Human Relations in the Fire Service

introduction This essay compares and contrasts the “Classical” and “Human Relations” approaches to management. It focuses on how these approaches are similar and compatible and looks at their differences and incompatibilities. The organisation In 1948 ?? was born, nearly 60 years later it became ??During that time there have been many changes, and the new name reflects its new role. It no longer just deals with fires, but with a much wider range of incidents from road traffic collisions to rescues from cliffs, wells and even cats up trees, and horses in ditches. It has transformed from a re-active service to a pro-active one that educates the general public and commerce in fire safety matters and in short better meets the needs of the public. The public have become our “customers” and we are now a “service provider”. The service has not only changed from the outside, but also on the inside. Motivation There are several different definitions of motivation. “providing an inner urge that prompts a person to action with a sense of purpose. This positive sense of purpose and the resulting action result in a different quality of performance on the part of fire fighters and other employees”. (Hoover, 1994) “Motivation” _is the term used to describe those processes, both instinctive and rational, by which people seek to satisfy the basic drives, perceived needs and personal goals, which trigger human behaviour. (Cole, 1996 page 28)_ Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow offers up a hierarchy of needs model that could help with our understanding of human motivation. It is a model that has been used by management guru’s since its inception in the 1940’s and has indeed been added to over the years by other theorists but essentially remains the same. It maintains that humans all have basic needs that are required to be addressed before you can begin to motivate them. They are: Biological and Physical needs, Safety needs,

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