Week after week, I come to you with a list of things that might be able to help you in your daily life as a member of the fire service. Many thousands of words have been devoted to discussing you and the concepts of leadership and followership. It is time to take a look at the basics of organizational life.
Far too many people fail to understand that the fire department is an organization, plain and simple. While it is special to us, the basics are the same for us as they are for every other type of organization there is.
Just what is an Organization? I have developed a definition based upon many years of research and training. Based upon my research in this arena, I offer to you that Gibson, Ivancevich, and Donnelly (2000) tell us that,
