Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify critical success factors for the management of complex change processes in fire service organizations and to apply these in a case study of the Rotterdam-Rijnmond fire service.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides review of literature on organizational change, case study of the Rotterdam-Rijnmond fire service supported by the analysis of policy documents and 30 semi-structured interviews with key persons.FindingsCombining different theoretical approaches helps to get a more complete picture of important issues and dilemma’s in the management of change processes – which is a first step in the successful implementation of changes – whereas other approaches tend to emphasize only some and overlook others. Applied in a case study, this approach revealed serious weaknesses in the management of change within the Rotterdam-Rijnmond fire service and offered practical guides for solutions.Originality/valueThis paper combines insights from different theoretical approaches into a more integrated perspective that aims to be helpful as a practical tool for designing and implementing complex changes in fire service organizations.
Highlights
From the international literature we learn that the fire services and emergency organizations and public organizations in general in developed nations face pressures to modernize and are going through comparable processes of organizational modernization
At the request of the BRR management, the authors of this paper have made an ex ante evaluation of the change strategy that BRR has adopted, in terms of the expected impacts on the implementation process of the strategy (Koppenjan et al, 2014; BRR, 2014). We present this ex ante evaluation and its findings., The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the conditions influencing the management of complex change processes in public emergency organizations like the BRR
The content of the change can be characterized by the attempt to develop an integrated strategy and matching organization that naturally follows the national Fire Service for Tomorrow transition
Summary
From the international literature we learn that the fire services and emergency organizations and public organizations in general in developed nations face pressures to modernize and are going through comparable processes of organizational modernization. This often implies opening up to managerial coordination and a shift from traditional fire extinction activities (like firefighting or accident/crime/ill-health fighting) toward prevention and proactive activities like information an education activities, investment in design and early warning and community engagement (Thurnell-Read and Parker, 2008; Loftus, 2010; Charman, 2015)[1]. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creative commons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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