Storm King Mountain Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Storm King Mountain Case - Essay Example ged use of aggressive tactics, and were categorized as ‘watch out situations,’ the firefighters continued to take the bold step of building fire line downhill upon receiving confirmation from their leader, Mackey, that the area was good enough with less vegetation, and not much risk from existing fire. The crew members relied completely on Mackey’s judgment as they trusted in his abilities more than their conviction of adhering to the guidelines. Attributable to their can-do attitude, the firefighters ignored most of the rules because their ultimate aim was to stop fire from spreading. They did not regard these guidelines as procedures to be used in firefighting; rather, they relied more on their critical judgment based on experience and situational constraints. Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model (JCM) explains employee behavior based on four motivational aspects namely, job characteristics, critical psychological states, personal and work outcomes and growth-need strength. The JCM framework helps in understanding managerial functions as well as the psychological processes associated with work that are associated with employee behavior and outcome of employee actions. This model emphasizes the role of job design that ultimately leads to experienced meaningfulness of work, experienced responsibility for the outcomes, and knowledge of the results of work activities (Debnath, Tandon & Pointer, 2007). A team leader can determine what skills would be best to perform a specific job and deploy staff accordingly. In addition, the task to be performed needs to be identified in advance besides having complete understanding of how the task or job impacts the employees and/or other stake holders. Identification of skills and tasks to be accomplished will also help the leader assess the extent to which the staff may be empowered to take their own decisions. While autonomy is an effective way to motivate staff, the level of autonomy requires a