|
Mankkinen, T. (2001) The nature of work and of work communality of Finnish fire fighters undergoing transition, http://www.fitting-in.com/mankkinen1.htm. |
||||||||
|
The nature of work and of work communality of
Finnish fire fighters undergoing transition. Nordic Ergonomics Society,
Annual Congress, 2.-5.9.2001, Tampere PhD Student Teija Mankkinen Center for Activity Theory
and Developmental Work Research, University of Helsinki |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
|
Want help with your bibliography? Go to Research Advice |
Physical work ability among fire fighters has been studied quite thoroughly in recent years. One of the main themes in the research has been ageing and how it affects fire fighting (e.g. Lusa & Punakallio 1999). At least three reasons for the choice of the research perspective can be easily found. Firstly, extinction of fires demands quite good physical condition and work ability. Secondly, Finnish fire fighters’ retirement age was raised to 65 in 1995, which made the age a political issue. And thirdly, since the mid 90s, in Finland, there has been a strong public discussion about workers’ work ability and ageing (Mäkitalo 2001), which has also impacted on research topics and financing.
However,
from the perspective of activity theory and developmental work research the
ageing approach (see for example Engeström 1985, 1998; Virkkunen et al 1998)
seems to turn the attention too often to the individuals’ situation away from
the work processes, their changes and the fact, that work activity is today
often jointly carried out. I am not saying that that individual aspects - such as the effects of ageing, work
ability, commitment and so forth – are not important in fire fighting. However,
especially in the case of work activity, equally important matter is the relation
between individual and community as well as understanding of the historical
changes of work. It is the aim of this paper to look at the fire fighters’
present situation in the City of Helsinki Fire Brigade from the activity system
perspective and use the triangular model of the activity theory as a starting
point. The triangular model is a methodological tool used in describing the
relation between individual and community in the work activity. All ideas
presented in this paper are based on discussions in the first Change Laboratory
(the method of developmental work research) held in the City of Helsinki Rescue
Department, in autumn 2001.
First,
a few brief words about the fire fighters. Fire fighting is a male dominated
profession, which was poorly respected in the early days, but today the
situation is quite different: in “The valuation of professions” –research made
this year, 2001, fire fighters were ranked on the 51st place of 377
professions (SK ??/2001).
Traditionally, firemen have lived in the premises of fire stations, and due to
the unusual work-shift system they have spent much time together. Fire fighters
still form quite a unitary group (see my abstract) and have unusual working
hours (one work shift lasts 24 hours, and in one month there are about 8
shifts). Fire fighters’ work is a combination of work duties and leisure times:
The smaller the community and the fire brigade, the more leisure, usually. The
work activity is jointly carried out by the community and the special knowledge
is demanding. A fire brigade is organized hierarchically and it can be compared
to the army, in many respects. It is interesting to note that as late as the in
the1970s fire fighters were still called fire soldiers.
In
activity theory, the work is seen as an activity, and the most important
element of the activity is its object. The object is not always obvious, on the
contrary, it is often constantly changing and multivariate. The object of the
fire fighter has traditionally been putting of fires. The number of fires has
stayed quite stable since the 60s in Helsinki (about 1000 duties/year). In
practice, this means that each one fire fighter was involved in extinguishing a
fire approximately 2,7 times during the last year. Besides the extinction
duties fire fighters have expanded to the area of ambulance service since the
beginning of 1900s. In fact, last year, over 80 % of the duties consisted of
ambulance alarms. Also rescue duties and automatic alarms belong to a fire
fighter’s workday and the number has increased in recent decades. In other
words, the fire fighter’s workday mainly consists of ambulance duties. Most of
the fire alarms are automatic alarms, which usually are false. (False automatic
alarms are experienced as quite frustrating: for example, one fire engine is
named among the fire fighters as a “Helsinki sight seeing” –engine, because it
is always sent to automatic alarms.)
One might ask what the real object of the work of the fire fighter is? Although the number of ambulance duties exceeds many times the fire and rescue duties, the ambulance service is considered secondary among the fire fighters and only extinguishing duties are thought to be their real work. On the administrative level, the change of the object of work has been noted and the tittle of a fire fighter was replaced by the title of a rescuer in legislation, in 1999. However, among the fire fighters, the new title was and is not accepted, because the title of the fire fighter is thought to be traditional and describing better the main duties of a fire fighter. Besides the historical reasons and the refusal to accept the new content of work, the tittles of the rescuer might sound softer in the ears of the fire fighters than the old “fire fighter” one. “Rescuer” also gives more room for care duties performed in the ambulance (today the aim of the fire fighters in the ambulance is to give care assistance to the patient by themselves and take the patient to the hospital only if needed). Medical nursing is traditionally thought to belong to women, not to tough guys in the big red engines. To conclude, there are many objects of work in the fire fighting, but at least even after a rough analysis one can say that the attitude towards ambulance work may affect the motivation and well being of the fire fighters, because the motivation is strongly connected to the object of work.
