Fire Service Labor Relations Case Study

The course this week focused on Fire Service Labor Relations. The main roles in this topic are management and labor which work hand and hand to make the organization run like a well-tuned machine. The communications between the two parties is what allows information to flow to create change and address issues. The presentations were designed to focus on the level and types of communication in the individual’s organization, any pertinent issues or grievances, measures the level of trust present, and cooperation between management and labor. The three presentations that I examined for the unit were: James Wall, Matt Halfacre, and Steel McNeil.
James Wall is a student employee in the office of Admissions and Registrar. The presentation focuses …show more content…
The Sheriff’s Office in Bandera County, Texas services an area of approximately 8oo square miles. The employees under the sheriff’s office work at the will of the sheriff and in Bandera County “work in one of the most beautiful places in the world”. The management communications of the sheriff’s office are strict and focus on the unity and chain of command. This means that each employee directly reports to their supervisor and only in the case of a disagreement or grievance can an employee circumvent their supervisor. In the case of a grievance the employee would discuss the problems with a different supervisor that is on the same level of command as their supervisor. If neither supervisor will advocate the employee’s concerns higher up the chain of command then the employee can only proceed to plead their grievances with the next level up supervisor. The most significant issue in Matt’s department is the low level of pay. Finally, the small size of the department requires a dependency of employees to trust and cooperate with each other. In conclusion, the smaller size of the department and the societal beliefs of the area allow for this communication and organization model to work well. Often in larger departments the more hands off with employees approach is taken and that can look a lot like this department’s communication. However, taking a deeper look into the Sherriff’s Office in Bandera County it is clear that the communication style comes from a traditional stand point. It is also evident that the formalization is meant to clearly define the roles and responsibilities that each employees is to