Standard Operating Procedures and Managerial Tasks

Standard Operating Procedures
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Section I
Do managerial tasks (planning, organizing, directing, and controlling) develop a cooperative relationship with fire & emergency services (FES) personnel and other agencies and the communities?
Managerial tasks are instrumental in developing cooperative relationships. The planning task develops a cooperative relationship with other partners by including them in the firehouse’s plan, for example, outlining how two firehouses will work cohesively in a similar scene. The different fire stations working in a similar scene are assigned various tasks through the organizing task, eliminating arguments that may affect cooperation (Walsh et al., 2012, pp. 7-5-7-9). Directing promotes cooperation through the administrator communicating the new guidelines and rules firefighters have to observe, such as respecting other FES personnel. Evaluating how firefighters behave and work with other agencies and offering feedback facilitates a change of attitude and behavior towards other emergency personnel.
Why do many FES personnel believe more experience and intuition in decision-making is valuable in an emergency?
In an emergency circumstance such as a fire outbreak, intuition and experience are considered most valuable in making decisions. Intuition is the unconscious and intuitive process based on an individual’s knowledge stored in their long-term memory. Intuition decision-making is based on someone’s “gut feeling,” which is informed by a wealth of experience and the ability to predict occurrences and foresee their outcome. Experience, on the other hand, is characterized by immense knowledge, experience, facts, and figures a decision-maker has learned over the years through training and hands-on experience in real situations, which informs successful repetitive decision making (Khorram-Manesh et al., 2016, pp. 187-188).
The importance of chain of command and unity of command during such a situation
Chain of command refers to the systematic line of authority within an incident management organization, while a unit of command is each person in operation reporting to one assigned supervisor. These management processes are essential when firefighters respond to a fire emergency as it allows the incident commander to control the resources and decisions made in rescuing and arresting the fire, without making the incident stressful or riskier. In addition, working under an orderly line of authority ensures that the response to a situation is organized and smooth, as each firefighter knows to whom they need to report. Consequently, eliminating freelancing compromises the entire operation (Walsh et al., 2012, pp. 2-5-15).
Ideal characteristics of a guiding coalition in this scenario
According to Smeby (2014), the guiding coalition should be diverse. An effective team needs to comprise individuals from across the firehouse, such as a fire chief, a captain representative, a lieutenant, and a firefighter representative. The different representatives ensure that a united coalition can traverse the different levels and bring about change. Furthermore, the coalition members shou...