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Sociocultural human performance: education and learning for promotion in the American fire service

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Sociocultural human performance: education and learning for promotion in the American fire service

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Content Sociocultural Human Performance: Education and Learning for Promotion in the
American Fire Service
Gabriel Angemi
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
August 2024

© Copyright by Gabriel Angemi 2024
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Gabriel Angemi certifies the approval of this Dissertation
Corinne E. Hyde
James Roussell
Leanna R. Havis
Douglas E. Lynch, Committee Chair
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2024

iv
Abstract
Firefighters perform temporally constrained lifesaving work, yet professional development for
much of the American fire service is primarily focused on hands-on tactical training performed in
a field setting. While tradition and tactics cannot to be overlooked, there may be diminishing
returns in repeatedly teaching manual labor skillsets to those firefighters being promoted into
leadership positions. Public sector professionals are increasingly presented with circumstances
that warrant formal understanding of new technologies, social constructs, and human
performance under stress. This work frames sociocultural human performance through the lens
of a career urban fire department that is unable to provide professional development to its diverse
human capital, resulting from decades of complex societal issues. By examining the statesanctioned prerequisite promotional standards and the absence of an organizational formal
doctrine that further complicates these circumstances, this work highlights a major American fire
service problem: an organizational inability to provide meaningful education and learning to its
personnel, and how this adversely impacts the marginalized communities they serve. This
qualitative research identifies how firefighting organizations that misunderstand knowledge
transfer are fostering apathetic, complacent cultures that need realignment with core values and
mission orientation. Combining hands-on blue collar knowledge transfer with robust white-collar
professional development allows firefighters to learn from one another, and about themselves,
solidifying a pivot for the American fire service to a tactical, yet educated, grey-collar
profession.
Keywords: Bronfenbrenner, leadership, professional development, human performance,
fire officer

v
Dedication
To the love of my life Nicole Elizabeth Angemi, YATBTTEHTM, ILYSM, TYFTL! Any success
I have achieved as your husband, is the direct result of your patience, kindness, understanding,
and loyalty. I became the best version of myself because I now know what real love feels like.
To my lovely and amazing daughters Maria, Lillian, and Lucia, I love you all so much, and think
the world of yous. Thank you for allowing daddy the time to get this out of my head, onto paper.

vi
Acknowledgements
Many people have been instrumental to my academic journey, fire service career, and the
work presented here. I could not, and would not, think the way I do without your friendship,
mentorship, and encouragement as you challenged my ideas and furthered my understanding of
how much I do not know. Dr. Jilian K. Donnelly, Edward Glassman, Jason C. Brezler, and Jim
McNamara, your impact on me cannot be expressed or measured by words—I love and admire
you all. Phil and Jon for keeping me sane. My good friends from Leadership Under Fire—Eric
Nurnberg, Daniel Saalfrank, Jacob “Pete” Dutton, James Roussell, Patti Murphy, Jeff Facinelli,
Jerry “Bunk” Smith, Andrew Whitehead, Brian McNulty, James Lopez, and Robert “Butters”
Staulters, you all rule! My brothers that I go to jobs with at Squad Company 7: Tone, JT, Cito,
Chris, Mel, Val, and Daniel, you all will always be the best part of my career. Deondre, your help
and support of my work has been invaluable—brother, I am forever grateful! Rescue Company
1: Bryan, Eduardo, Huggy, eL, Church, Moyo, and Nico, thanks for always being there; Del and
Jav, you guys are the only Eastsiders that matter! There are no other bros I would rather do hard
things with; your professionalism and friendship mean a great deal to me. 1664 Grove St. and
548 Central St. SF roommates, the Grapes of McGrath, Bayeux and the Morgans, Love Park
Skateboarders, Rest in Power Matthew David Reason—I miss you! My friends Jordan
Baumgarten, and Eric Kenney, thanks for always talking creative things with me. Georgetown
University cohort bros, and Dr. Tim Frazier Forever! Dr. Leanne Havis at Neumann University,
thank you so much for your help, support and friendship! My dissertation Chair Dr. Doug
Lynch—you are my favorite professor ever! Dissertation group, thank you for your friendship
and support: Dana Chisholm, Cheryl Moore, Bumjin Park, Yeong Tae Pak, Mike Koslow, and
Martin Payne. Lastly, a big thank you to Dr. Jennifer Phillips, Fight On & Hoya Saxa!

vii
Table of Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................... iv
Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables................................................................................................................................... x
List of Figures................................................................................................................................ xi
List of Abbreviations..................................................................................................................... xii
Chapter One: Introduction to the Study .......................................................................................... 1
Context and Background of the Problem............................................................................ 2
Purpose of The Project and Research Questions ................................................................ 3
Importance Of The Study.................................................................................................... 3
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology..................................................... 5
Organization of Study ......................................................................................................... 7
Chapter Two: Review of Literature ................................................................................................ 9
Historical Setting of Camden, New Jersey ......................................................................... 9
The Modern Era: A City On The Rise............................................................................... 10
Societal Impact Of Inequality and a Changing Landscape ................................................11
Developing the Situation: Sociocultural Circumstances and Theory ............................... 12
History, Context, and Mission of the City of Camden Fire Department .......................... 20
Moving the American Fire Service Toward Safety as an Outcome Rather Than a
Process .............................................................................................................................. 51
Sociocultural Perceptions and the Lack of Understanding of Human Performance ........ 54
Conceptual Framework..................................................................................................... 59
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 62
Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................................ 63
Research Questions........................................................................................................... 63

viii
Overview of Design .......................................................................................................... 65
Research Setting................................................................................................................ 66
The Researcher.................................................................................................................. 66
Data Sources ..................................................................................................................... 68
Participants........................................................................................................................ 68
Instrumentation ................................................................................................................. 69
Data Collection Procedures............................................................................................... 69
Trustworthiness and Credibility........................................................................................ 71
Ethics................................................................................................................................. 76
Chapter Four: Findings ................................................................................................................. 78
Participants........................................................................................................................ 78
Research Question 1 (RQ1) Results ................................................................................. 81
Discussion for RQ1........................................................................................................... 81
Research Question 2 Results............................................................................................. 85
Discussion for RQ2........................................................................................................... 86
Research Question 3 Results............................................................................................. 94
Discussion for RQ3........................................................................................................... 94
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 98
Chapter Five: Recommendations................................................................................................ 101
Recommendation 1: Develop a Leadership Development Course Curriculum
Focused on the Sociocultural Aspects of Human Performance As Well as Tactical
and Administrative Skillsets ........................................................................................... 101
Recommendation 2: Work With State and Federal Government Legislators to
Develop and Fund a Grant Specific to Education and Learning for the American
Fire Service ..................................................................................................................... 107
Recommendation 3: Implement a Mandatory Professional Fire Service
Continuing Education Unit Matrix Developed for Licensed Firefighters and Fire
Officers in New Jersey.....................................................................................................112

ix
Limitations and Delimitations..........................................................................................113
Recommendations for Future Research ...........................................................................114
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................115
References....................................................................................................................................117
Appendix A: Qualitative Protocol............................................................................................... 138
Demographic and Contextual Questions ........................................................................ 138
Interview Questions ........................................................................................................ 139
Closing ............................................................................................................................ 141

x
List of Tables
Table 1: Respondent Information 80

xi
List of Figures
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework 61

xii
List of Abbreviations
AAR After action review
AHJ Authority having jurisdiction
BC Battalion chief—second level supervisor
CEU Continuing education unit
CFD Camden Fire Department
CME Continuing medical education
DHS Department of Homeland Security
EEOC Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
EMI—ISP Emergency Management Institute Independent Study Program
FDNY Fire Department of New York
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
ICS Incident command system
JA Job analysis
JPR Job performance requirement
MPI Mental performance initiative
NJDFS New Jersey Division of Fire Safety
NGO Non-governmental organization
NRF National response framework
NJDLGS New Jersey Division of Local Government Services
NJCSC New Jersey Civil Service Commission
PILOTs Payments in lieu of taxes
RPD Recognition prime decision making

xiii
SAFER Staffing for adequate fire and emergency response
SOC Special operations company (rescue, squad, or hazmat company, etc.)
UL/NIST Underwriters Laboratory, National Institute of Science and Technology
UL/FSRI Underwriters Laboratory, Fire Safety Research Institute

1
Chapter One: Introduction to the Study
Fire department company officers serving in the City of Camden New Jersey Fire
Department receive no formal leadership development. This is a multifaceted, complex issue as it
is the product of several interconnected problems. While professional development for the
American fire service is generally seen as a local paradigm impacted positively or negatively by
many factors, the problem likely transcends its local nature insofar as the American fire service
at large generally overlooks leadership development and emerging leaders. To analyze this
problem in detail, this research looks at the hiring and promotional procedures of the New Jersey
Civil Service Commission (NJCSC) and their impact on professional development as examples.
It is problematic when fire service organizations misunderstand that everything the fire
service does depends on risk tolerance and decision-making (Bloom, 2023). When this
misunderstanding occurs, it creates organizational views of indifference associated with the
educational value of human assets who absorb that risk in a service that does not exist for profit.
Loney and Cappelli (2023) assert that organizations that utilize a human capital model that
chooses to build talent and not buy it, yet does not continually build on its assets, leaves one with
the assumption that firefighters are not assets at all. There are quirks, however, associated with
how the fire service handles its personnel, leaving room for larger problems to arise as human
capital becomes, in objective terms, more important to outcomes, but in financial terms,
worthless (Loney & Cappelli, 2023).
Avoiding identifying or attempting to solve complex or overwhelming problems is a
typical aspect of human behavior. Thus, it seems fitting that avoiding professional development
would extend to the behavioral normalcy of a public safety organization, exacerbated by a

2
misunderstanding of social learning, cultural normalcy, director-provider relationships, previous
individual or collective trauma, and labor unions (Nifadkar et al., 2012).
Context and Background of the Problem
Services rendered by fire departments are very direct and visible, so it is easy to focus on
outcomes, rather than inputs, and for this reason, firefighters are measured primarily by levels of
qualification, or certifications achieved, rather than people in need of development (Thiel &
Jennings, 2012). Due to the collective knowledge, skills, and ability of responders to adapt to and
overcome fluid situations, combined with their physical and mental conditioning, the public
expectation is for them to immediately and appropriately observe, orient, decide, and act upon a
given set of circumstances, all while being temporally constrained. Company officers that
manage multiple layers of friction and risk need an understanding of the physiological and
psychological impact of stress and strain on themselves and on their firefighters, as they are often
alerted to life and death situations in which individual and collective outputs correlate to
organizational inputs.
Company officers provide cadence and tone to their fire company, setting standards for
morale, preparedness, and service delivery, and they likely exercise more influence on an
organization than any other rank (Smoke, 2010). Because they are tasked with leading others
while making decisions in complex environments, it is surprising how little professional
development they receive that supports their responsibility for teaching, coaching, mentoring,
and supporting others. Tactical competency aside, successful organizations are those that
understand how emotional intelligence and interpersonal behavioral skills drive a deeper
connection among personnel that ultimately enhances knowledge transfer and organizational
culture.

3
Purpose of The Project and Research Questions
Collecting and leveraging the anecdotal personal experiences of firefighters, fire
company officers, and fire chiefs will contribute a better understanding of how the human capital
of the American fire service could benefit from an enhanced awareness of sociocultural
circumstances and education in human factors for firefighters operating in stressful
environments. This project will explain how the current procedural standards for those being
promoted into decision-making leadership roles in a specific urban fire department fall short.
More specifically, the research questions seek respondent views on education and learning for
company officers, and how a formalized process might enable organizations to better navigate
the complexity of individual firefighters, companies of firefighters, and modern firefighting. The
following three questions guided this study:
1. In what way do the firefighters and fire company officers in New Jersey perceive that
civil service promotional practices support their upward mobility?
2. How do fire company officers in New Jersey perceive the importance of education
and learning, and knowledge transfer in their leadership roles?
3. Do fire officers believe/perceive that education and learning centered around
understanding motivation, empathy, vulnerability, and interpersonal behaviors
enhances human performance?
Importance Of The Study
Anecdotally speaking, firefighters enjoy saying “don’t reinvent the wheel,” yet in
conference after conference, class after class, certification after certification, the fire service
nationally tries to do exactly that. This research hopes to provide the wheel that does need to be
re-invented, or invented outright, as the human asset wheel, or, how we collectively think about

4
what professional fire service education and learning looks and feels like. The importance of this
study then, is that it seeks connection, filling gaps in existing literature, while attempting to
highlight how the evolution of the American fire service has stagnated.
While practical at one level, we will see that cost-per-firefighter hire can no longer
remain the measure and focus of a municipality, as neglecting close examination of their
firefighter’s professional development leaves organizations to never truly humanize the narrative
with their personnel (Loney & Cappelli, 2023). Social capital is more diffuse than certifications,
as it is measured in terms of attitudes or values, or by levels of active participation in civic life
(Schuller, 2001). This is important, say Thiel and Jennings (2012), as fire and emergency
services consist of a human component, but also because human performance and the
sociocultural aspects of firefighting curricula are missing from certifications, education, and
learning.
The integration of behavior and consciousness, or the unification of mind and social
interaction is a major characteristic of Vygotksy’s developmental theory because it defines what
constitutes human development (Shabani, 2016). Tacit skills then, are behaviors acquired
through informal learning that are useful for effective performance (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).
Both are very important to firefighting, yet never discussed in firefighting textbooks. Pashler et
al. (2008) states that some claim that learning will be ineffective, or at least less efficient than it
could be if learners receive instruction that does not take account of their individual learning
styles. That is to say that adapting instruction to the learner’s individual style can allow people to
achieve better learning outcomes (Pashler et al., 2008).
Organizational nuance in a firefighting organization is centered around living, training,
and performing together. This is supported by Bindl and Parker’s (2011) work stating that

5
employees engage in either feedback-seeking or social network building, and the intended target
of their behavior is either the self (attempting to improve one’s own performance), or how to
improve managing others. In this regard, the importance of sociocultural education, learning, and
an understanding of human factors undoubtedly plays a role in knowledge transfer. When
aligning a theoretical framing, it is important to understand that individual proactivity is directed
towards improving one’s work procedure, while team proactivity is directed towards helping
team members, and organization-member proactivity is about changing wider organization
systems or practices to make improvements across the entire organization (Bindl & Parker,
2011).
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology
Although the individual and group aspects of firefighters could align well with several
social theories, this qualitative research will utilize Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory
(1979). This theory is relatable to the American fire service and its paramilitary rank structure,
differentiating a firefighter’s environment into five systems: The microsystem, mesosystem,
exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. This study utilizes interpretive phenomenological
analysis (IPA) to achieve a detailed examination of the lived experiences of individual
firefighters, exploring some of the philosophical underpinnings of phenomenology so the data
analysis can be facilitated by bracketing narrative or thematic analysis (Lichtman, 2023).
When considering fire service education and learning through the lens of ontological
accountability, in accordance with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979), we can
see how it places the individual (the firefighter) in the center of the system, accounting for their
ethical assumptions and social expectations (Dubnick, 2022). As an example, the immediate
relationships of individual firefighters can be considered a microsystem; the relationship between

6
the firefighters’ immediate relationships and the other external relationships that impact the
firefighters is a mesosystem; a fire department and its external processes in relation to the
individual firefighters and how it influences their decisions is an exosystem; how the individual
firefighters’ values and beliefs impact their decision-making process is the macrosystem; and
lastly, the effects that the firefighters’ education have on their personal growth, understanding of
the self, and understanding of those around them can be considered a chronosystem.
Individual firefighters are assigned to a fire company, or a group of three to six
firefighters from a broad range of social circumstances (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), work cohesively
from a specific type of apparatus. This fire company of individuals coordinates with other fire
companies, all of whom are assigned under a battalion (a geographical area) of fire companies; in
larger organizations, a battalion may fall under a division. The relevance of social circumstances
for firefighters living in firehouses for 24 hours at a time or more, tasked with incredibly
stressful work, who all have vastly different backgrounds and educational experiences, is
incredibly complex to navigate socially, and has a direct impact on a firefighting organization’s
collective cognitive ability.
Bronfenbrenner (1979) states that the study of interpersonal relationships and small
groups lies within the domain of social psychology. Further, people (firefighters) with whom one
interacts with in a face-to-face (or to add complexity, via portable radio), situation, constitutes a
part of one’s environment. There is also significant body of research that the fire service could
investigate that deals with the impact of the environment in the form of interpersonal influences
on the evolution of behavior (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). If the fire service is to pivot culturally
towards mission orientation, this would be the first step.

