Melbourne Fire Brigade and Country Fire Authority Merging Issue

Question: Discuss about the "Melbourne Fire Brigade (MFB) and Country Fire Authority (CFA) merging issue". Answer: Introduction In every country emergency response agencies play a very fundamental role. Responding to disasters like fire and providing aid to the affected in one way of ensuring citizens live well without any worries at all. The Victorian government was considering merging two fire brigade agencies, Melbourne fire brigade(MFB) and CFA, for various reasons which spark different reactions from individuals. Here are the recommendation, assumption, and limitation for Melbourne fire brigade and CFA merging issue. Recommendation Merging both agencies is the project which needs clarification by the Victorian government. There should be a good communication relationship between the senior management and fire-fighters. The Victorian government should give allowances for the merging of the two agencies because it is raising an issue that will affect the culture. Labor management and the Victorian government should come in terms and agree in combining the two organizations. More women should be hired to bring gender balance and equal opportunities to the both gender. The two agencies to sit and come up with policies, rules and regulations to avoid misunderstanding and also to understand what and who will be responsible for any of future issue with the organization. The two agencies should be merged to oversee better governance and closer cooperative between authorities. The problem of combining CFA and MFB seemed to be political motivated, politics should be kept out of this issue. Merging CFA and MFB is due to r elease issue, the two agencies are suffering from poor culture and organization and structure problem. The Victorian government should provide and make sure that the two organizations have better facilities like the big trucks with fire-fighters. Assumption Combining the two organizations means right organization structure and culture also try to improve the poor culture in the company services. Emergency services are required to have a single board, a sound body structure, and design to avoid differences and to serve the people better. Merging the two agencies will improve workforce and better service delivery to the people. Bringing together MFB and CFA will oversee better governance and closer cooperative between authorities. Hiring more women in both agencies will help bring out gender balance. Labour management and the Victorian government will come together and agree in combining the two companies for better service to its people. So as to make the people feel satisfied with the emergency services offered, merging CFA and MFB will help boost trust among the people. Limitation Many barriers are hindering the merging of the two fire companies. The two organizations have different history and culture. Merging the two would lead to mistrusting culture and difficulty to work together properly. The two agencies also have their policies, rules and regulations because of these it can cause problems in organization structure and design all these rankles lead to the suffering of innocent citizens. Bullying within the organization is also an important matter to be looked as it shows a clear picture of mistrust between management and volunteers. The problem of the building, the slabs of the building cannot hold the weight of a truck as seen at the fire station in Glen Iris, and the fixing cost could be in millions. MFB staff lack gender balance. It is considered to be less than 4% of brigade staff is women. The problem of merging between CFA and MFB exists because of the people are not satisfied with the emergency services. The government says the two agencies will a ffect the culture because one of service is the senior management and the other is fire-fighters. The issue of merging CFA and MFB seems to be politically motivated. Expanding the MFB zone is damaging the number of volunteers who are critical to Victorias fire fighting capabilities; it is affecting the recruitment process. Labour management did not agree with the Victorian government and thoughts from other people who were present at the meeting for combining the two agencies of fire. Conclusion In conclusion, all the views from different reactions on merging the two organizations are considering, recommendation, assumption and limitation for merging are put together to help guide on the whole issue. From the discussion above, it is clear that MFB and CFA are two different organization, they have their history and culture. The merging of both will create many problems such as organizational structure and design. Due to these group behavior issue, many people are affected. 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