By REID A. WODICKA
Throughout the United States, volunteer fire departments and rescue squads have been a source of pride for their communities, their members coming together during times of emergency to help protect lives and property within that community. Nearly every volunteer organization boasts decades-long members. Although they may not be active on emergency incidents or fight fires, these members still participate in their organization’s administrative functions, are a wealth of institutional knowledge, and continue to play an important role in the organization.
However, a serious issue for volunteer organizations is turnover rate, which is estimated to be between 20 and 50 percent. Clearly, this is a disturbing trend. When volunteer fire companies and rescue squads invest resources into the recruitment, training, and retention of volunteers, there should be a significant incentive to ensure that volunteers remain active within the organization. What is the difference between long-term volunteers and those who quit after a short time? The answer is simple: loyalty.
No organization will ever have a zero-percent turnover rate. Various circumstances in life are obstacles to volunteering. Sometimes, they are out of the organization leadership’s control, such as a change in a volunteer’s employment status, an illness, and so on. However, many volunteers lose interest in being a part of the department, whether through general apathy or some disagreement within the organization. This article discusses how loyalty can play a significant role in encouraging volunteers to remain involved in their organizations, even if they disagree with or are dissatisfied with certain aspects of the company.
German economist Albert O. Hirschman’s 1970 essay, “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States,” attempts to explain how a member’s loyalty to an organization affects his use of the option to exit that organization when he believes, for instance, that it is headed in the wrong direction. For one reason or another, the member is dissatisfied with the organization’s policy, such as the chief refusing to install new seat belts in an old apparatus. Hirschman demonstrates that, in the absence of loyalty, a minor disagreement will result in a member exiting the organization following some complaining (known as the “activation of voice”). This lack of loyalty results in a high turnover rate, limits members’ aggregate experience level, and reduces the organization’s ability to provide effective service to citizens.
In contrast, an organization that has worked particularly hard to develop a strong sense of loyalty in its members will experience those members choosing to exit only after a much longer and much more vocal period of dissatisfaction with organizational policy. Dissatisfied members will stay in an organization longer prior to departure, many times working to improve what is seen as problematic. Hirschman displays this notion in a continuum in which he demonstrates that as disagreement with organizational policies increase, a normal loyalist member will become more vocal about his dissatisfaction with the organization until he threatens to exit (such as the member dissatisfied with the old engine’s seat belts). This threat of exit, an activation of voice, is a final effort to make some sort of organizational change. However, if the member continues to disagree with the organization’s direction and things get worse, he will continue to increase his complaints and, ultimately, exit the organization.
It is important to note that a more loyal volunteer will exhibit a much longer intervening period between the time he becomes disgruntled and the time he permanently leaves the organization. This time period and the related activation of voice are based on the belief (however irrational) that the member or someone else will be able to improve the organization. This provides more time for the organization to respond to complaints and a more palatable environment to the member. Although all organizations experience disagreement and conflict, those that develop a strong level of loyalty within their membership can respond to problems and strengthen the efficacy of the organization in the long run. The question thus becomes, How can leaders in volunteer firefighting and emergency services organizations improve the level of member loyalty?
David Knoke’s 1981 article in American Sociological Review, “Commitment and Detachment in Voluntary Associations,” presents research explaining why volunteers develop either a commitment to or a detachment from the voluntary organizations they serve. The article presents three major components hypothesized to have an impact on organizational loyalty. Although much of what is presented in the next few paragraphs may seem fairly logical or common sense, it is important to remember how this applies to the actions of managers in volunteer firefighting and emergency services organizations.
The first component that Knoke analyzes is the centralization of authority within a volunteer organization. For example, are all the organization’s policy decisions made by one or a very few select members? While operating at an emergency scene, chain of command must be followed for the incident’s acute problems to be solved as quickly and safely as possible. On scene, decisions are made by a few individuals; information is provided by multiple sources. Although that works well on scene, does that necessarily apply to other operations of volunteer organizations? Should fund-raising events and social occasions be conducted in the same manner as a three-alarm structure fire?
Knoke’s argument suggests that managing the administrative and nonemergency functions of volunteer fire and emergency services like emergency incidents can have a strong negative impact on the loyalty developed by organization members. The strict hierarchical and bureaucratic model presented by, for instance, the National Incident Management System, can lead to a reduced organizational commitment and an increased level of detachment. Again, although it is clearly imperative that emergency incidents be managed in a hierarchical manner, decisions such as which color to paint the apparatus, what type of furniture to put in the day room, what television show to watch, or what to have for dinner should be as decentralized as possible. A volunteer chief should never say, “I’m the chief, and I say we’re having pot roast for dinner!” when everyone else wants fried chicken. Doing so will alienate volunteers. Knoke suggests decentralizing policy decisions as much as possible, perhaps by creating committees, to empower individual members within the organization.
The second component analyzed by Knoke is organizational communication. Everyone has been a part of an organization where there is limited communication from the top to the general ranks and vice versa; this style of information management damages morale. When more information is shared, members feel more important and that they have a certain level of control over the situation. Knoke’s research confirms that the amount of information transmitted among and through the ranks of voluntary organizations has a deep impact on a volunteer member’s organizational loyalty. The more information transmitted from management to the rest of the organization, the higher the level of member loyalty.
Apply this to volunteer fire and emergency services agencies, and it becomes apparent that these organizations’ managers must spend a lot of time and energy communicating organizational information to members. For instance, when a volunteer fire company develops an operating budget for the coming fiscal year, that budget document’s information as well as a considerable explanation of it should be provided to members. This includes answers to questions such as, “Why are we spending more or less of your resources on three-inch hose this year?” “Why are fund-raising efforts becoming less beneficial?” “What are we going to do about it?” This allows members of the group to work in unison, which builds cohesiveness.
Knoke’s third and final component of organizational loyalty is “total influence,” which he describes as the ability of an organization’s individuals to mobilize as a group to accomplish the organization’s goals. Although he is speaking of voluntary organizations as a whole, this is easy to understand with respect to firefighting and emergency services, particularly in settings where volunteers leave home to respond to emergencies. For example, when their pagers activate, the group members (who may not have seen each other for awhile) drop everything, drive to the station, pick up the appropriate vehicle, and drive off to save the day. Organizations that have difficulty mobilizing will find it harder getting volunteers to stay around for the long term. A greater degree of total influence will help encourage loyalty to the organization. Additionally, Knoke acknowledges other factors that may affect a member’s loyalty to an organization such as age, financial situation (of the individual and of the organization), the organization’s size, and friendship with other members. However, the above three components are what he analyzes more fully.
Although developing loyalty is important in any organization, there is a particularly strong incentive for volunteer emergency services organizations to retain good and effective members. And although organizations will have turnover, volunteer fire and emergency services leaders should work to ensure that those involved, those in whom the organization has invested significant resources, remain involved for a significant time.
Not every member will have the opportunity to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a volunteer company member, but organizations should strive to get as many people to that point as possible. To accomplish this, the department must be proactive to structure the culture of the organization with the value of loyalty in mind.
REFERENCES
Hirschman, Albert O. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Knoke, David. “Commitment and Detachment in Voluntary Associations.” American Sociological Review, 46 (April 1981); 141-158.
REID A. WODICKA is a 10-year fire service veteran, spending most of those years as a volunteer with Hose Company #4 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and a part-time employee with the Rockingham County (VA) Department of Fire and Rescue. Wodicka has a B.S. in public policy and administration and a master of public administration degree with a concentration in local government management from James Madison University. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