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Bronfenbrenner (1986) was specifically interested in developing a model that accounted
for the interactive effects of peer and family influences (Renn & Arnold, 2003). This is relevant
to fire service education and learning, especially in terms of the educational circumstances of
local youths who aspire to become firefighters, as discussed in the literature review. The
application of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) is thus appropriate in terms of
examining the education and learning disposition of career firefighters and fire company officers’
knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions, regarding their social norms, environmental factors, and
leadership behaviors.
Organization of Study
This study is exploratory in nature, and because there is not a great deal of social,
cultural, or human performance-based literature relative to a firefighting population, it is very
important to listen to what the research participants say. The literature review prepares the reader
for what can be learned from the respondents’ lived experiences (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) in
the organization being studied. This dissertation will follow a five-chapter, evaluation approach
format.
Chapter One provides the context and background of the problem of practice, the purpose
of the research and research questions, the reasons why the study is important, an overview of
the theoretical framework, definitions of terminology, and the organization of the study.
Chapter Two describes the historical setting of the city of Camden, the societal impacts of
inequality on that city, meaningful discussion around social theory, and finally, an examination of
the city’s inadequate profitability and the ensuing adverse impact on the fire departments’
systemic inability to provide continuing education and learning to its human capital. There is an
overview of the Camden Fire Department (CFD), a discussion of the social nuances of

8
firefighters, and an explanation of hiring and promotional practices for firefighters in the state of
New Jersey. The literature review covers human performance under stress, education and
learning challenges for firefighters in the 21st century, and how firefighting is typically
understood as a blue-collar job; it also connects the conceptual framework to the educational
system of an impoverished city and looks at preferential hiring practices that disinvest in
firefighters once hired.
Chapter Three details the research questions and provides an overview of the research
design, research setting, and the primary investigator. This chapter also provides insight into data
sources, instrumentation, data collection and analysis, validity, reliability, and ethical concerns.
Chapter Four provides information about the research participants. While leaving the
respondents anonymous by using only their rank and a number, this chapter does establish their
general age, gender, and racial makeup of respondents, their overall years of service and years of
service in grade if promoted. Chapter Four also discusses three themes that developed from each
research question and provides discussions centered around the findings.
After considering the existing lack of professional development for fire company officers
in the CFD; examining the city of Camden’s past and present social socioeconomic situation, the
CFD hierarchical structure, the state of New Jersey’s procedures for hiring and promotion, and
the school system that the fire department utilizes for preferred hires; and then combining it all
with the qualitative interview data, Chapter Five details three recommendations that attempt to
translate the collective research data into practical solutions.

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Chapter Two: Review of Literature
Utilizing the City of Camden, New Jersey as a municipal government example of
political subdivision in the State of New Jersey, and that provides firefighting services via the
CFD as the authority having jurisdiction, this chapter explains the State of New Jersey and the
City of Camden’s Firefighter and Fire Company Officer entrance and promotional examination
processes. It looks at the underlying connections and nuanced relationships between an
educational system geographically tied to the municipality that hires from civil service eligibility
lists and reviews the systemic challenges resulting from past social circumstances and their
subsequent impact on the fiscal disposition of a city.
To better understand and further explore how education and learning provides necessary,
relevant knowledge for first-level firefighting supervisors who routinely navigate uncertain
circumstances, this challenging history is examined because it has implications for the fire
department’s contemporary membership. This chapter explores social, cultural, environmental,
and educational circumstances related to a fire service organization’s ability to prepare leaders,
deconstructing how civil service practices enable poor performance based on antiquated ideas.
This issue is highlighted by showing the positive impact that professional development has had
on several respondents who have developed themselves, including fire company officers who
mitigate risk and ambiguity in an inherently dangerous profession. The literature review
discusses what is wrong with the current promotional paradigm that provides little organizational
help for fire officers to prepare for their new roles.
Historical Setting of Camden, New Jersey
On August 28, 1827, Richard Fetters, a prominent citizen and member of the volunteer
Perseverance Fire Company, signed a public notice stating that the town of Camden would be

10
presented to the legislature for city status (Ryan et al., 1995). The City of Camden was then
incorporated on February 13, 1828, almost 150 years after the first settlement (1680) by Richard
Arnold and William Cooper (Fisler, 1858; Prowell et al., 1886). Camden was somewhat confused
about functioning independently as the initial villages that made up the city were still under the
control of Newton Township until 1831, when that power was formally removed (Boyer &
Chew, 1928). However, it was not until Camden County was established with the passage of the
Dudley Charter in 1851that local independence was truly realized.
A new charter in February 1871, credited to City Solicitor Alden C. Scovel, extended
Camden’s borders and brought in a new era as Camden had become the center of political and
economic life in Southern New Jersey toward the end of the Civil War (Baisden, 2006).
Opportunity in Camden scaled upward so quickly that the city at that time was best summarized
by poet Walt Whitman (1860), who wrote that in a dream he saw a city invincible while spending
his later years in Camden residing in a house at 328 Mickle Street from 1884 until his passing on
March 26, 1892 (McGrath, 2005).
The Modern Era: A City On The Rise
This dissertation focuses on the 20th and 21st centuries, depicting Camden as a once
thriving metropolitan center that by 1925 had swelled to 140,000 residents and was home to the
world’s largest corporate shipbuilder, the largest licorice factory, the largest cork works, the
largest steam generation plant, the largest combined furniture factory and store, and the largest
wool scouring mill (Ryan et al., 1995). At that time, Camden had two national and four state
banks, 11 trust companies, and 115 building and loan associations; an elevated train, subway, and
central airport; two railroad freight yards in conjunction with marine terminals; and 10 miles of
navigable waterway with piers, dry docks, and wharfs—all while Camden’s residential housing

11
stock was keeping pace with its industrial development (Ryan et al., 1995). Because Camden was
also home to five hospitals, 10 shipyards, several major cigar manufacturing plants, oil
refineries, a dozen leather tanning industries, and department stores like Sears and Roebuck, J.B.
Van Sciver, Stearns, Hurleys, and Ruttenbergs, it earned the moniker “the biggest little city in the
world” (Baisden, 2006, p. 7).
Societal Impact Of Inequality and a Changing Landscape
The growth and success of Camden as an industrial and financial center brought about an
increase in population, but post-WWII suburban sprawl began enticing young families out of the
American city, and Camden’s population decreased. In Camden, as in other cities, complicated
societal issues arose, like political disempowerment, segregation, environmental injustice, and
data aggregation, that sealed the fate of the city (Braveman et al., 2022). Nearby in suburban
Cherry Hill Township, the opening of the Cherry Hill Mall (then the largest indoor shopping mall
on the east coast) in 1961 expedited a predicament that still exists today: as young families
settled into newly constructed housing developments, the city’s industrial base began to erode
(Baisden, 2006).
During the ensuing post-war decades, federal loan programs greatly expanded
homeownership opportunity and wealth for Whites, while non-White people in low-income areas
were disproportionately “redlined” (p. 173) — a practice referring to the literal red shading of
areas on Homeowners’ Loan Corporation neighborhood maps that were deemed hazardous for
lending (Braveman et al., 2022). As Camden’s business district began to decline, the exodus of
many Italian, Irish, Polish, and Jewish immigrants left the housing stock ripe for urban blight
(Baisden, 2006), and population statistics indicate the tide began to turn for Camden in 1950,
evidenced by residency placed at 124,555 people in a housing stock of 35,510 (United States

12
Census Bureau, 2022). Even as other New Jersey cities were growing, Camden’s population
dropped from 124,000 in 1950 to 102,000 in 1970 (United States Census Bureau, 2022), and the
rate of decline doubled from 6% in the 1950s to 12% in the 1960s (Janson, 1972). Compared to
residency in 1990 when the population in Camden had shrunk to 87,460 with a similar housing
stock (United States Census Bureau, 2022), serious problems for the fire department’s workload
were now looming.
Developing the Situation: Sociocultural Circumstances and Theory
In American cities similar to Camden, complexity was growing as each issue connected
to a dozen more. In this situation, Camden residents were fearful, feeling disengaged from their
neighborhoods, and increasingly assuming that combatting disorder and crime was the duty of
others (Lanfear et al., 2020). Those who move away cite not only high property taxes but also
poor schools, declining services, the bleak appearance of deteriorating brick row houses and a
rising crime rate (Jansen, 1972). Poor schools indicate a cyclical problem stemming from lower
property tax revenues in segregated areas, compounded by obstacles to home ownership, and
wealth (Braveman et al., 2022). As was the case in most of the rest of the United States, while
segregation had declined since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 had outlawed racial discrimination
in housing, Camden remained highly segregated. Camden public schools are dependent on local
property taxes, and according to Braveman et al. (2022), because schools in segregated areas are
poorly resourced, it is difficult to escape poverty.
The ensuing outcome can be explained well by social disorganization theory developed
by Shaw and McKay (1969), in which rapid in-and out-migration, lack of homeownership, high
rates of poverty, ethnic diversity, and new immigrants undermine local social organization and
cultural transmission (Lanfear et al., 2020). Lanfear et al. (2020) also claims that physical

13
disorder such as abandoned buildings, graffiti, and litter, as well as social disorder as reflected in
panhandlers, homelessness, and unsupervised youth, exert causal effects on crime directly and
indirectly. Not surprisingly, research evidence regarding crime control and effectiveness
practices is somewhat mixed (Welsh et al., 2015), contrary to Wilson and Kelling’s (1982)
broken windows theory, Bernard Harcourt, the director of the Columbia Center for
Contemporary Critical Thought and author of Illusion of Order: The False Promise of BrokenWindows Policing (2001) believes no evidence supports the notion that policing disorder actually
lowers crime, but broken windows theory has had a disproportionate impact on minority
communities (Harcourt, 2001).
This period is catalyst to the present day, as the rate of decline that saw 37,000 people
flee the 10 square mile city over a 40-year span also exacerbated the fire duty problem in
unoccupied housing. This workload may be considered a nexus for the CFD in terms of the way
it confined its role to suppressing fires and rescuing victims instead of educating children and
adults on fire safety through inspections and community outreach (United States, 1973).
The Tipping Point
The year 1972 was pivotal in Camden’s history, as that was when the cyclical trend of
relying on state aid to fill budget shortfalls began: this is what Gladwell (2000) calls a tipping
point: “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” (p. 12). As far back as 1972
Camden’s Mayor Nardi said, “Our tax rate is confiscatory. We can’t afford to lower taxes, and we
can’t stand to raise them again, even though we’re facing bankruptcy and can’t raise the money
to pay our bills” (Janson, 1972, para. 12). This is typical of Camden to this day: year after year,
Camden depends more heavily on state aid than any other seriously distressed city in New
Jersey. For Camden’s 2019 $208.7 million budget, the city received $123 million in state aid to

14
balance its books. Dunn and Seidman (2019) cite a report projecting that Camden will need a
nearly 50% increase in state aid by 2024. As we will see, the continued tax abatements designed
to lure new businesses have become a major problem.
The power of context, states Malcolm Gladwell (2000), is that people are a lot more
sensitive to their environment than they may seem, and the key to changing their behavior, or to
their caring about their neighbor in distress, for example, sometimes lies in the smallest details of
their immediate situation. We are now 50 years removed from when Camden had the economic
opportunity of a major urban center and the welcoming feeling of a rural village (Baisden, 2006).
What would become known as Camden’s high point faded, replaced by complex problems that
have unfolded with disturbing consequences, and where suburban sprawl has paved the way for
injustice at a rapid rate (Gillette, 2005). Now a depopulated former manufacturing center across
the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Camden is widely considered one of the poorest, most
dangerous places in America (Landergan, 2020).
Annual rankings based on FBI crime statistics and population statistics show that in 2009
and 2010, Camden was the first and second most dangerous city, respectively, in the United
States (Gibson, 2010), and it ranked in the top five most dangerous places nationally for many
years in a row (Maciag, 2014). According to Landergan (2020) the city has more than 3,000
abandoned buildings and 40% of Camden’s residents live below the poverty line. At one point,
Landergan states, the city had 175 open-air drug markets, and 80% of the drug arrests were of
nonresidents, suggesting that out-of-towners from the suburbs that set Camden’s demise in
motion were making a stop in Camden just to buy and sell drugs. Camden is listed on David
Rusk’s 24 cities past the point of no return and could legitimately be described as one of the
toughest challenges to urban revitalization in the country (Gillette, 2005).

15
In 2012, Camden saw a record-high murder rate that rivaled national rates of the most
dangerous countries on the planet. Signs of crime were everywhere as houses and storefronts sat
abandoned, morphing into hotbeds for drug crime while others serve as makeshift memorials to
those who have been killed (Maciag, 2014). Currently Camden is the ideal setting for correlating
the work of Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay’s social disorganization theory, Bronfenbrenner’s
ecological systems theory (1979), Albert Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory and Russian
psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.
The Current Fiscal Paradigm: A False Dichotomy Supporting Professional Liability
Camden has become a destination for businesses looking for tax-free deals, outlined in a
report by Melanie Walter, the director of New Jersey’s Division of Local Government Services
(NJDLGS). In that report, Walter explained that the tax-exempt value of companies with existing
or pending abatements is $155,414,300 (Dunn & Seidman, 2019). Fifty years after Mayor Nardi
stated that Camden could not afford to raise taxes nor pay its bills, this report gave numerous
examples of the value of tax-exempt properties: the Philadelphia 76ers practice facility
($28,751,900), the Subaru training center ($13,800,000), Subaru office building ($47,700,000),
and American Water office building ($49,316,600), just to point out a few figures that match the
buildings’ assessed values in publicly available records (Dunn & Seidman, 2019).
It appears a self-defeating circumstance, however, as businesses such as the publicly
traded American Water Works Company choose their Camden site largely because of its
Delaware River views of Philadelphia, the opportunity to participate in Camden’s long hoped-for
turnaround, and how the buildings physical address (1 Water Street) connected to their brand.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, American Waters Chief Executive Officer Susan Story added
that American Water was going to bring people to Camden from all over the world, and that she

16
thinks it’s wonderful they can highlight Camden and Southern New Jersey (Adelman, 2018).
While this seems to be a nice sentiment, it is a corporate box-checking, feel-good statement to
the media, that deliberately ignores a serious problem that still exists. The tax-exempt property
goes far beyond new developments, as 60% of Camden’s real estate (valued at $2.517 billion), is
totally exempt from paying taxes (Dunn & Seidman, 2019).
The NJDLGS report goes on to mention that between 2020 and 2024, Camden will rack
up a $139 million cumulative deficit because new businesses will not pay property taxes on their
new buildings for a decade (Dunn & Seidman, 2019). Moreover, the city’s ability to build
capacity though taxation has been reduced since early 2020 when the state’s Municipal
Rehabilitation and Economic Recovery Act expired. That Act lowered the city’s maximum levy
cap from 3% to 2%, implemented when the state took control of Camden’s affairs between 2002
and 2010 (Dunn & Seidman, 2019). The NJDLGS analysis notes that the positive outlook is
based on those properties returning to the tax rolls, at which point they may dramatically alter
Camden’s future revenue generation. In the short to mid-term, however, the ratable base remains
severely constrained (Dunn & Seidman, 2019), and programs designed to help the city only help
the businesses that claim they are hiring city residents and growing the local economy.
This does not often play out, exacerbating many of the problems the African American
and Latino populations have borne, as the African American population grew from 10% in 1940
to 40% in 1972, and the Latino population rose sharply to 10% that same year (Jansen, 1972). As
an example, last year Holtec International joined a growing wave of companies that pulled up
stakes and moved their businesses to the Camden waterfront with scenic views of neighboring
Philadelphia (Burney & Zoppo, 2018). Lured by a lucrative $260 million tax incentive dangled
by the State of New Jersey to relocate to Camden, Holtec CEO Krishna “Kris” Singh rekindled a