According
to activity theory, the tools of activity are important when analysing the work
activity. Both concrete tools and technology, as well as theories, models and
concepts are thought to be tools. In the early days, fire fighting was a
profession that was learnt by doing. Also today, fire fighting and rescue
duties demand special technical skills that have to be learned in practice. However,
there is also a growing need for theoretical knowledge, due to the changes in
ambulance work. Today the aim of the 1,5-year education is to produce
multiskilled rescuers, who are able to handle instant-care patients, as well as
all kinds of fires from apartment fires to the fires in nuclear plants.
However, the extreme situations where such skills are needed are rare even in
big cities. In everyday life, most of the duties are quite similar and special
skills are usually not needed. Thus the question raises what the real relation
between the tools and the object of work of fire fighters is? Also, how is it
possible to maintain all skills, which are required for the present object of
work? The situation is stressing in many respects. According to the fire
fighters, one of the most stressing matters is to wait for a duty and to be
uncertain of one’s own capabilities and skills. Even in practice, the fire
fighters skills differ due to the amount of practising and training.
Traditionally, fire fighters in their 35s or 40s have been excused from the
ambulance service and the younger ones have taken care of it. One could also
ask how to motivate a fire fighter to learn more complicated things and
theories while the real object of work consists of quite monotonic duties day
after day?
In
activity theory, individual acts are seen as part of communal activity. This
means that an individual is part of a community, which has shared the object of
work. What is then the community that a fire fighter wants to belong to?
Firstly, he wants to be a fire fighter more than anything else. One fire
fighter in Helsinki said that the nature of the fire fighting profession is an
ability to put one’s safety to a severe test and this unites all the fire
fighters together. There seems to be some kind of glory connected to fire
fighters’ loyalty to their profession and it passes from fathers to sons and
from senior workers to junior ones. Secondly a fire fighter belongs to his work
shift. Work shifts are rather stable although there are changes caused by
holidays and the work shift system itself. However, the organizational or
administrative system sees the community often differently. From the
administrative point of view, the community is just all fire fighters
regardless of their work shifts. This causes often tensions in everyday life.
Also the community, the work shift, is no longer as unified as it used to be.
More and more fire fighters are starting to disperse into different subgroups
of special skills. These aim to differentiate themselves from others, for example
by different uniform styles. Fire fighters no longer form a uniform community
and this affects the whole activity system.
A community cannot work together without common rules. Afire brigade is regulated by a net of rules including organizational, communal, work community rules, and so forth. However, the problem is that there are simultaneously both old and new rules, as well as both old and new elements in the rules. In practice this means that the rules can be opposite, and that the superiors and the fire fighters may interpret the rules differently. Also some rules can vary from one situation to another. Blurredness of the rules is reflected in other elements of the activity system, and it causes contradictions in everyday life. For example the old rule of uniformity may cause today lack of motivation among the fire fighters, because it is in conflict with the current development of division of labour (vrt. Allardt 1988,75). The rule of uniformity is also in conflict with the present superior recruitment system. Today all superior candidates are chosen among the fire fighters, so according to the rule of uniformity a fire fighter should act similarly as others, but in order to become chosen as a superior candidate he should stand out in a crowd. Also once one has become nominated a superior: it could be hard to make decisions – especially tough ones – concerning subordinates who may be one’s best friends.
Managing
the division of labour forms one part of the rules. Traditionally, in the fire
brigade the young fire fighters have done most of the work. A fire fighter in
his 40s has been considered a senior and he has had the right to do lighter
work tasks. Thus the uneven division of labour has been the rule in the fire
brigade. Today, however, work is divided according to the skills and abilities
of individual fire fighters and related to the manned engines. Due to the rule
of uniformity, the fire fighters -
except three special groups - are treated similarly regardless of their skills
and abilities. So the division of labour is closely connected to the rules-,
tools- and object of work.
So
this was the overview drawn by activity theory to the fire fighters’ situation
in City of Helsinki Rescue Department. My description aims to show that the
fire fighting activity is constantly changing and consists simultaneously both
old and new elements. Thus the explanations for changes are not simple and they
are often bounded tightly to the different elements of the activity system. In
my point of view this is the reason why also the age discussion or the research
of physical ability should be more closely connected to the research of work
activity. Otherwise the individual aspect such as ageing or work ability can
become as a myth, which is “legitimately” used as an explanation or excuse for
changes as well in the work activity and in the organization. And then, simultaneously,
it prevents workers from seeing the real causes of their problems and from
solving them.