Portland fire and rescue station (PF&R) is the largest emergency and fire service provider in Oregon. It delivers in 30 fire stations emergency response services which are located strategically in Portland city. Moreover, each station has a responsibility for particular city parts referred to as fire management area. However, the stations do support each other to ensure operational emergency readiness 24 hours (The city of Portland Oregon, 5).
The PF&F organization has a mandate within its legal boundaries; this includes also the contract services to provide fire, special responses and emergency medical to a wide area in approximation 151.6 square miles with an estimated population of 583,830 residents (The city of Portland Oregon, 5).
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Analysis of consequences of collective bargaining to union membership and the management team
PF&F where I work is a union organization. I believe it is a union because the workers have welfare where they can voice their grievances. Furthermore, the workers have a union where their representatives negotiate with the management on behalf of the workers. Chamberlain et al (67) defines Collective bargaining is a negotiation process between the representatives of the union and the management with main purpose to arrive at mutually accepted working conditions and wages for employees. Different methods can be applied in the process of bargaining but the outcome desired is usually mutual acceptance by management and labor of a collective bargaining agreement.
Successful positive relationship between the labor and the management should dialogue for better terms for the workers. Furthermore, there should be goodwill between the management and the labor and full commitment to implementation of the negotiation outcomes (Grant et al, 245).
Collective bargaining helps the members to voice their grievances to the management and prevents victimization of the employees. Furthermore, to the management, it helps them communicate to the employees generally, include them in management, emend decisions through their representatives.
According to Morris (167), collective bargaining can reduce production in the company if the negotiation is not productive. Furthermore, it can lead to chaos in the organization if the workers are not organized and are rowdy.
Determination of the applicability of the principled negotiations and the identification of steps for the attributes to be in place for principled negotiation to work in PF&F
As one of the workers of PF&F, I believe principled negotiations will work for the company. The company has been using positional negotiation. According to Herrick et al (208), positional negotiation operates on the basis of trying to get the other side to agree and accept your view point while principled negotiation always starts from assumption that all the sides have things they desire to accomplish and finding a solution that can help all the sides in achieving their goals is possible.
I believe the following steps can be applied by the workers and the coworkers in PF&F to help the organization apply different attributes and work with the principled negotiations:
Interests
Understanding by both negotiating sides that they have some differing interest is the first step in a principled negotiation. This is also the main reason why the both parties are on the table negotiating. Understanding what the negotiating groups want will help the union use the knowledge to realize the desired outcome (Chamberlain, 84).
Options
Although the negotiating groups have their own solutions they prefer, there exist different outcomes that can work for both sides. It is imperative for both sides to find as many as possible and to determine the best. Grant et al (246) adds that examining them from the other perspective to determine their suitability is advisable. Furthermore, creativity helps in finding other negotiation options.
Alternatives
The unions of the PF&F should always go for negotiations with plan B. Having plan B enables unions negotiate from a greater strength position because they are able to make comparison to any negotiated solution to the plan and leave the negotiation if it is not better.
Legitimacy
Success in any negotiation depends largely on the group’s ability to persuade the other group to see the issue their way. This can be done is having a legitimate standards that the labor union can use to show the management that they are being reasonable. The PF&F labor union can prepare these standards before going for a negotiation to them persuasive ammunition (Morris et al, 317).
Communication
The labor union of PF&F should learn the skills of communicating with the management. These include how the representatives talk, to use of slides and notes. Moreover, they should engage in active demonstration of listening (Herrick et al, 186).
Relationship
It is good for the company’s labor union to engage in principles, reasonable negotiation that will help maintain a good relationship with the management. As Chamberlain (96) explains, when the strength of this relationship grows, the union will be able to negotiate with the management based on goodwill that has been in existence.
Commitment
According to Grant et al (220) a successful negotiation ends with all the sides pledging a commitment to act on the settlement negotiated. Moreover, commitment is significant throughout the negotiation process and commences with commitment to willingly negotiate. Morris et al (287) suggests that as the management and the labor union work to commit to place and time of negotiation, the manner and who to do what in the negotiation , they create towards final settlement a positive momentum.
Communication network
PF&F has a network of five fire stations in Oregon. The fire stations are found in Old Town, Parkrose, Northwest Pearl District, Portland state university and Hillsdale. Furthermore, it has a volunteer organization (The city of Portland Oregon, 5).
PF&F furthermore has a strong network of communication. The organization has gateway senses and wireless networks and seamless switch networks that provide reliable mobile communications. The gateway has created mobile hot spots that enable variety of devices around and in the vehicle to seamlessly connect. The city of Portland Oregon (5) expounds that that the gateway reduces cost of communication as it allows multiple data devices in an accident scene and vehicle to share single connection of a network. It also provides 911 to be called during emergency.
PF&F Company can use non emergency communication that can improve performance of the company. First of all, the company should adopt notification for the community of Portland. This free notification service can update the community of the organizations improvements and teach the community safety tips. Secondly, the organization can alert people through cell phones, email, text messages and landline phones such as VoIP. However, the residents of Port Lands need first to register their contacts into the system. Thirdly, the organization can organize forums for the community where they exchange and interact (Herrick et al, 298).
Concepts to improve the performance of the personnel manager
In my supervisory role as a personnel manager in the fire station, I have learnt different concepts that believe will help me improve my performance. The first concept is setting and communicating clearly standards of performance and expectations. Doing observation and providing the feedback and doing appraisals .this will enable the personnel manager to achieve excellent results by managing the employees (Chamberlain, 89).
Secondly, in beginning the process, the manager and the employee should collaborate on performance standard development. The manager should develop a comprehensive performance plan that directs efforts of employees towards achievement of specific results, to support growth of organization in addition to professional growth of the employees (Grant et al, 263).
Thirdly, another concept for performance improvement is discussion of objectives and goals for the whole year, provision of framework to enable the employees get results through mutual feedback and coaching (Morris et al, 215).
The fourth concept is appreciating the performance of the employees at the end of the period of rating. The appraising should be done against existing standards. Furthermore, new goals should be established together to be used in the next rating period. At this level is also important for the personnel manager to interact with the employees (Herrick et al, 276).
Work cited
Chamberlain, Neil W, and James W. Kuhn. Collective Bargaining. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965. Print.
Grant, Nancy K, and David H. Hoover. Fire Service Administration. Quincy, Mass: National Fire Protection Association, 1994. Print.
Morris, Richard B. Labor and Management. New York: New York times, 1973. Print.
Herrick, Neal Q. Joint Management and Employee Participation: Labor and Management at the Crossroads. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990. Print.
The city of Portland Oregon: Fire and Rescue: always ready always there. Oregon 2013.
http://www.portlandoregon.gov/fire/26322
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