17
debate, telling one business publication in an interview that it was difficult to find employees as
the city’s workforce:
Can’t stand getting up in the morning and coming to work every single day, they haven’t
done it, and they didn’t see their parents do it, and of course, some of them get into drugs
and things, so, it’s difficult. (Burney & Zoppo, 2018)
Singh’s comments sparked outrage, and those critical about tax-credit programs say
commentary like that exposes the shortcomings of public subsidies for redevelopment projects in
Camden, as well as their perceptions of the city’s residents’ work ethic (Burney & Zoppo, 2018).
If major employers provide services and activities that attract people to a city and improve the
quality of life for residents, and the success of these organizations is also crucial for a
municipality’s future (Kenyon & Langley, 2011), then payments in lieu of taxes make sense, as
they are designed to attract businesses that have the potential to provide crucial revenue for
municipalities. However, these programs rarely account for more than 2% of municipal revenues,
so expecting them to eliminate local government deficits is totally unrealistic (Kenyon &
Langley, 2011).
The Inability to Develop Professionally and Build Talent is Systemic
Across the country in 2011, strapped budgets pushed municipalities to consider
consolidating services, including public safety (Maciag, 2014). The reasoning behind the 2011
budget short fall and how it impacted Camden is multifactorial, mainly resulting from a hefty
dependence on state supplemental or transitional funding (one of Camden’s major post-war
challenges). Governor Chris Christie’s administration drastically reduced this funding during his
tenure, leaving the city with no choice but to take radical action as 60% of city properties were
tax exempt, and the tax base that still exists is minor, derived from mostly poor households

18
(Maciag, 2014). Property tax collection brings in a mere $25 million a year while the state
contributed about $114 million in fiscal year 2014 to cover the bulk of the city’s remaining
budget shortfall (Maciag, 2014). This process continues today, resulting from programs
discussed in the previously mentioned Division of Local Government Services report.
A fire department’s success is beholden procedurally to municipal tax revenue that pays
for new apparatus and repairs, the hiring of new members, and in theory, affords the professional
development of its human capital in a talent-building framework. Thiel and Jennings (2012) state
that the professionalization of firefighting services is essential for meeting the organizational
mission and the changing demands of the 21st century. Without highly trained, educated, and
experienced leaders, local fire and emergency services organizations will not be able to keep
pace with societal changes, especially in complex settings like Camden, where meeting the
communities’ high expectations for safe, effective, and efficient services that mitigate an evergrowing mission area is harder each day (Thiel & Jennings, 2012).
When coupled with the minimal standards of civil service hiring and the promotional
process, Camden’s marginalized community directly suffers, resulting from the previously
discussed tax programs that exacerbate organizational problems such as the lack of education and
learning opportunities; difficulties in replacing antiquated fire apparatus; replacing or fixing
missing, broken, or ineffective tools and equipment; inadequate facilities; and faulty processes
and procedures that together prevent or delay work, negatively impacting the morale of the
organization (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Ultimately, slashing the CFD budget helped the City of Camden offset unprecedented
budget shortfalls, resulting, according to Braxton and Chang (2011), in the laying off or
demotion of 67 firefighters (33% of the fire department). The mayor was quoted as stating that

19
the layoffs had occurred because police and fire [departments] had kept their status quo, not
deviating from the collective bargaining agreements: she asked what the police and fire unions
did to find meaningful solutions (Braxton & Chang, 2011). As repercussions from the 2008
housing bubble finally caught up with the City of Camden in the form of a budget deficit of over
$26 million (Braxton & Chang, 2011), it was easy to correlate adverse fiscal impacts on the City
of Camden to its fire department’s inability to hire, train, and educate its personnel.
For example, the 2011 budget cuts led the city to lay off half its police force, which, at
their lowest point, was down to 175 officers, with as few as a dozen officers patrolling the city
during peak crime hours at night (Maciag, 2014). For a high-crime area like Camden, those
numbers are anemic, and officers frequently had to do double duty on administrative tasks,
meaning they were stuck behind a desk to fill gaps after working long hours on the street
(Maciag, 2014). Scott Thomson, who was the former Camden Police Chief, and who ran the new
county force early on claimed that the police force was reduced to a triage unit, only able to go
from emergency to emergency, having become a completely reactionary force that was unable to
focus on proactive policing measures (Maciag, 2014).
As a result, the 125-year-old Camden Police Department was disbanded on May 1, 2013.
Camden laid off its entire municipal police force and had Camden County take over policing
under the new Camden County Metro force (Maciag, 2014). The city paid Camden County $62
million for operational costs and leased its police administration building to the county for one
dollar. Critics labeled the reorganization as union busting since laid-off Camden police officers
were rehired as county employees, allowing Camden to slash officer pay and cut benefits roughly
in half. Statistics show officer costs were trimmed from $182,168 to $99,605, according to
county figures (Maciag, 2014).

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The CFD in 2011 was able to remain in service but did lay off a third of the department to
cut costs. The fire department subsequently did not hire a single firefighter for almost 11 years,
while previous classes of laid off firefighters were systematically re-hired (Boren, 2016) utilizing
federal grants like the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant. It
was not until 2016 however, when a separate $5.2 million-dollar SAFER Grant from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) allowed for a class of 27 new firefighters to be hired
(Boren, 2016). The SAFER Grant was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and
public safety organizations to help increase and/or maintain a specific number of trained frontline firefighters for a specific community like Camden (United States Federal Emergency
Management Agency, 2023).
History, Context, and Mission of the City of Camden Fire Department
The CFD was born on September 2, 1869, when, despite opposition, the city council
enacted a municipal ordinance that created a paid fire department regardless of how many
citizens still supported their volunteer firefighters and had vehemently opposed the new paid
department (Ryan et al., 1995). The initial paid department consisted of many of the volunteer
company members in professional roles after being offered positions in the new organization,
and much of their apparatus, equipment, and fire houses were also purchased by the city council
(Ryan et al., 1995). The CFD officially entered service on December 7, 1869, at 6 p.m. when the
buildings and apparatus were finally ready to operate.
Over the years, many of Camden’s fire companies have been permanently closed. Engine
Company 2 disbanded on April 13, 1981; Engine Company 3 sometime in late 1997; Engine
Companies 4 and 5 at the height of the Great Depression on January 1, 1933; Ladder Company 4
was disbanded on July 5, 1936, as a measure of fiscal constraint (Ryan et al., 1995); and Engine

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Company 6 was disbanded on January 18, 2011, during massive firefighter layoffs resulting from
financial crises (Vargas, 2011). Battalion 3 closed in the early 2000s and the Tour Commander
(Car 3) closed in 2008. These closures have impacted the fire departments organizational mission
of preserving and enhancing the quality of life of residents through effective fire prevention and
efficient delivery of fire suppression, rescue services, and the mitigation of special hazards that
threaten public safety while also supporting other emergency services providers (City of
Camden, New Jersey, 2023).
The Current State of the Organization
In order to better understand how attrition rates impacted the Camden Fire Department,
the 125th anniversary of the CFD from the year 1994 will be used to compare organization size
from 1994 till present day. In 1994, the CFD was organized in three battalions (one chief each,
on four shifts) consisting of eight engine companies (one company officer, three privates each,
on four shifts), three ladder companies (one company officer, three privates each, on four shifts),
and one rescue company (one company officer, three privates each, on four shifts) for a total of
12 fire companies (Ryan et al., 1995). The total amount of line personnel consisted of one chief
of department, two deputy chiefs of department, 15 battalion chiefs (12 line, one training, one
apparatus, one staff), 50 captains (49 line, one training), 159 firefighters (privates), one chief fire
marshal, one assistant chief fire marshal, and eight fire inspectors (also privates) for a total of
227 uniformed personnel (Ryan et al., 1995).
After the recent 2023 restructuring of forces by the State of New Jersey Department of
Community Affairs (DCA), the CFD now staffs six engine companies (one is routinely closed or
“browned out” due to staffing shortages but exists on paper), with one engine operating as a
squad company, part of Special Operations Command (SOC), and three ladder companies where

22
Ladders 1 and 3 are full time and Ladder 2 is cross staffed by the rescue company. Due to
apparatus shortages, Ladder 2 is often closed, leaving the members of rescue one to operate only
one company, instead of two (one officer and three privates doing what two officers, and six
privates previously did). CFD staffing reflects one chief of department, three deputy chiefs, nine
battalion chiefs, 36 captains, and roughly 128 Privates, for 177 uniformed members combined,
down approximately 50 personnel, or 66 if cross-staffing is accounted for.
Understanding the Social Nuances of Fire Department Personnel
Social changes pertinent to Camden’s story include the militancy of the fire departments,
and the financial plight of local governments in cities facing static or declining tax revenues and
increasing costs (United States, 1973). Fire departments rely on tangible and intangible resources
that, when misaligned, can lead to gaps in performance, broken or outdated policies and
procedures, and have an adverse impact on organizational tempo (Clark & Estes, 2008). For new
firefighters, on-the-job behaviors are learned and displayed in a cultural setting in which
behaviors can be measured more accurately by peers and superiors as their personal identity
becomes more clearly defined, and the consequences of problems are better understood as
performing the organizational mission becomes more meaningful in a cultural context (Pedersen,
2008).
Thus, organizational culture is very important. Schein (2017) sees culture as the result of
social learning, defining it as a force holding sway over all aspects of the organization, how it
operates, functions, and interacts with external stakeholders. It is fair to say that influence and
guidance impacts an organization’s membership a great deal, in terms of how firefighters
develop as leaders, and even determining how successful they can be (Schein, 2017). A key

23
construct of a firefighting organization is how the social environment affects the learning of new
firefighters observing the behaviors of their peers, and their supervisor (Korte, 2010).
The integration of behavior and consciousness, or the unification of mind and social
interaction is a major characteristic of Vygotksy’s developmental theory because it defines what
constitutes human development (Shabani, 2016). Tacit skills then, are behaviors acquired
through informal learning that are useful for effective performance (Aguinis & Krieger, 2009).
Both are very important to fire service culture, yet they are never discussed in firefighting
textbooks. Pashler (2008) states that some claim learning will be ineffective, or at least less
efficient than it could be, if learners receive instruction that does not take their learning style into
account. Conversely, individualizing instruction to the learner’s style can allow people to achieve
a better learning outcome (Pashler et al., 2008).
As previously stated, Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory describes this
situation succinctly, dividing a person’s environment into five different systems: The
microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem—a theory easily
relatable to the American fire services paramilitary rank structure, yet never part of any
firefighting curriculum. While Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) concept of nested levels of social
environments represents a conceptual advance in linking social change to individual lives
(Bandura, 1995), the fire service does not include this information (or any other social theory) in
any text or curriculum, which would be most important in areas where a diverse membership
adopts innovations they are favorably disposed toward because they lack organizational money,
skills, and resources (Bandura, 1977).
The key distinction between human and social capital is that the former focuses on
individual agents, and the latter on relationships between the individuals and the networks they

24
form—both important aspects of the fire service. Members operate as individual agents, within a
decentralized fire company, within a battalion (ecological system), where those interdependent
relationships dictate the successful outcomes of the organization itself (Schuller, 2001). If
inclusion is about people with different identities feeling and being valued, leveraged, and
welcomed within a given setting like a fire company, or a diverse team of talent, it does not
necessarily mean that everyone in the group, particularly those with marginalized identities, feels
welcomed, valued, has opportunity to grow, or gets career support from a mentor (Bolger, 2021).
This is a type of professionalism that career fire officers lack an understanding of, as fire
departments predisposed to seniority view socialization as a passive process in which the
underlying assumption is that new firefighters need to learn how to fit in (Korte, 2010).
Accountability relationships in the fire department have three dimensions: values,
decision rights, and information; each dimension is multifaceted, especially when considering
positions of power or rank (Hentschke & Wohlstetter, 2004). These embedded relationships work
best when mutual commitment between collaborators up-and-down the chain of command is
directed towards the organizational mission. Mutual trust is paramount to the delivery of
lifesaving work that mission-critical teams perform, and as such, an information asymmetry
problem arises when the information within the accountability relationship is not evenly
distributed. This is typically the case when the director lacks information necessary to accurately
assess the cause of poor performance by the provider (Hentschke & Wohlstetter, 2004).
Romzek and Dubnik (1987) found that organizational membership theoretically could be
broken into two groups: the administration aspect (director), and the tactical or operational aspect
(provider). These are not mutually exclusive in the fire service however, as both groups, at times,
are liable to perform one or the other, or both simultaneously (Romzek & Dubnick, 1987). These

25
nuances notwithstanding, administrative stakeholders (directors) would be the group accountable
for designating training and development for the tactical stakeholder group (provider) that
delivers the emergency services. Officials (directors) must rely on skilled and expert employees
(providers) to develop and implement expert strategies for solutions, and thus, be held fully
accountable for their actions while insisting that leaders trust them to do the best job possible
(Romzek & Dubnick, 1987).
Relationality creates opportunity for social conflict resulting from the paramilitary rank
structure. When applied to nine decentralized fire companies operating out of six firehouses
within two battalions, and across four platoons (shifts), expectations of accountability are
implicit or explicit constraints on virtually everything firefighters do. This leaves plenty of room
for noise, misunderstanding, and competitive nuance that adversely impacts the organizations
spatiality, or how social aspects positively or negatively impact the organization while members
are working and learning (Tetlock, 1992). When considering relationality through the lens of
ontological accountability, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) places the
firefighter or company officer in the center, accounting for the ethical assumptions and social
expectations of personnel, summarizing the structure of the organization (Dubnick, 2022).
If temporality exacerbates decision-making while members operate in time-constrained
environments under pressure, then ethicality, or the norms, values, rules, and moral and ethical
concerns that are subjective across a diverse membership, is the unseen impact on a fire service
organizations personnel (Schein & Schein, 2017). As Edgar Schein and Schein (2017) points out,
groups do not exist in isolation, and in order for them to accomplish something, it requires some
kind of action in the various environments on which the group is embedded, and as the group
acts, it gets or gives itself feedback on whether or not the beliefs, values, and behavioral patterns

26
that launched the group are successful: as a result, the group identifies it is accomplishing its
purpose, and moving forward in the correct way. This is an explanation of fire service culture
that is rarely understood yet often inferred.
However, lacking legitimate resources for training, education, and equipment leads to an
organizational inability to professionally develop human capital, who then misunderstand
positionality, and who also do not comprehend how divided social networks among a
membership inadvertently creates an educational treading of water and, culturally speaking, is
where the organization stands today. Because the fire service tends to think of culture as mostly a
behavioral disposition, it is easy to forget that shared learning over time and the perception of our
relevant environment, can make us feel good or bad, and in a firefighting organization high
morale is imperative (Schein & Schein, 2017). Kammeyer-Mueller et al. (2011) state that deeplevel characteristics refer to members’ attitudes, beliefs, skills, and values which are then
communicated through behaviors and verbal cues, but because learning about these
characteristics takes place over time, after interactions with one another, it is difficult to build
upon due to factors specific to the fire service like transfers, promotions, and retirements.
Kezar (2000) also finds that miscommunication is associated with groupthink, and a
dominant organizational viewpoint can silence others’ perspective resulting in less and less
communication by those with different viewpoints. The resulting membership’s response is to
eventually grow resistant to change, apathetic, despondent, disconnected, and to suffer low
morale (Kezar, 2000). Firefighters can neglect important social cues in three ways, if we apply
Cohen’s (1978) concepts. When the cue is not perceived; when the cue is perceived but lack of
available attention prohibits the person from evaluating its significance—because distress cues

27
are often ambiguous; and when the distress cue is perceived and evaluated, but the person aiding
the person in need requires effort that is not available (Cohen, 1978).
When attention is restricted, as is often the case for firefighters while operating,
information concerning the moods and subtly expressed needs of others at a fire scene or, in a
more benign environment like a firehouse, the neglect of cues results in a lowered probability of
helping another, expressing sympathy for another, or reacting appropriately to another’s needs
(Baum et al., 1978). Overload then, is critical for firefighters, especially in a situation warranting
a high demand on cognition. In a fire company, familiarity between members is the degree to
which members have worked together in the same company, and Chang et al. (2009) thinks the
longer they do, the better they will relate to each other based on past experiences, becoming
more aware of each other’s skills over time.
Chang et al. (2009) reminds us that homophily theory posits that individuals who are
similar are more likely to develop supportive relationships with one another. What does that
mean however, for organizations that are already diversified, where support for one another
while performing dangerous work is necessary? A lack of work familiarity often plays out
negatively on the fireground, where firefighters who are not properly educated in sociocultural
circumstances, much less initiative and autonomy, are micromanaged by a hierarchical structure
that ultimately leads to poor performance. The following explanations of how the human capital
of a fire department in New Jersey is selected for hire and promotion will highlight the
importance of professional development.
Preferential Hiring Practices Diversify While Disregarding Professional Development
Urbanization has created social problems like the migration of poor Americans into cities.
Thankfully, the national movement of American minorities seeking recognition of their rights has

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forced the realization that fire departments were, as pointed out in America burning: The report
of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control (1973), manned disproportionately
by White Americans in urbanized neighborhoods, resulting in racial minorities being
underrepresented in the fire departments in communities in which they lived. Highlighting this,
the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated over a decade ago that the workforce composition of
the American fire service was the least diverse of any protective services occupation, at both the
entry level, and importantly to this research, at the supervisory level (Thiel & Jennings, 2012).
Preferential hiring is not the issue argued here, it is what happens—or does not, rather, after a
person is hired in Camden that is problematic.
Affirmative Action as a term came to into being in 1935 with the passing of Wagner Act,
a federal law giving workers the freedom to form and join unions (Hartocollis, 2022). It was not
until 1961 however, when President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, establishing
the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, requiring federal contractors to
“take affirmative action to ensure applicants are employed, and treating their employment fairly,
without regard to their race, creed, color or national origin” (Hartocollis, 2022, para. 2) that the
idea held.
Regulating agencies like the NJCSC prefer hiring firefighters from within a given
municipal area, and rightfully so. The deeper concern should be about how the educational
system of a municipality like Camden is preparing adolescents who theoretically will become the
human capital of a civil service-bound organization. Like leadership development in general, this
idea is unfortunately overlooked, as it is potentially the last opportunity for post-secondary
education, in an area where often there are few such opportunities.

