A Study Towards the Implementation of a Fire Service Operational Structure in the Eden District Municipal Area
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A STUDY TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A FIRE SERVICE OPERATIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE EDEN DISTRICT MUNICIPAL AREA By Zanda van Rooyen Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magister in Business Administration at the NMMU Business School Research supervisor: Prof JJ Pieterse November 2005 DECLARATION “I, Zanda van Rooyen, ID No 6503190043080 hereby declare that: - the work in this research paper is my own original work; - all sources used or referred to have been documented and recognised; - and this research paper has not been previously submitted in full or partial fulfilment of the requirements for an equivalent of higher qualification at any other recognised education institution.” Signed ……………………… Date:……………………… ii ABSTRACT The Eden District Municipality (EDM) is a local authority whose area of responsibility covers the Garden Route and also includes the Klein Karoo. The boundaries are from Storms River in the east, to Swellendam in the west and the Swartberg Mountains in the north. The EDM covers a very big area with seven big municipalities to consider and work with. Five of the municipalities, Langeberg, Mossel Bay, Knysna, George and Oudtshoorn have their own fire fighting services. The EDM fire fighting serves mainly the rural area. This is very costly due to the large distance required to travel to a fire, whereas the local municipalities are operating in their own towns. The new municipal boundaries include the rural areas, but the municipalities cannot service the rural areas because they do not as yet charge rates in the rural areas and therefore there is no revenue for the fire fighting service. They operate on the basis of verbal working agreements that make coordination of fire fighting very difficult. The fire fighting functions of the EDM as a category C municipality and the local municipalities as category B municipalities have been specified in the Municipal Structure Act. The allocation (division) of functions and powers relating to fire fighting service between the district municipality and local municipalities as determined by the Municipal Structure Act (Act 117 of 1998) has not been done. Due to the lack of invested capital, the resources are in a bad state. Some of the services have no capacity to attend to chemical fires or hazardous substance emergencies. Internationally, private fire fighting services can be contracted by government departments. These private fire fighting services are very large and the areas that they serve are extensive. These services have their own personnel structures functioning in an organisational structure that serves them well. These private services are very cost-effective and can therefore offer reasonable rates. iii Bases on an investigation of various fire fighting services and different structures, the proposed structure for fire fighting in the EDM area will be a combination of structures. The diverse nature of the area will make the location of a sectoral structure and extension of its capacity difficult, and several factors that will impact on an new structure must be kept in mind. If all works well it will be relatively easy to achieve the five operations performance objectives envisaged for restructuring namely quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I hereby wish to express my gratitude to the following individuals who contributed to the successful and timeous completion of this dissertation - To Peet van Rooyen for his support; - To the George study group, namely Marius Neser Trix Holtzhausen For their support during our years of studying; - To fire fighters Andrè Tomlinson and Deon van Wyk who shared with me their passion for fire fighting; - Eden District Municipality, for making information available. - To God, my pillar. v DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family: Tom, Ina, Glenda, Peet, Elzaan, Thomas and Diane. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ii ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii DEDICATION vi CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION, PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OUTLINE OF RESEARCH PROJECT 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.2 MAIN PROBLEM 2 1.3 SUB-PROBLEMS 2 1.4 DELIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH 3 1.4.1 Demarcation of Organisations to be researched 3 1.4.2 Geographic demarcation 3 1.5 DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS 3 1.5.1 The Fire Fighting Service 3 1.5.2 Demarcation 4 1.5.3 Benchmarking 4 1.5.4 Unique features of an organisation 4 1.5.5 Efficiency 4 1.5.6 Configuration 5 vii 1.5.7 Stakeholders 5 1.5.8 The five performance objectives 5 1.6 IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH 6 1.7 RESEARCH DESIGN 7 1.7.1 Literature Study 7 1.7.2 Empirical study 7 1.7.2.1 Measuring Instruments 7 1.7.2.2 Sample 8 1.7.2.3 Statistical analysis of data 8 1.8 DATABASES 8 1.9 LITERATURE OVERVIEW 8 1.10 OUTLINE OF CHAPTERS 10 CHAPTER 2 11 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES AND LOCATION OF CAPACITY 11 2.1 INTRODUCTION 11 2.2 ORGANISATION CHARTS 13 