form, subordinate review and comment of form, face-to-face feedback, establish goals for next evaluation period. - Unless a problem with employee's performance, scheduled evaluation should primarily be used to discuss future goals. - Four borders of human resources: areas the fire officer must be familiar with that cover FD HR policies and procedures. - Federal and State Law: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). - The fire officer may want to discuss issues affected by these laws with HR department and legal counsel. - Labor Contract. - Jurisdiction Regulation: human resources department managing compensation and benefits, although not handled by the company officer, must have an understanding of how it works. - Most departments operate on a step-and-grade pay system and the other two most common being merit-based pay and skill based pay. - Merit based on good performance. - Skill based on having additional specific skills like hazmat tech. - Fire Department Policies: Performance Management is the process of setting performance standards and evaluating performance against those standards. - Daily training is one of the most basic responsibilities of the fire company officer. - Standards are set at the fire organizational level however evaluation of the firefighter's performance is a company officer function. - Direct supervision requires the fire officer directly observe the actions of the crew. - Direct supervision allows the company officer to ensure safety policies are used. - Just Culture concepts improve health, safety and security to promote a safe environment for firefighters. - Sudden cardiac arrest remains the number one cause of line of duty deaths, a statistic that has not budged since NFPA began tracking in 1977. - Near-miss reports use a toll modified by the US Navy Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFCAS). - HFCAS Level 1 Unsafe Acts: includes two categories errors and violations. - Errors are considered unintentional and can be based on decisions, skills, or perceptions. - Decision-based errors include flaws in communicating information to decision makers. - Skill-based errors include attention failure (lack of situational awareness), memory failure (forgotten or missed steps), or technique failure (lack of training). - Perception errors may include visual illusions. - Violations are considered intentional and are classified as either routine or exceptional. - Routine violations include failure to use safety equipment, failure to recommend tactical best practice, or failure to follow recommended cerebral best practices (conducting risk-benefit analysis). - Exceptional violations include not being qualified to perform an action. - HFACS Level 2 Preconditions to Unsafe Acts: analyzes substandard conditions and practices of the individuals involved in the incident. - Include factors contributing to adverse mental states, psychological states, and physical limitations. - Substandard practices include failure to use elements of crew resource management and personal readiness. - HFACS Level 3 Unsafe Supervision: broken down into four categories: inadequate supervision (guidance not provided, training not provided, qualifications not tracked), allowing inappropriate operations (personnel not adequately briefed, understaffed, unnecessary hazards permitted), failure to correct known problems (unidentified and unqualified, failure to provide training to unqualified personnel, failure to correct inappropriate or unsafe behaviors), and supervisory violations (authorization of unnecessary hazards, failure to enforce department rules, authorization of unqualified personnel to perform tasks). - HFACS Level 4 Organizational Influences: the most difficult level to analyze, the operating culture of the fire department is often as significant to the near miss as the individual's action. - Examines both resource management (staffing, training, budget, and equipment/facility resources) and organizational climate (chain of command, delegation of authority, risk management programs, and safety programs). - Data analysis: must maintain records of all accidents, occupational deaths, injuries, illnesses, and exposures in accordance with federal, state and local regulations. - Risk management is the identification and analysis of exposure to hazards, selection of appropriate risk management techniques to handle exposures, implementation of chosen techniques, and monitoring of results, with respect to the health and safety of members. - To prevent future occurrences, an evaluation of all unsafe acts and conditions along with identifying a means to address each is required. - Once a cause has been identified, a report should be filed with your supervisor that outlines the problem, actions taken to correct the problem, and any additional actions that should be implemented. - The officer must review data to determine areas causing greatest number of incidents and greatest potential for loss. - Risk management principles suggest that fire officers should focus attention on high-risk low frequency activities. - Designing better systems: just culture approach acknowledges human's make errors and drift performance. - When evaluating a behavioral decision, it looks at the environment to see what factors contributed to the decision. - This approach can be seen as an effort to plug holes that show up when considering a systems approach to human error management. - Controlling contributing factors: determining if a behavior was reckless or at-risk, identify existing situations that would lead to human error or at-risk behavior. - Adding barriers: procedural or physical barriers to stop an activity that leads to harm, loss or risk. - Adding recovery: a system to "catch" an accident trajectory downstream. (buddy check before entering IDLH). - Adding redundancy: parallel elements to assure the task or activity will not be interrupted (backup line). - The goal of designing a better system is to reduce the impact of human error and at-risk behaviors. - Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. - Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning, ranging from college degrees to certification training, continuing education, skill acquisition, and informal learning opportunities in the field. - Training vs Education: - Education is the process of imparting knowledge or skill through systematic instruction, typically through academic institutions and directed towards an individual's comprehension of the subject matter. - Training is directed toward the practical application of education to produce an action, is an essential fire service activity. - Accreditation: NFPA standardized firefighter training by publishing the inaugural edition of NFPA 1001 Standard for Firefighter Professional Qualifications in 1974 starting a trend toward developing national consensus standards on a wide range of fire service occupations. Chapter 10 Summary - Transformational leadership is a process in which a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower. - Transactional relationship is a relationship where all parties are in it for themselves and they do things for each other with the expectation of reciprocation. - Transformational leadership builds follower commitment in four ways: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration. - Goal setting is the process of establishing of specific goals over a designated period of time. - Fire officers should require all off-probation fire fighters to identify three work-related goals to achieve over the next evaluation period. - Goals should be S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant with a timeline. - Fire officers should keep track of each fire fighter's activity using an activity log or a T-account. - The just culture approach changes the focus from errors and outcomes to systems design and management of behavioral choices of all members. - The spectrum of human intention: human error, at-risk behavior, reckless behavior, knowingly causing harm, and purposely causing harm. - Human error is an inadvertent action such as a slip, lapse, or mistake. - At-risk behavior is a behavioral choice that increases risk when risk is not recognized or is mistakenly believed to be justified. - Reckless behavior is a behavioral choice to consciously disregard a substantial and unjustified risk. In other words, the member recognized the risk and decided to continue the behavior. - Reasonable person standard describes the actions that a similar person with the same background would take given the same situation. - Response to reckless behavior could include remedial training, formal discipline, or punitive action. - A common practice is to notify subordinates of a substandard employee evaluation 10 weeks before the annual evaluation is due. - A work improvement plan is a special evaluation period where the fire fighter is provided an opportunity to demonstrate the desired workplace behavior or performance. - Progressive negative discipline occurs due to the continuing inability or unwillingness of a fire fighter to meet the required performance or behavioral expectations. - The steps of progressive negative discipline are informal reprimand, formal written reprimand, suspension, and termination. - Many jurisdictions require a Loudermill hearing before a suspension, demotion, or involuntary termination can be invoked. - A pretermination hearing is where an employee has an opportunity to present his or her side of the case, with and an explanation of adverse evidence to protect the worker's due process rights. - Alternative disciplinary actions include extension of probationary period, establishment of special evaluation period, involuntary transfer or detail, financial restitution, loss of leave, or demotion. - Suspension is a negative disciplinary action that removes a fire fighter from the work location and prohibits him or her from performing any fire department duties. - Restrictive duty is usually a work assignment that isolates the fire fighter from the public, often an administrative assignment away from the fire station environment. - Two informal reviews of firefighter work performance are the mid-year review and 6 weeks before the end of the annual evaluation period. - Evaluation errors include leniency/severity, personal bias, recency, central tendency, frame of reference, halo and horn effect, and contrast effect. - The annual evaluation requires review by a higher ranking officer, a subordinate response to the evaluation, a face-to-face discussion with the subordinate, and establishing goals for the next evaluation period. - The four borders of human resources are federal/state law, labor contract, jurisdiction regulations, and fire department policies. - Near-miss reports are classified using a modified tool from the U.S. Navy's Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) as Unsafe Acts, Preconditions to Unsafe Acts, Unsafe Supervision, or Organizational Influences. - Risk management is the identification and analysis of exposure to hazards, selection of appropriate risk management techniques to handle exposures, implementation of chosen techniques, and monitoring of results, with respect to the health and safety of members. - Just culture looks at designing better systems, controlling contributing factors, adding barriers, adding recovery, and adding redundancy as ways to manage risk. - Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. - Education is the process of imparting knowledge or skill through systematic instruction. - Accreditation in higher education is defined as a collegial process based on self- and peer assessment for public accountability and improvement of academic quality.