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Considering that the bulk of fire and emergency services credentialing remains the
responsibility of local level government, this notion is important to take into consideration (Thiel
& Jennings, 2012), as research conducted by sociologist Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar indicates
that adolescents of every background require a robust ecosystem of social capital—not just best
friends, caring neighbors, and supportive teachers, but an entire network consisting of natural
and informal mentors, pro-academic peers, and socializing agents distributed through the
extended family, school, and neighborhood (Avallone, 2018).
Maslow (1958) states the average child in society prefers a safe, orderly, predictable, and
organized world that they can count on. More than 80 years later, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) supports Maslow’s research, stressing the importance of healthy child
development that begins during the early formative years when children of all abilities grow up
in an environment on which their social, emotional, and educational needs are met, and who have
a safe loving home where they can spend time with family playing, singing, reading, and talking
(CDC, 2023). The CDC (2023) websites also lists proper nutrition, exercise, and sleep are also
big difference makers. UNICEF Data (2023) shows that within the home, caregivers are tasked
with establishing a safe, stimulating and nurturing environment and providing direction and
guidance in daily life. Interactions with responsible caregivers who are sensitive and responsive
to children’s emerging abilities are central to social, emotional, and cognitive development
(UNICEF Data, 2023).
As adolescents grow into adulthood, when they are potentially hired by their local fire
department, they will perform and function in environments where unexpected, unmanageable,
and dangerous things do happen, the very opposite of what Maslow (1958), the CDC (2023), and
UNICEF (2023) state is the preferred circumstance for a child. For humans to remain effective as

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emergency responders, their stress response needs to be understood not only the self, but by their
peers and superiors. This means that education and learning need to be multidimensional
processes that result in successfully enduring change both individually and in a group setting
(Alexander et al., 2009, p. 12). Ling et al. (2018), state that the social identity process enables
leaders to create in their followers a sense of shared collective identity, something that could be
advantageous to the members of a fire department, if it were part of a leadership curriculum.
For people entering the workforce in socioeconomically challenged areas like Camden,
the following data shows that regardless of race or ethnicity, poor children are more likely than
non-poor children to suffer developmental delay and damage, and drop out of high school
(Payne, 1996). Looking at the student body at Camden’s 12 preschools, 11 elementary schools,
13 middle schools and five high schools under the Camden City School District, we see that they
have a student makeup of 1% White, 43.3% Black, 0.9% Asian or Asian-Pacific Islander, 53.9%
Hispanic/Latino, 0% American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific
Islander (U.S. News & World Report, 2018). Parental expectations, or, realistic beliefs or
judgments that parents have about their children’s future achievements, have been found to play
a critical role in children’s academic success (Yamamoto & Holloway, 2010).
Van der Kolk (2015) states that most children in the typical inner-city school by the
eighth grade have suffered twice the trauma that their fourth-grade counterparts have had by way
of witnessing serious violence, while two-thirds of them had observed five or more incidents that
included stabbings, gunfights, killings, and domestic assault (Van der Kolk, 2015). These school
statistics are representative of Camden, describing young people who in theory, go on to
participate in civil service testing procedures for the fire department where, once hired, are

31
provided no further education that would enhance working together as a team, or teach how
familiarity and trust effect cohesion and organizational mission (Schmitt, 1997).
The child poverty rate in the United States is two or three times higher than most other
major Western industrialized nations (Payne, 1996). Government-conducted surveys of
children’s test scores in Camden show that 15% of elementary students tested at or above the
proficient level for reading, and 11% tested at or above that level for math (U.S. News, 2018).
This supports Van der Kolk’s (2015) idea the idea that trauma has an impact on cognitive ability.
Further, 17% of middle school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, while
11% tested at or above that level for math (U.S. News & World Report, 2018). Lastly, 22% of
high school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 6% tested at or above
that level for math.
For the 2024 academic school year, 17 public schools are serving 5,776 students in the
Camden City School District, where the average testing ranking is 1/10, which is in the bottom
50% of public schools in New Jersey (Camden City School District, 2024). That website also
shows that minority enrollment is 99% of the student body, which is far more than the New
Jersey public school average of 60%; and public schools in the Camden City School District
have an average math proficiency score of 5% versus the New Jersey public school average of
26%, and a reading proficiency score of 17% versus the 47% statewide average (Camden City
School District, 2024).
In his work, Van der Kolk (2015) observed middle school and high school teachers who
interact daily with inner city students whose first response to new challenges is to lash out or go
into defiant withdrawal (Van der Kolk, 2015). Expecting a young firefighter to follow and learn
from a company officer who has had little professional development or has little understanding

32
of their own positionality and intersectionality is not helpful, especially if subordinates have had
few relationships to learn from, or trusted superiors they can relate to.
While pedagogy is important given the statistics on individual exposure to trauma
encountered while growing up, firefighters and fire officers are not exactly young learners (Fahy
et al., 2022). The big difference between teaching a pedagogic learner and an andragogic fire
service learner is that the pedagogic learner is willing to accept dependency, and because the
teacher feels comfortable working with dependent personalities, they do everything they can to
maintain dependency on the part of the learner.
The andragogic learner, however, can accept dependency at a given time and moment, or
from a given person (like a fire officer), but also has a built-in sense of obligation to do
everything they can to help themselves move from dependency toward increasing selfdirectiveness (Knowles, 1977). For firefighters to learn, andragogy seems to be the educational
instruction pathway, but it may be necessary to connect various styles and tailor them to a given
learner, especially in a one-on-one setting where the learners’ childhood trauma could impact
learning. Anecdotally speaking, company officers routinely say their firefighters are “not getting
it” and need to be repetitiously taught, or they are distracted. There is similarity in those
observations to a notion in the book The Body Keeps the Score which finds that traumatized
children can sit still and pay attention yet are still inclined to have poor learning skills (Van der
Kolk, 2015).
Van der Kolk (2015) posits that this is likely the result of deeply rooted trauma from past
experiences that inhibit cognitive ability. Yet, for fire officers responsible for developing their
subordinates, there is no psychological or sociocultural teaching that exists in fire officer
developmental curricula that would enable individuals (especially White fire officers in

33
socioeconomically challenged urban areas) to better understand, connect with, and subsequently
transfer knowledge to their subordinates. It is important to reiterate that preferential hiring is not
an issue being researched here. However, areas that do not provide further professional
development to the personnel they hire do need to take into consideration the school districts in
locales where civil service procedures do not support upward mobility.
Equity Looks Different: Unsupported Upward Mobility Hurts the Community
Hartocollis (2022) writes that less than 4 weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King’s death in
1968, Harvard University’s then Dean of Admissions announced the school’s commitment to
enrolling a substantially higher number of Black students than in the past, stating that a student
who had “survived the hazards of poverty,” and was “intellectually thirsty and had room for
growth” would be given preference (Hartocollis, 2022, para. 6). What then, of the “intellectually
thirsty” firefighter of today, who has “survived the hazards of poverty,” and “who had room for
growth?” What dean, commission, or organization today is providing Camden Firefighters the
commitment necessary to achieve more than just minimum standards?
While affirmative action advocates believe that an imbalance is overcome by forcing
changes in ethnic ratios, opponents think manipulating an admissions process to mirror
population proportions will not affect the capacity of persons hired (Cohen & Sterba, 2003). Yet
Congress left the details of compliance with Kennedy’s executive order up to employers and the
courts instead of developing a regulatory agency with independent authority to set compliance
standards (Dobbin & Kalev, 2017). This needs to be considered and solved at local government
levels.
The fifth bullet point on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
website page features Eradicating Racism and Colorism from Employment goals and objectives,

34
highlighting the need to promote inclusiveness, and to emphasize the importance of employers
promoting dialogue about unconscious bias and cultural issues at their workplaces (USEEOC,
2008). The CFD, however, currently has nothing in place to address education and learning
related to achieving these goals, regardless of Howard Gillette’s (2005) comment that the mayor
of Camden recognized the need for power-sharing in 1973 between the city’s old residents and
its new ones to foster stability (Gillette, 2005).
If ensuring that leaders are prepared to solve future challenges requires constant, patient,
learning on the part of every organizational leader (Akiyoshi, 2018), then the leadership of many
American fire service organizations requires mission reorientation. Professional education and
learning must be incorporated into a profession that lacks a solid understanding of the
significance of social, cultural, and interpersonal factors, as these concepts quietly exert a great
influence on positive outcomes. Cultural perspectives and self-awareness provide personnel with
candid, positive feedback and an understanding of how they positively impact operational
preparedness and ultimately, the community (Berger, 2020).
According to Aguirre and Martinez (2002), incorporating diversity into pedagogical
practices changes social mindsets and challenges the structural arrangement of persons in
society, while skepticism, scrutiny, and constructive criticism become more likely in contexts
where many assumptions are not held in common (Aguirre & Martinez, 2002). To better explain
this, look at how these ideas correlate to the fire service formality called the After-Action Review
(AAR). During an AAR, participants (firefighters) to an event (emergency) have a dialogue that
is centered around the event and their responses to it (Marinucci, 2015). AARs can negatively
impact firefighter learning and knowledge transfer when members who have a great deal of

35
firefighting experience but little understanding of sociocultural norms and or their own biases,
participate.
Many fire departments like Camden’s have no formal policy or procedure regarding
AARs, yet conducting one is referenced in a text edited by Marinucci (2015) titled The Fire
Chief’s Handbook of Tactics. The book explains that an in-depth critique should be conducted
that gathers facts, discusses positive and negative performance, and corrects mistakes
(Marinucci, 2015). While this text states that an AAR may save a life, there is no explicit
reference under the AAR heading to help individual participants understand how social
circumstances, bias, and ego can influence assumptions that participants might make while their
performance is being scrutinized (Marinucci, 2015), resulting in the entire point being derailed.
There is little in Marinucci’s (2015) book that examines social contextual variables
associated with a fire department that already has a diverse membership. Diversity and
inclusiveness are not limited to race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation—it also includes
social status and class. Issues arise when civil service examinations utilize source material to
prepare individuals to be supervisors (State of New Jersey Civil Service Commission, 2022c) yet
fail to develop self-aware and emotionally intelligent leaders. These materials are an overlooked
opportunity to help leaders avoid misconceptions about firefighters who are connected to other
firefighters in companies, and are performing lifesaving, time-sensitive work.
Because some adults hired under a civil service framework did not have a robust
ecosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) as an adolescent may misunderstand a colleague’s social
circumstances or misunderstand how they fit into an organizational paradigm of collective aims,
it is important that fire service curricula include sociocultural education. In their work discussing
how social capital can become intellectual capital and thereby create an organizational

36
advantage, Nahapiet and Ghoshal (2002) use the term “identification” (p. 256). They define
identification as the process whereby individuals see themselves as one with another person or
group of people, resulting from membership in that group or through the group’s operation as a
reference group, in which the individual takes the values or standards of other individuals or
groups as a comparative frame of reference.
A fire service curriculum that leverages ideas like this could be extremely useful for a
diverse workforce performing dangerous work. Like many impoverished cities, Camden now has
a population predominantly composed of minority groups (United States Census Bureau, 2022),
the idea that multiple ethnic groups can share power may be difficult for some to accept, as
stereotyping is a natural cognitive mechanism where, according to Dobbin and Kalev (2017), the
associations we make between race, gender, and workplace performance can have a sustaining
effect on inequality. Where Black and Hispanic workers are overrepresented in blue collar
service positions (Blanding, 2023), education and learning that govern personnel decisions are a
helpful strategy for quashing bias—an idea further supported by the fact that plaintiff attorneys
often request these practices be implemented in discrimination lawsuit settlements (Dobbin &
Kalev, 2017).
Procedures for Hiring Firefighters in New Jersey
The predominant framework that governs firefighting organizations in New Jersey is the
civil service. This body utilizes its own credentialing, hiring, certification, and procedural
standards that firefighting organizations who are governed by an Authority Having Jurisdiction
are held accountable to. Announcements for entry-level firefighter positions in the State of New
Jersey are posted on the Civil Service Commissions (CSC) website with a $35 application fee

37
per New Jersey Administrative Code 4A:4-2.17. When a new list of candidates is published, the
old one expires and is no longer valid (SNJCSC, 2021).
Once announced, interested prospective firefighters begin the competitive process with a
written entrance exam (SNJCSC, 2021). The examination is designed with information obtained
from a job analysis of the firefighter title. That job analysis provides a description of the duties
performed by incumbents and identifies the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are required to
effectively perform each of the duties that make up the job (SNJCSC, 2022b).
The first step is a multiple-choice written examination, designed to test knowledge of
subject areas (SNJCSC, 2010). The raw scores of everyone who took this test will be evaluated
as a group, and a “pass point” or “cut” (p.17) is set based on the performance of the group
(SNJCSC, 2010). When an appointing authority (hiring agency) is ready to hire or promote from
the eligible list, they will request that the list be certified, and are sent the names and addresses of
the top scoring candidates. These candidates will also be notified that their names have been
certified to the appointing authority (SNJCSC, 2010).
Following the written examination is a pass/fail physical performance exam that all New
Jersey Merit System Jurisdiction firefighter candidates certified by the appointing authority must
pass to progress through the remainder of the hiring process (SNJCSC, 2018). Once sequentially
ranked, the eligibility list is forwarded to the specific jurisdiction’s appointing authority, and
candidates are certified, but must respond in writing indicating they are interested, or they will
no longer be considered (SNJCSC, 2010).
Once hired by the municipality, a recruit firefighter will enter a pass-or-fail fire academy
that instructs the job performance requirements necessary to pass the State of New Jersey
Firefighter 1 and/or 2 certification examinations (SNJCSC, 2021). Candidates who pass may

38
appear on multiple municipal firefighters’ lists depending on where they live, based on local
residency ordinances, and the anticipated hiring needs (SNJCSC, 2021). Eligible candidates that
have been awarded disabled veteran status or veteran status under New Jersey law are grouped at
the top of the employment list, and then by their final averages (SNJCSC, 2010).
The Promotional Process for First-Level Supervisor
The exam is administered on average every 4 years, and certified lists are valid for 3
years with a 1-year extension (SNJCSC, 2022a). The testing process consists of a written test in
which candidates are asked to assume the role of a first-level supervisor and respond to a variety
of questions associated with situation-based written scenarios and diagrams reflecting or
describing typical job experiences that a first level fire supervisor in the state of New Jersey
might encounter (SNJCSC, 2022c). Candidates are given credit only for choosing the best
response, and are provided 2.5 hours to complete the multiple-choice test, weighted at 35.90%,
and designed to assess a candidate’s fireground technical knowledge in four major areas
(SNJCSC, 2022c):
1. Emergency scene size-up and communications: the ability to understand critical
knowledge relating to fireground size-up and communications in an emergency.
2. Firefighting equipment and apparatus: the ability to understand critical knowledge
areas relating to various firefighter equipment and apparatus.
3. Emergency scene technical knowledge: the ability to understand critical knowledge
areas relating to fireground operations and firefighting techniques.
4. Emergency scene safety: the ability to understand critical knowledge areas relating to
safety on the fireground.

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The second portion of the testing process is an oral board, where candidates are asked a
series of questions consisting of an oral exercise about an evolving fireground, an oral exercise
about arrival at a fireground, and oral communications (SNJCSC, 2022c). The oral board is the
more heavily weighted aspect of the examination, with three of the four dimensions weighted as
follows: the fireground-evolving oral exercise is weighted at 29.49%, the fireground-arriving
oral exercise is weighted at 23.20%, and the oral communication is weighted at 11.42%
(SNJCSC, 2022c).
For this exercise, candidates are presented with two realistic job-relevant situations with
which a new first-level fire supervisor might be confronted. Candidates have 20 minutes in total
to study the two scenarios and prepare a presentation for each, with each of the two 20-minute
scenarios broken up into a 15-minute preparation period for the fireground-evolving scenario
questions, and a 5-minute preparation period for the fireground-arriving scenario questions
(SNJCSC, 2022c). For the purposes of this exercise, candidates are to assume the role of a firstlevel fire supervisor in a role play. Audio and video recordings are made of the candidate
presentations in the exam rooms where they deliver their presentations in separate 10-minute
responses for each scenario (SNJCSC, 2022c).
Scores for each test dimension are standardized, weighted, and combined to formulate a
candidate’s overall exam score. The final score is the sum of the weighted, standardized overall
exam score, plus a weighted, standardized seniority score, broken down to 80% for the overall
exam score, and 20% for the seniority score (SNJCSC, 2022c). Seniority score details are
difficult to understand but have implications for the final score that cannot be overlooked. In
summary, to a base score of 70.000, one point is added for each year of eligible service up to a
maximum of 15, making the maximum score for the length-of-service component is 85.000

40
(SNJCSC, 2022c). Up to 10 additional points can be given for record-of-service, potentially
reduced by disciplinary suspension within 5 years of the closing date of the announcement by
.0025 times the number of days suspended, up to 3 years from the closing date, and .00125 times
the number of days suspended, from 3 to 5 years from the closing date. The maximum seniority
score is 95.000 (SNJCSC, 2022c).
Requirements for Fire Officer Promotional Eligibility in the State of New Jersey
Per the Civil Service in New Jersey, a Fire Lieutenant or Captain is defined as one who,
under direction, has charge of a fire department company intended to assist in the extinguishing
of fires; does other related duties (SNJCSC, 2000). For a firefighter to be promoted under the
New Jersey Civil Service Commission to first level supervisor, the requirements, according to
the Job Specification: Fire Captain 2000 (SNJCSC, 2000) are as follows:
• Education: graduation from high school, vocational high school, or possession of an
approved high school equivalency certificate
• Experience: Three (3) years’ experience involved in the extinguishing of fires.
• Certification: In accordance with New Jersey Administrative Code (NJAC)5:73-
1.6(b), c & (d), effective February 17, 2000, applicants for this position must possess
a valid Incident Management Level 1 certification issued by the New Jersey Division
of Fire Safety, Department of Community Affairs.
• Age: No less than 18 or over 35 years of age at the announced closing date for filing
applications for the position. Determining maximum age eligibility of veterans, the
time spent in active military service during periods specified in Department of
Personnel Law and Rules will be deducted from the attained age.

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• License: Appointees will be required to possess a valid New Jersey driver’s license
only if the operation of a vehicle, rather than employee mobility, is necessary to
perform essential duties of the position. (SNJCSC, 2000, para. 3)
Minimal Requirements and Minimum Standards Maximize Liability
Training professional firefighters in New Jersey under civil service practices is a
paradigm that instructs one how to do something up-front and then evolves over time—an if-then
dichotomy that theoretically covers the course of a 25-to-30-year career. The idea that people
who possess good character before applying for a firefighting position will then be enhanced as
they perform their job is counterintuitive, as is considering the selection process unimportant.
For Camden firefighters and officers, post-fire academy graduation or time on the job prior to
promotion lacks any provision for effective training, seminars, or lectures (Tulauan, 2014). What
is often overlooked in the fire service is the importance of formal developmental programs after
firefighters are hired, aside from on-the-job development.
Firefighters who have been or will be promoted to a first-level supervisor in New Jersey
need documented course completion for Incident Management Level 1, obtained by being 21
years old, holding a Firefighter 1 certificate (180 hours of instruction), and satisfactorily
completing an 8-hour FEMA course taught by an instructor and titled Incident Command System
(ICS) I-200 for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents (New Jersey Division of Fire
Safety, 2014). Incident Management System I-100, 700, and 800 training programs are
prerequisites, and may be completed online to comply with the Executive Order 50 mandate
(SNJCSC, 2000a).
To explain how prerequisites are falling short, consider the number of earned continuing
educational units (CEUs) and the duration of hours attached to each online course: ICS 100 is an

42
introduction to the Incident Command System, describing the history, principles, and structure of
the Incident Command System. As indicated on the Emergency Management Institute (EMI)
Independent Study Program (ISP) website, it is 2 hours in duration, and worth 0.2 CEUs (FEMA,
2023). I-700 provides an overview of the National Incident Management System,
comprehensively guiding the whole community at all levels of government, in nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), and the private sector, to seamlessly prevent, protect against, mitigate,
respond to, and recover from the effects of incidents. This course has no prerequisites, is worth
0.4 CEUs, and is 3.5 hours in length (FEMA, 2023). Lastly, the course prerequisite for I-0800
National Response Framework intro is I-700. The course is worth 0.3 CEUs, is 3 hours long, and
has the goal of providing guidance for the whole community, especially those delivering
response capabilities (FEMA, 2023).
In aggregate, the total eligibility requirements for promotion to first-level supervisor per
the State of New Jersey Executive Order 50 is an instructor-led 8-hour course, 8.5 combined
hours of online coursework which accumulates 0.9 CEUs, a valid driver’s license, an age
requirement, and at least 3 years of firefighting experience (SNJCSC, 2000). If fire officers
making decisions must be fully aware of the consequences of their actions, and their decisions
must be based on sound information derived from a proper decision-making process, founded on
a thorough understanding and appreciation of several firefighting principles (Norman, 2012),
8.5-hours of online coursework that does not equal a full CEU is not an educational framework
supporting decision-making competency.
In fire departments where fire lieutenants are not used, fire captains are the first-level
supervisors (Reinert, 2022). It is interesting to note that in the NJCSC examination information
alert, the first-and second-level fire supervisors are also curiously referred to as Fire Officer 1

43
(lieutenant and/or captain), and Fire Officer 2 (captain and/or battalion fire chief). To reiterate,
promotional eligibility to fire company officer does not necessitate holding a Fire Officer 1
certificate from the State of New Jersey.
This is a critical distinction to consider in terms of potential performance, as the
development of human capital is only possible through the deliberate development of talent
pools for critical leading positions (Jindal & Shaikh, 2020). One could argue that the National
Fire Protection Associations 2009 edition of standard 1021 Fire Officer Professional
Qualifications referenced for the Fire Officer 1 performance certification, should be mandatory
(NJDFS, 2014) for promotion, however, at the time of this writing, there is no requirement to
obtain a New Jersey Fire Officer 1 certification prior to promotion in the State of New Jersey
(SNJCSC, 2000). If Fire Officer 1 were mandatory prior to promotion, it would consist of the
following requirements:
• Firefighter 1 certification per N.J.A.C. 5:73-4.2
• Firefighter II certification as per N.J.A.C. 4.2
• Incident Management Level 1 certification per N.J.A.C. 5:73-6.1
• Satisfactory completion of the course of instruction ONLY for Fire Instructor 1 per
N.J.A.C. 5:73-5.2(b) 2, or equivalent, as determined by the Office of Training and
Certification (certification as an Instructor Level I is not required).
• Satisfactory completion of an instructor-led course in the classroom, endorsed by the
National Fire Academy, titled “Incident Safety Officer” of at least 16 hours in length,
or equivalent, as determined by the Office of Training and Certification.
• Satisfactory completion of an instructor-led course in the classroom, endorsed by the
National Fire Academy Principles of Building Construction Series, of at least 12

44
hours in length, or equivalent, as determined by the Office of Training and
Certification.
• Satisfactory completion of instructor-led courses in the classroom endorsed by the
National Fire Academy Fire Tactics Series of at least 24 hours in length, or
equivalent, as determined by the Office of Training and Certification. (SNJDCA,
2021. p. 2)
As mentioned previously, firefighters who have undergone the promotional examination
processes and passed are ranked on an eligibility list. While doctrine is updated and is moving in
the right direction, this is precisely the point where the lack of professional development after the
initial firefighter selection process collides with inadequate leadership development prior to the
promotional process. The entrance exam could be better, but it does generate viable hiring lists.
The real problem is that firefighters moving up in rank are failed by poor succession planning for
necessary leadership roles (Jindal & Shaikh, 2020).
A review of the education, experience, and certifications needed for promotion in a career
New Jersey fire department raises many questions. There is nothing in depth that provides a firm
understanding of leadership or employee development, or any effort aimed at improving the
capability and performance contributions of individuals or groups that impact organizational
performance and results (Akiyoshi, 2018). What is known, is that firefighters in Camden have
had little access to professional development. More specifically, there is no education and
learning relative to social domains, which weakens the idea that while knowing what wrong
looks like is important, knowing what right looks like is even more important (Cline, 2020).
Despite the five textbooks listed in the Civil Service Commissions Orientation Guide
(2022) used to develop exam items (SNJCSC, 2022c), none discuss how developing sound

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company officers entails skilled blue-collar labor coupled with white-collar expertise. While this
is described by some as too binary a construct (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2019), there is little if
any discussion in these books of sociocultural circumstances, supervisor positionality, cultural
competence, or an understanding of human performance under stress.
Preferring Subjective Assumptions Over Tangible Benchmarks
Now that procedural hiring and promoting has been explained, and the requirements for
promotional eligibility have been discussed, the list of “knowledge and abilities” found on the
SNJCSC website for first level supervisor job specification (SNJCSC, 2000) must be examined.
The following types of knowledge and ability are not only subjective and vague, but they are not
formally taught, so the degree to which an individual is effective in this regard varies. Research
from Armstrong (2004) shows that the skills needed to successfully receive an education that
would matter to a fire officer includes instruction on team building, critical thinking, problem
solving, and networking (Montgomery, 2004), yet none of those categories is included on this
list:
• knowledge of laws and ordinances significant from the fire point of view
• knowledge of methods likely to be effective in fighting various types of fires
• knowledge of varied kinds of firefighting equipment and apparatus
• knowledge of the location of schools, large buildings, streets, and fire alarm boxes
• knowledge of fire alarm communications useful in the fire department
• knowledge of likely effective procedures enlisting the support of citizens in taking
precautionary measures
• ability to analyze and interpret laws, ordinances, rules regulations, standards, and
procedures and apply them to specific situations and cases

46
• ability to organize the work of an assigned company to make the best available use of
personnel, funds, and equipment
• ability to give assignments to firefighters
• ability to provide periodic training programs
• ability to take a leading part in establishing and maintaining cooperative and helpful
relationships with citizens and others
• ability to supervise the maintenance, and minor repair of a building, and equipment
• ability to take immediate correct action when an alarm sounds, and to lead at a fire
• ability to remain cool and decisive in emergency situations
• ability to prepare clear, sound, accurate, and informative reports
• ability to establish and maintain records and files
• ability to learn to utilize various types of electronic and/or manual recording and
information systems used by the agency, office, or related units
• ability to read, write, speak, understand, and communicate in English sufficiently to
perform the duties of this position are all necessary but not required for promotion
(SNJCSC, 2000, para. 4)
The knowledge and abilities listed are not formally taught in contemporary prescriptive
models, and State of New Jersey requirements that certify a fire officer successful are not only
unreasonable but are also competencies that are difficult if not impossible to measure. Clinton
Smoke (2010) states that a company officer is responsible for the performance and safety of
assigned personnel and is often a representative of their fire department at the scene of countless
different types of emergencies. Yet, Smoke speaks to the very intangibles listed above only by
saying there is more to being a company officer than managing emergencies, and that a company

47
officer who is not directly involved with making decisions at an emergency is essentially running
a small part of the organization.
As there is missing doctrine and formal development in providing the learning and
understanding of expected outputs of company officers, the CFD’s approximately 40 first-level
supervisors likely think, train personnel, and perform under pressure radically different from one
another. This failure is a critical one, as Norman (2012) points out that company officers need to
let circumstances dictate procedure. This idea is relevant to more than standard operating
procedure as Norman (2012) infers an up-front education and learning process enables officers to
effectively draw from their experiences (Norman, 2012). United States Marine Corp doctrine
reinforces this idea, stating that organizational processes like recruit training, or a formal
officers’school, sets conditions for a culture of learning in which commanders reinforce initial
organizational culture, encourage adaptability, problem-solve, take the initiative, and rely on
reasoning, while ensuring structure, discipline, and readiness (Berger, 2020).
Minimal Developmental Input Drives Minimal Performance Output
It is currently possible for professional firefighters in New Jersey to begin and end a 25–
30-year career participating in very few, if any, educational programs as Firefighter Levels 1 or
2, do not require any mandatory continuing professional development as do the titles of fire
inspector, fire official, fire investigator, or fire instructor.
The way in which the fire officer’s job description website explains officer skillsets is
vague at best, alluding to how officers must have the ability to organize the work of their
assigned fire company to make the best available use of personnel, and, also have the ability to
take immediate correct action when a fire alarm is sounded by directing their firefighters at a
fire. These are followed by the most ambiguous of all, the ability to remain cool and decisive

48
while performing (SNJCSC, 2000). These requirements are stated without providing any ideas
about how organizations could educate their officers on actually achieving these goals. An
example worth pointing out is that holding a Fire Instructor 1 certification in New Jersey brings
with it mandatory continuing education, but a fire officer in New Jersey under Civil Service does
not need to earn a Fire Instructor 1 credential prior to promotion, regardless of the job
specifications (2000a) that state otherwise.
It is troubling then that New Jersey emphasizes the knowledge and abilities of fire
officers in the job specifications yet fails to mandate continuing education. A supported, educated
employee base can make innovative and creative decisions without waiting to be told to do so,
states Monty Armstrong (2004), in a discussion of organizational flexibility and the ability of
firefighters to capitalize on new opportunities. Armstrong further states that organizations that
wait to develop fire officers until after they are promoted does not prepare them in time, as
inadequate training for new responsibilities has already setup failure.
If there are two ways for any organization to develop its human capital, the CFD, like
most other fire departments, opts to build its talent, instead of buying it. To clarify, the Civil
Service process hires individuals who may know nothing about the fire service prior to entry,
instead of hiring “free agents” (experienced firefighters from other municipalities) to fill their
openings. Since the growth of any organization depends on its individual performers, and since
buying talent is always costlier than building talent organizationally, it is important to note that
once one becomes a Camden firefighter, retention is rarely an issue even though the
responsibility of succession management or securing continuity of talent in key positions is not
considered or planned for by the organization (Jindal & Shaikh, 2020).