2.3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF ORGANISATIONS 15 2.3.1 BUREAUCRATIC ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 16 2.3.2 Flat Organization Structure 17 2.3.3 Network Organisation 18 2.3.4 The Virtual Organisation 20 2.3.5 Geographic Organisation 22 viii 2.4 THE LOCATION OF CAPACITY 24 2.5 THE FIVE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES 28 2.5.1 The Quality Objective 30 2.5.2. The Speed Objective 31 2.5.3. The Dependability Objective 32 2.5.4 The Flexibility Objective 32 2.5.5 The Cost Objective 33 2.6 SUMMARY 34 CHAPTER 3 35 BENCHMARKING 35 3.1 INTRODUCTION 35 3.2 RURAL/METRO CORPORATION 36 3.3 ZULULAND FIRE PROTECTION SERVICES 39 3.4 SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN FIRE DISTRICT (METRO FIRE) 46 3.5 METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT 51 3.6 SUMMARY 60 CHAPTER 4 61 DESIGN OF THE EMPIRICAL STUDY 61 ix 4.1 INTRODUCTION 61 4.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 61 4.3 DESIGN AND STRUCTURE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE 62 4.3.1 Administration of the questionnaire 65 4.3.2 Variables in questionnaire 66 4.4 SUMMARY 67 CHAPTER 5 68 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE EMPIRICAL STUDY 68 5.1 INTRODUCTION 68 5.2 ANALYSIS OF EMERGENCY CALLS ATTENDED 68 5.3 ANALYSIS OF QUANTITY OF FIRE STATIONS, SUB-STATIONS AND CONTROL CENTRES 71 5.4 ANALYSIS OF FIRE SERVICES EXPENDITURE 72 5.5 ANALYSIS OF MANPOWER 73 5.6 CONCLUSION 75 CHAPTER 6 76 RISK PROFILE AND CAPACITY ANALYSIS 76 6.1 INTRODUCTION 76 6.2 CLIMATE 77 x 6.3 GEOPHYSICAL PROFILE 78 6.3.1 Coastal Platform 78 6.3.2 Upper Plateaux 78 6.3.3 Mountains 79 6.3.4 Vegetation 79 6.4 INFRASTRUCTURE 81 6.5 ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION 84 6.6 RAIL TRANSPORT 86 6.7 AIRPORTS 86 6.8 FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRE SERVICES AND GEOGRAPHICAL SERVICE PROFILE 87 6.9 CONCLUSION 92 CHAPTER 7 94 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 94 7.1 INTRODUCTION 94 7.2 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE 95 7.3 THE LOCATION OF CAPACITY 101 7.4 THE FIVE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES 103 7.4.1 Is the fire fighting service doing things right? 104 7.4.2 Is the fire fighting service first on a scene? 107 7.4.3 Is the fire fighting service doing things on time? 107 xi 7.4.4 Is the fire fighting service making changes where necessary? 107 7.4.5 Is the fire fighting service doing their jobs cost effectively? 108 7.5 SUMMARY 110 REFERENCES 112 ANNEXURE A - QUESTIONNAIRE 117 xii TABLE OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURE 2.1 - EDM FIRE DEPARTMENT ........................................................12 FIGURE 2.2 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRATEGIC CHOICE AND THE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE ...................................................................14 FIGURE 2.3 BUREAUCRATIC ORGANISATION STRUCTURE......................17 FIGURE 2.4 FLAT ORGANISATION ................................................................18 FIGURE 2.5 A DYNAMIC NETWORK ..............................................................19 FIGURE 2.6: NEST OF VIRTUALNESS ...........................................................21 FIGURE 2.7 THE GEOGRAPHIC ORGANISATION STRUCTURE..................23 FIGURE 2.8 - THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A GEOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE...........................................................................24 FIGURE 2.9 - SUPPLY AND DEMAND: SIDE-FACTORS FOR LOCATION DECISIONS. .....................................................................................................26 FIGURE 2.10 - PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES ..............................................30 FIGURE 2.11 – QUALITY MEANS DIFFERENT THINGS IN DIFFERENT OPERATIONS. .................................................................................................31 FIGURE 3.1 - CORPORATE ORGANISATIONAL CHART ..............................38 FIGURE 3.2 - REGIONAL ORGANISATIONAL CHART...................................39 TABLE 3.1 - ZULULAND COASTAL FIRES AND LOSSES .........................42 TABLE 3.2 - ZULULAND INLAND FIRES AND LOSSES ..............................43 FIGURE 3.3 - ELEMENTS OF THE FIREHAWK SYSTEM ..............................45 TABLE 3.3 - FACTS ABOUT SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN FIRE DISTRICTS.......................................................................................................48 FIGURE 3.4 - SACRAMENTO METROPOLITAN FIRE DISTRICT ..................51 FIGURE 3.5 – PROPOSED NEW STRUCTURE OF METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT .................................................................................................54 FIGURE 3.6 – PROPOSED ROLE STRUCTURE OF METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT ...................................................................................57 TABLE 4.1: An Extract from the Questionnaire................................................64 TABLE 4.2: An Extract from the Questionnaire (continued).............................64 TABLE 4.3: An Extract from the Questionnaire (continued).............................65 TABLE 4.4: