Evidence has revealed that cheating usually occurs when there is laxity in the cheating environment. More frequently, the organization leadership simply expects that the members will act as expected. As instructors, supervisors have a role and responsibility to enable learning, but not to help in the advancement of ethically challenged or unqualified persons. Supervisors should also participate in the active enforcement of formal organizational policies on the integrity of assessment/testing process and the repercussions of cheating (Cochran, 1901). Besides recruitment, superiors are also responsible for enforcement of financial management rules such as the double signing of all expense check. Supervisors should also not shy away from admitting and disclosing failures that have led to embezzlement of funds.
Ethical roles and responsibilities for Fire Chiefs
Fire chiefs are involved in the establishment of written policies on the integrity of assessment/testing process and the repercussions of cheating. As leaders in fire service organizations, fire chiefs are also responsible for the establishment of consistent and reasonable safeguards. Moreover, they are also responsible for enforcement of these policies on fire service organization members. As executive leaders in fire service organizations, fire chiefs should act as role models on ethical behavior to fellow members in the organization by not engaging in dishonest behavior themselves. Fire chiefs also have a role and responsibility of coming up with measures for prevention/detection of firefighter arson, and curriculum for training fire service organization members on firefighter arson problems. Moreover, they are responsible for ensuring regular financial management oversight in their fire service organizations by making sure that authorized financial services are in place, are followed, and those who violate them are punished. As leaders, fire chiefs should also offer sufficient internal controls by monitoring access to funds. Moreover, they should establish the appropriate and adequate checks and balances in respect to all financial transaction. Fire chiefs are also responsible for constant oversight of all kinds of fire department equipment.
Ethical roles and responsibilities for Fire Service Organizations
Fire service organization should come up with policies on how to the recruitment of firefighters including a background check on potential candidates. An additional affidavit should be included as part of the recruitment process, where an individual discloses whether he/she has ever committed or contemplated committing arson, or set a false fire alarm. This affidavit should be maintained as a permanent record of a firefighter. Fire service organizations code of fire service ethical behavior should also explicitly prohibits fire setting by any member of the organization. Moreover, the check and balances of government-run fire service organization should be extended to volunteer fire service organizations/activities. Fire service organization/companies should also have financial mismanagement prevention mechanisms/tools (Johnson County, 1992). Moreover, they should establish independent audits to crosscheck the accurateness of internal financial inventories. The fire service organization organizations should also establish a rule that requires background checks of anyone handling money, independent third-party audits, a requirement for appropriate purchase orders and requisition filing for purchases, and alertness on any cash transaction. Moreover, the organizations should act as stewards of donated or public resources by ensuring proper accounting of public funds as well as adequately making sure that somebody else doesn’t appropriate what isn’t his/hers. Fire service organization should also come up with proper computer monitoring and use policies. Moreover, they should come up with automated electronic systems to curtail access to pornographic or any other obscene sites on organization/companies computers. Audit trails should also be put in place for recording members’ general usage and access.
Fire service organization should also come up with mechanisms of monitoring posting of material/content by members’ to personal or other blogs or websites. The organization should ensure that members do not post offensive or inappropriate organization-related content/material to their individual or any other blog or websites. These policies should explicitly deter any disclosures that may reveal classified Homeland Security-related material/content, or that may constitute a privacy-related violation or breach. However, this monitoring should be done within the confines of law particularly by respecting individuals’ freedom of expression and speech.
Compare And Contrast the Roles and Responsibilities That Each Player in the Scenario Takes On
Supervisors are mainly concerned with the facilitation of implementation of fire service organization policies or operations (Cochran, 1901). They are also responsible for facilitating the learning of new firefighter recruits. Lastly, supervisors are responsible for communicating information from top management to firefighters and likewise conveying all necessary information on fire service organization operation and individual firefighter conduct to the management. On the other hand, fire chiefs are responsible for the formulation of fire service organization policies and rules of operations as well as making decisions on disciplinary issues. Fire service organizations are responsible for infrastructural and operational facilitation of firefighting operations as its support operations.
Recommendations on the development of a National Fire Service Code of Ethics
The fire service organization/company should initially identify the general highly ethical behaviors of its personnel. This begins by requesting the members to contribute to the development of an ethical code. Every member is also given a copy of examples of an ethical code of conduct and then the members are encouraged to discuss the scenarios. The members are then requested to respond to a questionnaire with several questions on probable ethical situations. Then, it should involve all the members of the organization in developing the organization’s code of ethics founded on the popular congruent basic ethical beliefs. Lastly, the organization should come up with rules and decisions that will support the popular ethical beliefs of firefighters.
How training programs can contribute to the fire service’s foundation of ethical behavior
Fire service personnel are usually in dire need of direction and guidance in respect to ethics. Professional text normally acknowledges the dilemmas on rescue, fire, and emergency medical services. Majority of such literature targets the legal aspects of fire service and only a handful of fire service literature address ethics field (Johnson County, 1992). Professional literature further acknowledges that there is rarely a single, correct guideline of ethical fire service action. However, ethical training gives firefighters grounding in the area of ethics and offers them with a vocabulary to discuss fire service in ethical terms. Training introduces firefighters to the concepts of morals, ethics, and values, as well as normative ethics, which help them to understand the philosophy that there are fundamental values that define ethical conduct. This helps them to understand that such values are not religious, political, or culturally biased, and hence are applicable in offering fire service to the general public. Firefighters also learn that behaviors are an expression of character and that everybody’s decision is based on his/her moral code, and hence personal thoughtfulness is the road to ethical behavior.
- Cochran, K. (1901). Fire Service Reputation Management. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- Johnson County (1992). Code of Ethics in the Fire Service: Fact Or Fantasy. Emmetsburg: National Fire Academy.