49
Grossman and Salas (2011) state that although organizational personnel may be gaining
new knowledge and skills though training programs, that is not sufficient for the training to be
effective. They add that what is of primary importance is the positive transfer of training, or the
extent to which work performance is positively altered by what is learned from training. If each
individual who is promoted has had a varied career path, a path shaped by various intangibles
that impact how that individual will lead a fire company, this must confuse those who are not
provided educational opportunities, especially if they are not able to draw from a great deal of
experiential knowledge.
Armstrong (2004) points out that there is little value for individuals, or an organization
itself, if training and education end with the mastery of basic firefighting skills. Moreover,
Armstrong claims that overly strict prescriptive task performance narrows the effective range of
firefighters over the long term, instead of broadening the firefighter’s effectiveness through
education and development. This idea is further supported by Cooper et al. (2023) whose recent
work indicates repeated exposure to training on expert tasks result in a learning effect that is
associated with familiarity with only that task, instead of showing improvement in skilled human
performance central to that task (Cooper et al., 2023).
The fire service is mired in a repetitious cycle of outdated beliefs about “blue collar”
workers that teaches firefighters to do, and not to think. Cooper et al. (2023) shows that
firefighter training that is typically defined by the systematic acquisition of knowledge, skills,
and abilities will somehow lead to improved performance in a specific domain, is no longer
ideal, even as it encompasses what they need to know, what they need to do, and when and
where they need to do it (Grossman & Salas, 2011). Schein and Schein’s (2017) research further
supports this, stating that shared learning can define a group and their purpose, as the various

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components of what is learned can become a pattern of beliefs and values that give meaning to
the organization’s daily activities and the work performed.
It is nuance like this that identifies a real need for robust prerequisite fire officer
professional development and the meeting of mandatory qualifications, just as are required in
other professional fields in New Jersey. For example, New Jersey has a law requiring the New
Jersey Board of Medical Examiners to prescribe regulatory requirements for physician training in
cultural competency. Physicians must complete a certain number of Continuing Medical
Education (CME) hours that include cultural competency topics (Fais, 2015).
Similarly, when a firefighter earns the titles of certified fire instructor, fire investigator, or
fire code inspector, they must then continually be educated to maintain that licensure, but how is
this not the case for firefighters holding a Firefighter 1 or 2 license in New Jersey? Even real
estate brokers in the state need continuing education, as “real estate salespersons, brokersalespersons, and brokers” are required to complete 12 hours per license term in order to renew
their license for the next license term as per NJAC 11:5-12.3(a) in which at least 6 of the 12
hours must be in core topics, (State of New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, 2023).
Bindl and Parker (2011) posit that organizations need to be increasingly decentralized
because change is fast paced, creating a demand for organizational innovation because
operational uncertainty is now greater than ever. To achieve the organizational mission,
firefighting has indeed become a service built on decentralization, where personnel ideally
leverage initiative and autonomy to be proactive and expedite the decision-making process up
and down the chain of command. As the literature on sociocultural and human performance
factors for the American fire service is somewhat limited, a recent surge of interest in workplace
proactivity in the private sector becomes more relevant, as this reflects an organizational

51
understanding of the need for this type of literature, and academic developments have increased
because of its importance in today’s organizational behavior (Bindl & Parker, 2011).
Public sector organizations are late to understanding this, and regardless of how fire
service organizations espouse an understanding of risk and uncertainty, the fact remains that it is
not highly regarded, evidenced in how little knowledge of it is required for promotion. Klein
(1993) states that the recognition-primed decision model describes how people use experiences
to build a personal repertoire of patterns that inform primary causal factors while operating in
specific situations. For the American fire service, these patterns highlight the most relevant cues,
providing the decision-maker with an expected outcome, and helping identify plausible goals
though suggestion (Klein, 1993). Where the reactivation of a somatic marker provides
information about whether the associated event was experienced as positive or negative on
previous occasions (Bartol & Linquist, 2015), it is this sort of experience that Klein (1993)
shows is missing from the education of fire company officers.
Moving the American Fire Service Toward Safety as an Outcome Rather Than a Process
The following discussion is centered around how current fire officer curricula falls short
and is best explained anecdotally as firefighters hate two things: change, and the way things are.
Waters and Grubb (2004) summarize this personal observation about firefighters when implying
the magnitude, or order of change, has less to do with the change itself, and more to do with how
stakeholders perceive the change. That the magnitude of a change is in the eye of the beholder: it
impacts individuals and groups in first order when the changes are perceived as consistent with
existing values and normalcy. Even if change is advantageous for stakeholders, and if the change
can be readily implemented with existing knowledge and resources (Waters & Grubb, 2004), it
may still cause anxiety for firefighters.

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The human capital of a fire service organization is confronted with complex
circumstances even in the most routine emergencies, regardless of how much this idea is
downplayed by firefighters themselves. No matter how experienced the responding individual(s)
may have become with a specific problem set or situation, there are always human-centric
factors that are not often taught or described as most fire service organizations do not train
personnel to understand, and they minimize the physiological and psychological effects of stress
on performance (Nurnberg, 2013). This idea is summarized well in the book Warfighting, where
Schmitt (1997) states no degree of technological development or scientific calculation will
diminish the human dimension in war.
Schmitt (1997) states that uncertainty pervades occupations like firefighting in the form
of unknowns: the fire’s location and extent in a particular structure type, the occupancy type, and
the immediate terrain or built environment are all aspects of an open system. Reducing
unknowns by preplanning or information gathering may help, but firefighters must realize they
cannot come close to eliminating all the unknowns (Schmitt, 1997). Fire officers operate in
environments where decision-making is often based off incomplete, inaccurate, and even
contradictory information, leaving only hope for the possibilities and probabilities their actions
will have regarding positive outcomes (Schmitt, 1997). Norman (2015) agrees, adding that these
decisions are often temporally constrained as well, yet the fire service collectively continues to
train and educate in a way that largely ignores the fact that we are all human.
If we are to improve our ability to navigate uncertainty, we will need to start by
reconciling tension between a desire to keep ourselves safe, with the clear understanding that we
can never really achieve safety (Cline, 2020). The American fire service delivery model is based
on that idea of having decentralized companies of three to six members that function

53
independently, or, in what Cline (2020) calls Mission Critical Teams, they operate in a way that
positively impacts the organization’s greater aims (Schmitt, 1997). Regarding the fire service
specifically, this is most effectively done by enabling subordinate commanders to make decisions
on their own initiative, based on a firm understanding of their senior’s intent, rather than passing
information up the chain of command and waiting for the decision to be passed back down
(Schmitt, 1997).
Little, if any, developmental training or learning in American fire service curricula
teaches firefighters or fire officers to be interdependent, which is to say, teaches them to have
and build trusting relationships with one another to positively impact outcomes (Van der Kolk,
2015). This counters the traditional hierarchical notions of rank by allowing competent
subordinate commanders the right to make decisions when they find themselves at the point of
decision because they naturally better appreciate the true situation than would a senior
commander who is removed from it (Schmitt, 1997). In the American fire service, it is safe to say
that micromanagement and risk are substitutes for certainty, and intuition replaces firm
knowledge, as the Committee on Fire Research of the National Research Council pointed out in
1959, “Growth in our knowledge of how to cope with fire has not kept pace” with the growth of
the fire problem itself (Unites States, 1973). Knowledge of coping, according to America
burning: The report of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control (1973) 50 years
later, could be taken as understanding firefighters as humans first, or including firefighters and
officers as part of the fire problem itself.
Firefighting has attracted minimal interest in the scientific community, and the
fundamental decision-making of firefighters remains somewhat mysterious (United States,
1973). For example, consider a question posed in the report America burning: The report of the

54
National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control (1973) regarding when a building should
be vertically ventilated by firefighters to minimize fire and smoke spread, and when ventilating
could increase the spread (Unites States, 1973). Fire chiefs must answer this question often
during a career, based on their training and experience. Yet little research has been performed to
better understand how one chief’s answer is more informed than another’s (Unites States, 1973).
One example comes from Gary Klein (1999) who describes how deductive logical thinking,
analysis of probabilities, intuition, metaphor, and storytelling enable firefighters to quickly make
decisions at emergencies; however, but research on the topic is limited (Klein, 1999).
Sociocultural Perceptions and the Lack of Understanding of Human Performance
These questions remain, despite attempts to empirically study and quantify firefighting
circumstances. Like so many procedures with merit in firefighting, the original thinking can
become moss-bound through habituation, tradition, and nonsense, or keeping things the way they
have always been (Fried, 1972). Countering restrictive notions, Brezler (2015) states that a solid
appreciation of fire behavior and building construction is very important, but equally significant
is an appreciation for scientific disciplines focused on human behavior under stress; namely
human factors, and tactical psychology (Brezler, 2015). In discussing the genesis of the Fire
Department of New York’s implementing their Mental Performance Initiative (MPI), Brezler
(2015) asserts that while the department has made great strides in conferring with the scientific
community, the American fire service unfortunately continues to neglect the mental dimension,
or mental performance aspect of structural firefighting, which principally remains a human
endeavor (Brezler, 2015).
If a fire service chain of command or rank structure is used for implementing
organizational rules, policies, and procedures, while enabling the fire department to manage the

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organization and direct fire ground operations (Ward, 2015), subordinate commanders should
then be educated to foster a personal teacher-student relationship with their subordinates,
considering the subordinates’ professional development one of their (the commanders’) principal
responsibilities (Schmitt, 1997). Finding out exactly how this happens with no legitimate
instruction regarding respect for differences, questioning one’s assumptions, beliefs, and biases
while also attempting to build partnerships with diverse individuals and communities, is
important, but not as important as making it happen (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2019).
Daniel Goleman (2007) states that shared attention is an essential ingredient of people
attending to what an individual says and does; this, in turn, generates a sense of mutual interest
and a joint focus that is akin to perceptual glue, in which people who have a good rapport are
more creative together and more efficient in making decisions (Goleman, 2007). There is no
formal fire service education regarding the social environments in which firefighters perform
their work, or equally as important, the social settings they inhabit while on duty but not
performing work. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (2002) state that there is a noticeable benefit for
organizations who provide their members opportunities to create interdependent relationships
that are positive for organizational outcomes, instead of those that are only positive for the
individual members of the organization. This process considerably extends the circle of exchange
that takes place among organizational members, thereby increasing social identification and
encouraging norms of cooperation and risk taking (Nahapiet & Ghoshal, 2002).
The barometer of the self is positively or negatively impacted by the many “conditions”
of the self: “self-assertion, self-confidence, self-control, self-criticism, self-deception, self-denial,
self-determination, self-doubt … and the following also matter of self-importance, selfimprovement, self-indulgence, self-pity, self-preservation, self-sacrifice, and self-sufficiency”

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states Dorfman and Kuehl (1995, p. 61). These selves all have a significant impact a fire service
organization. Interestingly, a fire department’s culture is connected to successful outcomes in a
way that is often overlooked and misunderstood. Thiel and Jennings (2012) point this out when
they say that the culture in many organizations encourages the fire company to protect its
members, sometimes at the expense of the organizational mission.
Does all this have anything to do with firefighting? The answer is yes, because an
understanding of the impact of cognitive science on decision-making during high-risk scenarios
suggests that greater rank and responsibility should be tied to an even greater understanding of
mental performance and social skills in the fire service. This oversight is counterproductive, as
firefighting organizations do not seek to enhance their firefighters’social understanding of the
organizational mission and have not understood how the application of andragogy theory can be
advantageous insofar as it draws on students past lived experience, and treats students as adults
(Morreale et al., 2007). Andragogy theory is also adaptive to the diverse needs and expectations
of the student, or in this circumstance firefighter, and develops critical thinking skills, judgment,
and creativity in the learner (Morreale et al., 2007). These points, while disregarded by the
American fire service, need to be understood for each individual to be an effective member of an
organization whose mission is as critical as life safety.
An example of how social and human performance skills are missing from firefighting
research or education is apparent when considering the “Study of Coordinated Fire Attack
Utilizing Acquired Structures,” a project supported by the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG)
administered by FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security that examines coordinated
firefighting tactics utilizing acquired structures (Weinschenk, 2022). This study is an example of
the fire service teaching firefighters to do, not to think, as this federally funded study makes no

57
mention of how the impact of human performance, or sociocultural aspects of operators mattered
in the tactical operations that were researched.
Steve Kerber, vice president and executive director of the Fire Safety Research Institute
(FSRI) states that their aim is to have their research increase both firefighter safety and occupant
survivability through more informed decision-making on the fireground and more efficient and
effective firefighting tactics (ULRI, 2022). These experiments however, even when conducted in
acquired structures that best explore coordinated firefighting efforts (ULRI, 2022), take place in
closed systems. These studies do not lead to more informed decision-making in real time because
they are held in regulated settings that are highly predictive in nature, and because every input is
known and every result can be predicted with a high degree of certainty, within a specific
timeframe (Brezler, 2015).
Brezler (2015) states that every firefighter, regardless of rank, is subject to the
performance-diminishing effects of stress whose negative impacts can range from mild to
catastrophic, depending on many variables. Having personally observed FSRI testing, I can
confirm that the variables Brezler (2015) mentions are indeed unaccounted for: the research
study participants know their roles prior to extinguishing the test fires, they know the layout of
the “structure” on fire, and they are pre-positioned with charged hose lines, and know when and
where to advance. Therefore, very few human factors are tested to include the variables of fire
department response times, officers ascertaining the location and extent of fire upon arrival,
chauffeurs positioning apparatus, fire departmental staffing levels, the mental and physical
conditioning of responding firefighters, the establishment of a command structure, tool or
equipment failure, the training and experience of the responding personnel, or any of the friction
that is pervasive on a modern fireground.

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Schmitt (1997) writes that in battle (the fireground) all actions result from a decision or
non-decision. This human element, often impacted by the social aspects previously mentioned by
Daniel Goleman (2007), is missing from the FSRI study of a coordinated fire attack. No human
decision-making process is incorporated, a variable that disregards reality, as a group of humans
coordinating with another group of humans (engine and ladder companies) to perform
decentralized tasks under the command of subordinate leaders cannot function when no
appreciable exercise of judgement or initiative takes place, or most importantly, where no need
arises that warrants departure from the original plan when the unforeseen occurs (Schmitt, 1997).
Firefighters at working fires are constantly adapting to fluid circumstances and forced to
think through their experiences for solutions. This can be positively or negatively impacted by a
high degree of skillset variability from company to company, regarding how they achieve greater
organizational aims, and closed systems do not, and cannot, measure this (Schmitt, 1997). In the
open system of reality however, firefighters deliberately coordinating in-line with other
firefighters, albeit with different and sometimes competing priorities and/or tactical objectives,
have specific human traits that can be enhanced by sociocultural learning. When all personnel
drive a cultural normalcy of mission orientation, coordination and synchrony are positively
impacted, providing the immediate responsiveness firefighting necessitates (Goleman, 2007).
At a 2019 “Leadership Under Fire” speaking engagement, Coleman Ruiz of the Mission
Critical Teams Institute stated that he would “jettison the planning before he would jettison the
after-action review” (p.12) because, he said, “creativity is the way we embed knowledge” (Ruiz
et al., 2019, p. 11) This idea is very important, because AARs can be an extremely creative
environment where discussions are held of the physical, spatial, and geographical terrain or task
imposition, as it relates to two or more individuals engaged in the same operation but who

59
experience varied circumstances as events unfold, even though they are both involved. Learning
then can be understood very differently from each perspective, and unless this is discussed in
detail, there is no way for the entire group to embed useful knowledge and learn from it in the
aftermath of an event (Ruiz et al., 2019).
Conceptual Framework
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) explains how a culture is built around
people at the center of an organization. The microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and
macrosystem with the individual firefighter at the center and intertwined with fire service
personnel, within a rank structure, within a paramilitary organization like the American fire
service, that is impacted by so many other sociopolitical contextual variables is a perfect frame.
The issue is not simply one of where, and with whom, the learning is carried out. However, it is a
matter of the underlying conceptual model of that terrain or geographical environment, its
structure, the place of the developing person within this structure, and the possible relations and
processes that are allowed for between the elements of the model (Bronfenbrenner, 1986).
The American fire service uses many short terms that supposedly help fire officers
perform mental modeling of specific tasks. For example, a “size-up” is the process of quickly
identifying the extent of a problem set like a structure on fire where leveraging an acronym
might help lead a fire officer through the necessary tasks like requesting the appropriate or more
resources. They lead one sequentially through probabilities designed to inform decision-making
while attempting to minimize the cognitive load by addressing details like how fire and smoke
might travel through a certain construction type, how weather could impact the firefighters
extinguishing it, if there are enough firefighters and apparatus on hand, or what would happen if
something went wrong.

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Consider the conceptual framework visual a size-up of how social interaction between
actors is a continuous process of a social phenomenon that constantly remains in a state of flux
and revision throughout a firefighter’s career. While not expressed in American fire service
educational curricula in any detail, it is necessary for leaders to study their personnel closely and
to include their historical, geographical, and sociocultural contexts to understand how multiple
realities are experienced (Saunders et al., 2019) among firefighters, groups of firefighters in
companies, and those in other companies in a battalion—decentralized units all working towards
the same goal.
Figure 1 represents the individual firefighters place within the organization, contextual
variables that make up their potential, and perceived social status. Depicts how a firefighter’s
past impacts their current or future social standing, how they perceive their operational ability at
fires and emergencies, their potential to be promoted into a leadership role, and their views on
professional development in a way that positively or negatively impacts the organizational aims.
Imitation and behavior modeling will occur if a firefighter observes positive, desired
outcomes and they can then use the behaviors they have experienced to imitate and model in
their own behavior (Nabavi, 2012). Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory (1979) is
appropriate to use to examine the problem as it communicates human performance and social
learning in a moral and ethical fashion while also considering chance, competency, the nature of
direct personal agency and the cognitive, motivational, affective, and choice processes through
which it is exercised to produce the positive outcomes fire companies strive for (Bandura, 2001).

