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Date Submitted: 05/19/2013 06:31 PM
Performance Measures in the Fire Service
Edwin Wilkerson
Columbia Southern University
Annotated Bibliography
Buckman, J. M. & International Association of Fire Chiefs. (2006). Chief fire officer's desk reference. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
This book serves as a reference manual for fire service leaders. It has many chapters that deal with the various components of running a modern fire service organization. Separated into six distinct areas of focus, topics dealing with management and leadership, personnel administration, asset management, operations, prevention, public education and tomorrow’s fire service are all reviewed and discussed in contemporary fashion. The discussion of performance measures is in nearly every area of focus and the chapter on management and leadership states that “there are three steps in the control process: measuring performance, comparing performance against a recognized standard, and initiating corrective actions” (Buckman, 2006). By following these control processes, organizational performance and effectiveness can be improved and enhanced.
Coleman, R. J. (2008, October). Stats are more than inside baseball. Fire Chief. Retrieved from: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA186547312&v=2.1&u=oran95108&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w
An iconic fire service veteran, Ronny Coleman has long advocated that one must measure performance in order to keep score and know where the organization is at today, using the information to guide improvement. He says that “notwithstanding wholesale failures of various levels of government to actually do much with performance measurement, the more successful fire organizations today use performance measures as if they were playing in Major League Baseball” (Coleman, 2008). Coleman suggests that what is tracked is important because not all segments of running a fire service organization are equally important and trying to track to much is as dangerous as...