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Figure 1
Conceptual Framework

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Conclusion
This literature review seeks to reveal the deep connection between contemporary fire
service ideology, the hiring and promotional practices of New Jersey fire departments, and how
the City of Camden’s inability to successfully generate tax revenue all impact the professional
development of its firefighters. This connection identifies a hierarchical problem within a
patriarchal system, a disparity that negatively impacts education and learning opportunities for
firefighters, and thus, for the community they serve. Understanding how past circumstances
impact the current municipal government may lead to ideas for solving an organization’s
inability to formally train and develop leaders in first-level supervisory roles. I think
municipalities like Camden have directly benefitted from affirmative action policies that have led
to innovation, and more effective solutions have developed from within that ecosystem, despite
constant attrition and fiscal constraint. It is the presence of differences among Camden
firefighters that enables such success, because of the creative perspectives of those represented
(Dobbin & Kalev, 2017).

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Chapter Three: Methodology
With a preference for art over science, this research utilizes a qualitative interview design
approach, an inductive process of gathering data to build concepts, hypotheses, and theory, rather
than deductively testing hypotheses as in positivist research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). While
not often considered, the social aspects of the fire service impact tactical and operational
environments, as well as education and learning retention. Because qualitative research is richly
descriptive, it can better convey phenomena that creates an understanding of the characteristics
being studied, aligning more purposefully with art than science (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Research Questions
This research attempts to develop a construct that operationalizes information on factors
such as prejudice, intent to change, regret, interest, intelligence, satisfaction, or social standing
that identifies what is meaningful from what cannot be directly observed (Robinson & Leonard,
2019). The methodology employed was to gain insight through the following research questions
specific to the social aspects of an organization, a member’s cultural perceptions of education
and learning, and how prerequisite requirements and the availability of opportunities impact
first-level supervisors of firefighting organizations. Without a specific strategy for learning from
people’s expertise, asking overly simplistic questions can lead to uninformed responses; these
questions will offer insights that can alter organizational performance outcomes.
Research Question 1
Research Question 1 asked the following: In what way do the firefighters and fire
company officers in New Jersey perceive that civil service promotional practices support their
upward mobility?

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A decentralized fire company can be considered a party to a reciprocal relationship with
and within a context of many levels of interconnected systems (Johnson & Rhodes, 2023). In
relation to firefighters and fire officers, Bronfenbrenner (1979) states that one’s own biology is
the primary microenvironment that is the fuel for one’s (professional) development, and his
ecological systems theory places importance on the quality and context of one’s surroundings
(Harkonen, 2007). In a Civil Service–Affirmative Action hiring municipality, this means
firefighters are not only impacted by the support they are provided through their organization,
but by the environment and terrain in which they were raised and the one they work in.
This question focuses on how those who have been hired and promoted think and feel
about existing processes, whether that process is working, what development opportunities are
provided, and what positive and negative cultural ideas and expectations are derived regarding
professional development within an organization. This question will explore professional
development’s role in shaping organizational culture, policy, procedure, expectations, and
attitudes that impact the organizations’ ability to effectively serve the community.
Research Question 2
Research Question 2 asked the following: How do fire company officers in New Jersey
perceive the importance of education and learning, and knowledge transfer in their leadership
roles?
Considering Bandura’s work in social learning theory, this question correlates social
science to a fire officers’ understanding of and connection with subordinates that ultimately
enhances experiential knowledge transfer. Bandura (1977) states that defensive behavior and
emotional arousal come about by the vicarious correlation of past events, as knowledge transfer
in a training environment often includes stories and observations about past experiences. Further,

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understanding that some individuals will not readily adopt instruction regardless of whether it is
beneficial for them or not, if they lack the skills, equipment, or necessary resources, because
some innovations are subject to social prohibitions that influence the learner’s ability to adopt
new behaviors, or in the case of firefighter training, tactical maneuvers (Bandura, 1977).
Research Question 3
Research Question 3 asked the following: Do fire officers believe/perceive that education
and learning centered around understanding motivation, empathy, vulnerability, and interpersonal
behaviors enhances human performance?
Building on work by Brezler (2015), and Nurnberg and Asken (2014), this question
addresses reformatory intervention of the firefighting developmental curricula. High stress
situations occur suddenly and unexpectedly and are as complex as they are highly unpredictable
(Nurnberg & Asken, 2014). The American fire service has not accepted that the most effective
response to a problem is to first understand that humans operating under stress is also a problem,
as the human brain is designed to handle routine events differently than critical events (Cline,
2020). We collectively do not seem to understand that human factors represent the most
significant determinant of success and failure in firefighting (Brezler, 2015).
Overview of Design
There has been little previous research that has addressed this topic, and because many
variables evolved and shifted as the research played out, I found that using a qualitative research
design was the best approach (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Creswell and Creswell (2018) states
that qualitative research allows for more creativity, providing the space needed for innovation
that allows for a researcher-designed framework. This research is an inductive process to gather
data that builds concepts, hypotheses, and theory, rather than deductively testing hypotheses as in

66
positivist research (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017). Phenomenology describes the lived experiences of
individuals that culminates as the essence of multiple individuals who are experiencing the
phenomenon (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Using this design is justified as the social and
operational aspects of firefighting align more purposefully with art than with science. I hope that
my preference for art has helped to create a visceral impact through quotes, notes, interviews,
and observations, all of which are used to support the richly descriptive qualitative research. The
design aligns more with an art project, and better conveys what was learned about the
phenomena being researched (Merriam & Tisdell, 2017).
Research Setting
Research was conducted virtually using Zoom, a web-based platform that enables faceto-face discussions while simultaneously recording and transcribing the interview. Although the
interviews were virtual, the Zoom platform allowed for documenting individual observations and
experience, developing patterns, and identifying categories and themes representative of a
“bottom-up” view of the organization, thus establishing a comprehensive set of themes (Creswell
& Creswell, 2018). Respondents were all off duty at the time of their interview, in a setting of
their choosing. In a space like this the interviews became highly personal, intimate, candid, and
produced deeper insights into the issues being researched. Research interviews that were
conducted via Zoom were also recorded and transcribed using the program Otter.AI.
The Researcher
The primary researcher, I am doctoral candidate at the University of Southern
California’s (USC) Rossier School of Education. Villaverde defines positionality, as how one is
situated through the intersection of power (rank), politics, gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity,
culture, language, and other social determinates (Douglas and Nganga, 2008). With this

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definition in mind, my positionality is that of a middle-class, White, heterosexual male of Italian
descent, raised as a Catholic. I am a good example of what was once called a latch-key kid and
was afforded a parochial school education by divorced middle-class parents. I am a second
generation 25-year veteran firefighter in the City of Camden Fire Department. At the time of this
writing, I am serving as a company officer (captain) assigned to Squad Company 7, a Special
Operations Company. It is worth noting that I have been a Rescue Specialist for New Jersey Task
Force One (NJ-TF1), a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team since 2008.
While I occupy a somewhat privileged space in my professional life, it was not without
complications and struggle. So that I could be hired as a second-generation Camden firefighter,
on my behalf and on behalf of other adversely impacted candidates on a valid eligibility list, my
father initiated a 1995 class action lawsuit suing the City of Camden, and the City of Camden
Fire Department. About a dozen Caucasian applicants were rejected on residency grounds, while
about a dozen minority applicants ranked below us on the eligibility list were hired but were
found to have had more circumstances that should have prohibited their hiring than the suit
members had.
After a hiring freeze, the minority applicants (hired in 1997), and the members of the
class-action suit (hired in 1999) were granted conditional hiring until all the logistics of the
litigation were worked out. We subsequently won the class-action reverse-discrimination lawsuit,
allowing me to become a member of the very fire department I am researching. This work could
be thought of as an attempt to find meaning and understanding that was 30 years in the making.
The chosen paradigm of inquiry can be transformative, because the way we understand
and generate knowledge is greatly influenced by our life experiences (Stroll & Martinich, 2023).
As the primary researcher and a member of the organization, I cannot be considered an uninvited

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outsider: I have entered the community and remained, which gives me the ability to observe the
raw data of behavior, and then withdraw to process the data into a format that will hopefully
serve the organization and, perhaps, the professional fire service at large (Glesne, 2016).
Mitigating potential assumptions may be difficult for me, as this research could be misconstrued
as self-serving based off my history. I have tried to make a distinctive connection resulting from
the unique professional space I occupy while trying to collect viable data (Merriam & Tisdell,
2017).
Data Sources
Data sources for this research included organizational doctrine, training records, and the
recorded or transcribed semi-structured interviews with participants. The participants are
explained in the next section, but the power dynamics are carefully accounted for as privilege
can create and perpetuate inequities in power and foster disparate treatment (Robinson &
Leonard, 2019).
The following source materials were initially considered for data: company run journals,
company-officer journals, National Fire Incident Reporting System documents, and field notes
from direct observations. These sources were abandoned deliberately and preemptively because
of an unrealistic timeline on the part of the researcher. While direct observation is more
scientifically defensible, there was already an existing understanding held by the researcher
through intimate involvement in field situations (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Participants
Participants in the study are firefighters with at least 2 years’service time (many of whom
have upcoming promotional opportunities), currently assigned company officers, and chief
officers (promoted beyond the company officer position). The recorded participant interviews

69
form impressions that go beyond what can be fully recorded in even the most detailed field notes
or interviews (Patton, 1987). Participants include individuals of varying races, ages, and,
importantly, ranks, as this conveys a range of experiences at multiple positions relating how each
participant developed as an officer and noting the organization’s role in detail.
Instrumentation
As the primary means of research, the qualitative interviews seeks to discover how
meaning is constructed, and how people, in this case firefighters, make sense of their lives and
their worlds. As the primary researcher, my preference was for a semi-structured interview as it
afforded the best of both worlds: I wanted a structure to the interviews but as Merriam and
Tisdell (2016) point out, a semi-structured interview is in the middle of structured and
unstructured, allowing some flexibility with the open-ended questions while seeking specific
information from respondents (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Data Collection Procedures
Opportunities to participate in the research interviews that would be conducted, recorded,
and then transcribed to be coded for data were disseminated to about 25 potential respondents via
email and word of mouth. The interviews were conducted via Zoom and recorded to make data
collection convenient for the respondent and the primary investigator. Moreover, a recorded
Zoom interview is not only beneficial for transcription and referencing, but also accessible to
most respondents and makes scheduling convenient for them. This allowed for more potential
respondents. The interviews concluded 14 had been completed, averaging about an hour and a
half each. Respondent interviews included several ranks so as to establish how professional
development helped or hurt the respondents serving in several capacities.

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Initially, the collecting of research was to include conducting direct observation of
activities with on-duty fire companies to directly observe how fire officers transfer knowledge
during drills and real-world instances. This research collection along with a study of
organizational documents were procedures that had to be abandoned due to an unrealistic
timeline on the part of the researcher. It was decided that there was already a firm understanding
of the data to be collected, and that the major time expenditure would be better spent on other
aspects of this work.
Data Analysis
The goal of the qualitative data analysis was to take initially cumbersome data without
clear meaning and review it repetitiously, breaking down the participant interviews to understand
it and identify themes, using the respondents’stories in a more structured, formal way so the
information could be transmitted with purpose (Lichtman, 2023). While researchers are still
modifying qualitative techniques, and even though they are not thought of as being as wellestablished as quantitative procedures, this study will nevertheless utilize interpretive
phenomenological analysis to achieve a detailed examination of the lived experiences of Camden
firefighters, exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the phenomenology so the data
analysis can be facilitated by bracketing narrative or thematic analysis (Lichtman, 2023).
Method 1
While time consuming, the thematic analysis identified coherent and significant themes,
patterns, nuances, and insights that shared the same underlying ideas, issues, or concepts when
respondent observation of idiosyncrasies was pulled out of the qualitative interviews (Patton,
1987). Identifying gaps in performance distinguished whether fire service personnel have the
requisite knowledge, motivation, and organizational support to successfully achieve

71
organizational goals. Clark and Estes (2008) write that focusing on these factors identifies gaps
in knowledge, motivation, and barriers in organization culture (Akiyoshi, 2018).
Method 2
Narrative analysis is an attempt to uncover and interpret meaning and understanding
through inductive investigation that results in a richly descriptive summation of collected data
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This study constructed meaning and understanding from individuals
engaged with their firefighting environment and correlated the aggregate of their collective
narratives and lived experiences. The overall purpose of collecting respondents’ experiences is to
seek an understanding of how more specific human performance education and learning, and a
shared understanding of sociocultural experiences, could enable collective organizational growth
and performance gains among firefighters (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). This research utilized and
benefitted from Atlas.ti software that helped to assemble and clarify the collected qualitative
data.
Trustworthiness and Credibility
Ensuring trustworthiness (validity) and credibility (reliability) in this research involved
conducting the investigation in an ethical manner, as qualitative research is based on assumptions
about reality (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). To analyze the credibility and trustworthiness of the
described qualitative research methodology, the elements can be broken down into various
components.
Trustworthiness
There are three considerations to help analyze trustworthiness. First is transferability, or
the way rich, thick descriptions convey meaning that is supported by prolonged and persistent
field engagement (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The strength of transferability is that it provides a

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detailed description of the research setting, participants, and methods provides sufficient context
for others to determine applicability to their settings. However, a weakness to consider is that the
study’s focus on a specific fire department and my personal involvement with the organization
might limit transferability to different contexts. In addition to transferability, multiple other
considerations can help analyze a study’s trustworthiness.
Supporting trustworthiness, dependability is another factor to consider as dependability
can be thought of as a substitute for reliability and objectivity (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). A
strength of dependability is that the methodology includes thorough documentation of data
collection and analysis processes, suggesting a clear audit trail. A weakness is the strong personal
involvement of the researcher could impact objectivity and dependability. There is a need to
discuss one additional idea when considering the trustworthiness of a study.
Confirmability is a third consideration for trustworthiness of a study. Confirmability is
thought to be criteria that represents different points of view (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). A
strength of confirmability within a study is that using software (Atlas.ti) for data analysis helped
maintain an objective trail of evidence, and a weakness of this study’s confirmability is that a
deep personal and professional involvement may introduce bias, though this is acknowledged
and partially mitigated by transformative inquiry. In addition to trustworthiness of a study,
credibility is an important component of a qualitative study.
Credibility
As many as eight different procedures for achieving credibility and trustworthiness have
been developed to achieve rigor (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Developing responsible and accurate
data that reflects my prolonged engagement and persistent observation is achieved by providing
a research setting that is relaxed, personal, and intimate, where off-duty participants are

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interviewed in a comfortable setting. This supports candid engagement and feedback, leveraging
the virtual format as a strength. The weakness in this format is the lack of direct, in-person
observations of context and subtlety that can be witnessed in person, limiting depth.
Triangulation, or using multiple sources of data to compare and cross-check collected
data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) is leveraged, strengthening the research via multiple data
sources, including organizational documents, training records, journals, and the semi-structured
interviews, all of which support triangulation. The weakness of triangulation is the elimination of
direct observation of training activities, reducing the richness of the triangulated data. The
strength of member checking in this research is the candid, in-depth interviews, implying that
participants’ perspectives have been captured. However, there is no explicit mention of member
checking in which the participants review the findings for accuracy.
Thick description is a strength due to the rich, detailed descriptions and verbatim quotes
that are emphasized, enhancing the study’s credibility. The study has meaningful coherence as a
result, interconnecting the research questions and findings with the literature review in a way that
produced interpretations consistent with each other (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The semistructured interview approach is a strength, balancing structure and flexibility, aiding in reliable
data collection.
The use of a virtual platform for the interviews also standardizes the interview process. A
weakness is the absence of in-person, real-time observations that reduces methodological
triangulation. Validity (credibility and transferability) is strengthened via the transformative
paradigm and phenomenological approach that aligns well with qualitative validity, focusing on
lived experiences and deep insights. A weakness here is the potential for researcher bias, given
the researcher’s background and position, requires careful management to ensure validity.

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Specific Methodological Points
The use of Zoom and virtual data collection is a strength, as this approach facilitates
convenience and comfort for the participants, potentially increasing the depth and honesty of
their responses. Virtual data collection is also a weakness, because while observation is helpful,
virtual interactions may miss non-verbal cues and spontaneous interactions that could arise in inperson settings. A strength of my positionality is that my status provides deep contextual
understanding and access, while a weakness results from my previous legal conflicts with the
organization, and how that may introduce bias, although this is acknowledged and partially
addressed through reflexivity.
The data analysis techniques are a strength because they are thematic, and narrative
analyses are appropriate for qualitative research, allowing for detailed examination of research
interview participants lived experiences. The weakness, however, is that the reliance on personal
interpretations necessitates a rigorous cross-checking and validation processes. Merriam and
Tisdell (2016) give me hope for this work, as influencing the practices and theory of firefighting
led to this research being rigorously conducted. Presenting insights and conclusions that ring true
to not only readers, practitioners, and researchers, but most importantly to firefighters, who
hopefully understand that this research was approached with careful attention to the studies
conceptualization, the way the data was collected, analyzed, and interpreted, and how the
findings are presented (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Ontological accountability is related to the social fabric of the society around us, but is
expressed locally in our organizations (Dubnick, 2022). The Burke-Litwin model was perhaps
more useful in the macro than Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model, because the individuals
(firefighters) are accountable to the organization in the former, whereas in the latter, they are

75
accountable to themselves. Both models prove useful in this research, especially if social aspects
are found to be impeding accountability. Because we are looking for a gap in achievement
through assumed influences, identifying current knowledge and motivation, if any organizational
barriers or influences exist, and identifying these through qualitative research to recommend
solutions towards performance goals, Burke-Litwin is arguably the more appropriate model
(Dubnick, 2022).
As the literature review suggests however, this study aligns with Bronfenbrenner’s
(1979) idea that an investigation is regarded as ecologically valid if it is carried out in a natural
setting involving objects and activities from everyday life (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Because
Bronfenbrenner (1979) though this idea was initially unsound, he expanded the definition,
pointing out that the task of determining how a subject perceives the situation is an extremely
difficult one, and that the researcher does not yet know how to accomplish the task. He therefore
sought to formulate a definition of ecological validity that expands the scope of the concept to
include the environmental context in which research was conducted.
Ecological trustworthiness (validity) refers to the extent to which the environment
experienced by the subjects in a scientific investigation has the properties it is supposed, or
assumed to have, by the investigator (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Further, one might use feelings to
develop a trustworthy hypothesis if their emotional reaction to a system or persons represents a
common reaction within an organization (McCormick & White, 2000).
Considering the social environment discussed at length in the literature review, I believe
this work to be a trustworthy and credible study. The methodology described demonstrates a
strong commitment to qualitative rigor through detailed description, diverse data sources, and
thoughtful data analysis strategies. The credibility and trustworthiness are supported using thick

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description, triangulation, and the researcher’s deep engagement with the topic. However,
potential weaknesses include the lack of explicit member checking, potential biases due to the
researcher’s background, and the limitations of virtual data collection.
Ethics
Firefighting organizations naturally gravitate towards reducing errors, but where mistakefree performance is likely unattainable because of complexity and chaos (Klein, 2015), the most
useful definition of intelligence would then be that it is the aggregate capacity of individuals to
act purposefully and think rationally, while dealing effectively with their environment (Salovey
& Mayer, 1989). Effective leaders have an ethical responsibility to optimize learning outcomes
for their personnel by helping create organizational learning environments that are visionary,
authentic, ethical, strategic, people-centered, and motivational (Kaucher, 2011).
The researcher has several ethical responsibilities, the main one being integrity of method
(Strauss & Corbin, 2008). This work serves the interests of the community and stakeholders
similarly interested in personal growth, intellectual development, and enhanced performance in
the American fire service. Residents and business stakeholders of Camden and the CFD
personnel, their labor unions, and those with similar roles outside of the organization, nationally,
will benefit from an enhanced understanding of the self, their peers, subordinates, and superiors,
while training to perform under stress.
Respondents who believe that knowledge is something absolute, innate, or that it is only
handed down from authorities like teachers and textbooks, or that a student’s role is to receive
and regurgitate information when asked, or who only assume that instructors have the answers to
all the questions (Ambrose et al., 2010) are the only people that may be negatively impacted or
harmed by this work.

77
The interview questions were developed from the researcher’s perspective, as was the
study and scope design. Any potential harm to respondents is mitigated by means of voluntary
participation, informed consent, and confidentiality assurances. All follow guidelines of the
USC’s Institutional Review Board policy and procedure, dependent on meeting the regulatory
definition of human subjects and/or research as is outlined on the Human Research Protection
Program (https://oprs.usc.edu). The results of research will only be disseminated through this
dissertation and/or publishing related findings through academic peer-reviewed journals or in a
similar way that removes all identifiable context and circumstances possible.
This chapter describes the qualitative methodology used to examine the perceived social
and cultural relationships and educational circumstances of individual members of several ranks
in a fire service organization, and the impact of their organization’s ability to provide useful
professional development. The research presented in the coming chapter presents an
understanding of the impact professional development had, or likely could have, on human
performance, and organizational culture in relationship to these circumstances. The research
themes and findings of the collected analyzed data frames firefighting professional development
curricula that develop leaders in socioeconomically challenged firefighting organizations.

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Chapter Four: Findings
The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how important
professional development, education, and learning is for firefighters moving up in rank in a
socioeconomically challenged urban fire department that is beholden to civil service paradigms
for hiring and promotion. While the Camden Fire Department presents itself as utilizing a paramilitary hierarchical rank structure, the professional development of the organization’s current
rank and file does not parallel a military organizations professional development model, like the
United States Army or United States Marine Corps.
Participants
This research consists of 14 qualitative interviews with respondents who agreed to
participate out of an original pool of 25 potential respondents. Several participants declined the
opportunity to participate outright, several did not respond to the requests to participate, and
several maneuvered around the scheduling until it was no longer necessary to collect their data.
All respondents are members of the same organization that the principal investigator is a member
of. All 14 interviews were held between September 9, 2023 and October 27, 2023. Respondents
are described vaguely so that they remain anonymous. All respondents, regardless of their
current assignments, were familiar with coordinated fire attack and operated from the perspective
of engine, ladder, or specialized units.
The first group of respondents is composed of four firefighters (privates) who are likely
to be promoted in the near future; they are identified as Privates 1 through 4. The next eight
interviews were conducted with respondents who had been promoted to company officer
(captain). Company officers typically supervise up to four privates; these respondents are
indicated as Officer 1 through 8. The final two interviews were conducted with battalion chief

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officers. These respondents, identified as Chief 1 and 2, have between 2 and 5 years of in-grade
service time and directly supervise five company officers and 20 firefighters. Importantly, these
chiefs have been promoted past serving as company officers and their professional experiences
have had very little organizational support, so it is no surprise that both of them code often as
self-taught, intrinsically motivated professionals.
All respondents are members of the same organization. All respondents are males
between the ages of 28 and 54. In aggregate, the racial breakdown of the respondents was five
African Americans, four Latinos, and five Caucasians. The respondents are all familiar with
principles and practices associated with firefighting; they have served their time in busier engine
or ladder companies, and many were assigned to special operations companies at some point of
their careers. The respondents all have a firm understanding of their organization’s current
capacity, having served in the organization between three and 27 years. Several respondents had
career firefighting experience prior to coming to work for their current organization. Table 1
depicts the respondents.
Academically speaking, Officer 8 and Private 3 likely represent the average rostered
Camden Fire Department personnel. While this research did not attempt to account for all the
respondent’s certifications, it is assumed that they all have at least Firefighter 1 and/or
Firefighter 2 certifications. Respondents serving in special operations companies would typically
hold advanced certifications related to mitigating hazardous materials, as well as performing
technical rescue involving rope, vehicle extrication, swift or flood water, trench, and structural
collapse rescues. However, the CFD does not have guidelines that delineate the qualifications
required for assignment in a special operations company; the criteria are ambiguous and
discretionary.

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Table 1
Respondent Information
Respondent Race Age Gender Service time Time in
grade Education level
Private 1 Caucasian <30 Male <10 years — Undergraduate
Private 2 Caucasian <40 Male <10 years — Undergraduate
Private 3 African
American
<50 Male >15 years — High school
Private 4 African
American
<30 Male <10 years — Undergraduate
Officer 1 Latino/
Caucasian
>40 Male >10 years <10 years High school
Officer 2 African
American
<40 Male >15 years <5 years Some college
Officer 3 Latino <50 Male >20 years <5 years Some college
Officer 4 African
American
<50 Male >15 years <5 years Some college
Officer 5 Caucasian >40 Male <20 years <5 years Some college
Officer 6 Latino >40 Male >20 years >5 years Undergraduate
Officer 7 Latino <50 Male >20 years <5 years Some college
Officer 8 Latino <50 Male >20 years <5 years High school
Chief 1 Caucasian >40 Male <20 years <5 years Some college
Chief 2 African
American
>40 Male <20 years >5 years Graduate

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Research Question 1 (RQ1) Results
Research Question 1 asked the following: How do the firefighters and fire company
officers in New Jersey perceive that civil service promotional practices support their upward
mobility?
Theme 1
Firefighters and fire officers seeking promotion are led to believe that doing well on a
promotional exam somehow translates to performing well in the role they are testing for.
Theme 2
Mutual trust is a theme respondents all alluded to or spoke directly to, while
unequivocally preferring not to be micromanaged. Civil service procedures by nature seem to
breed micromanagement, as preemptive education about leadership principles either does not
exist or is left to the respective organization to provide.
Theme 3
Leadership skills are not accounted for in the promotional process. Providing leadership
training to company officers after they have been promoted is an inefficient, reactive exercise for
what is a very steep learning curve.
Discussion for RQ1
The answer may well be that they do perceive that the process supports upward mobility,
but certainly not in a way that is useful beyond testing outcomes. Both parties to the examination
process seem to disregard what comes after the test entirely. Firefighters and fire officers in New
Jersey are not unlike the rest of the American fire service in that they are taught to do, not to
think, and the civil service promotional procedure is a great example—the process does not
include leadership development before or after the promotional examination; in fact, an

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argument could be made that it does the exact opposite. The established examination criteria
lends itself to those candidates who become focused on memorizing information for placement
outcome, instead of learning. This criterion falls short, providing a base for which candidates
only understand what it takes to do well on their exam, not to lead.
The civil service establishes and designates books on which the oral and written portions
of the promotional tests are based and makes available study guides that theoretically level the
playing field and facilitate process for which the test is administered. However, from Officer 4’s
response, one gets a sense of the high variability in the company officer ranks:
We’re [CFD] assuming that everybody knows this, or everybody had an officer that
trained them on it, and they think of it like, I got a magic light blue shirt now, I am
expected to know 155 years and counting but a lot of new captains are having a hard way
of it.
Also supporting this idea is a comment from Officer 7, “You know, a lot of people are good test
takers, but you know, some of them unfortunately are not very good leaders.”
Promotional practices do not account for prior experience and make no mention of how
company officers leverage their prior experiences:
And you know, it becomes difficult because like I said, they don’t take the time to get
people’s experience before they get the position. It’s just like one Friday you were a
firefighter and on Monday you’re a captain in charge of three personnel. (Officer 4)
Individual firefighters, whose values and beliefs impact their decision-making process
(macrosystem), can impact the lives of their subordinates and civilians depending on how they
approach their promotions. As there is no coinciding state-run or fire department program that
educates promotional candidates to be effective leaders, the impact of education and knowledge

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on a firefighter’s understanding of the self and an understanding of those around them
(chronosystem), is limited, instead of enhanced, by the civil service promotional process.
Consider this part of Chief 1’s qualitative interview:
Now, you could mandate these guys, like, you know, I guess you could say you’re going
to show up to these classes on these dates, but specifically, the institution that I work for,
doesn’t offer this. There’s no classes for the most part, there’s no betterment, no
education, no leadership training—there’s nothing.
Chief 1’s comments are indeed troubling, especially if what Romzek and Dubnick (2017) say is
true—that executive leadership (directors) relies on skilled and expert personnel (providers) to
develop and implement expert strategies for solutions for which they are then held fully
accountable while insisting that leaders trust them to do the best job possible (Romzek &
Dubnick, 1987).
In Self-regulated Learning: Beliefs, Techniques, and Illusions (Bjork et al., 2013) takes
an in-depth look at how one manages their own learning. This work correlates directly to civil
service promotional exam participants as it discusses how a learning process involves making
continual assessments and decisions, and most importantly, what should be studied, how it
should be studied, and what should then be studied (Bjork et al., 2013). A more holistic approach
to the promotional process might be a building block approach to help candidates understand
themselves in the role, instead of merely learning how to regurgitate information to earn a
desirable testing placement that leads to promotion. The work further discusses whether the
learning supports subsequent access to relevant information, concepts, and procedures that will
only build capacity when recall is correct (Bjork et al., 2013). If the promotional candidate

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prepares for placement, disregarding the responsibility that follows promotion, it is fair to say the
procedure is missing the mark.
Regarding formal procedure for developing company officers, Chief 2 states that it is
“one thing that’s been missing in our department; I mean, even when I was a firefighter, I was
like, man this is not taken seriously enough for me.” He believes it was his undergrad work that
helped him understand leadership better. “So, I learned how to deal with people—I was
promoted over people that were at the job longer than me, I had to supervise people that were
older than me.” The respondent went on to say, “I had to learn on the job how to deal with
different personalities, different age groups, different genders, and I just learned how to
understand, I learned how to talk to them in a respectful manner.” This is the understanding of an
intrinsically motivated self-taught outlier, not a firefighter relying on the organization to provide
professional development: there is a discernable difference.
It is this type of intrinsic motivation and curiosity that many self-taught respondents
coded for that sets them apart as leaders in the organization. Had the respondents not prepared
for the roles they were promoted into by the civil service process, they would have been
beholden to the same lack of training that is organizationally breeding micromanagers. Robert D.
Behn (1995) of Duke University poses a related question: How can public managers break the
micromanagement cycle and stop the excess of procedural rules, which prevents public agencies
from producing results, which leads to more procedural rules, and how can public managers—in
this case fire officers, motivate people to work energetically and intelligently towards achieving
public purposes?
These questions and other similar ones are covered in the book Warfighting (Schmitt,
1997), a text as unlikely to have been read by firefighters as it would be to appear on the civil

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service promotional process book list. However, if fire service organizations are indeed
paramilitary, the text Warfighting, and others like it that discuss concepts like leaders’ intent,
mutual trust, initiative, and autonomy, would provide criteria for civil service examinations.
These concepts are understood by few fire officers and are not formally taught, evidenced by
Officer 6 who states that he empowers firefighters though initiative and autonomy, while having
never been exposed to formal education on the topics. He states, “I have a level of trust that
tasks are completed by experienced firefighters in the company,” and “You have trust on the
fireground that that firefighters can be given a task to be completed, and not have to worry about
freelancing.”
In terms of firefighting, autonomy could be defined as the ability of fire officers or
firefighters to use their own judgement to make informed, self-governing decisions. It is not only
applicable to self-directed learning, but also the ability to act on the leaders’ intent, making
decisions in line with greater organizational aims without asking for permission or waiting for an
answer.
Research Question 2 Results
Research Question 2 asked the following: How do fire company officers in New Jersey
perceive the importance of education and learning, and knowledge transfer in their leadership
roles?
Theme 1
Respondents who continued educating on own their own, also were identified as selftaught learners, and intrinsically motivated, two headings used in the data coding process. This
indicates that respondents who took matters into their own hands considered education and

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learning to be the ideal way to build confidence, an important trait for leading personnel into
dangerous situations.
Theme 2
Knowledge transfer is not considered in the promotional process, regardless of the Fire
Captain Job Description (2000) which states that a company officers’ job is to provide periodic
training programs.
Theme 3
This research indicated respondents preferred to connect with peers and subordinates on a
personal level instead of just professionally as it leads to group or company flow and a better
understanding of mission orientation.
Discussion for RQ2
The intent of this question was to seek insight into how respondents perceived
professional officer development, and specifically if officer development would be useful for
them in the role of company officer. How exactly did Camden fire officers learn to be officers?
How would education and learning be received if it were mandatory? Would respondents find it
useful, and do they think their peers would? Would formalizing knowledge transfer support new
leaders? What would the curriculum look and feel like, and would it be catered to their
organizations or follow national standards? While these questions were answered directly, the
respondents showed a significant commonality: most of them (13 of 14) had “some college” or
earned a degree of some kind. While their educational experiences were largely unknown to me
prior to interviewing them, I began to see them as a collection of outliers—or were they?
If not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers, then leaders in the emergency
services must continue to professionally develop as a matter of necessity. For public safety

87
agencies bound by the EEOC, one is left to ponder what groups of people performing lifesaving
work in the 21st century need to understand about themselves and each other, and how social and
cultural aspects of education are overlooked, regardless of how closely tied to physiological
stressors for those working independently and in groups. If Firefighter 1 does not have
mandatory continuing education requirements, how do newly promoted fire officers know how
to provide periodic training programs (NJCSC, 2000) if they have never been educated on how
to do that, or on what that looks like.
The very nature of a decentralized fire company leads personnel to develop a “silo of
excellence.” Whether a professional development program for officers should follow national
standards or be developed locally, a siloed mentality is evident, as seen in Officer 7’s comment:
I guess we are kind of, you know, unique, in a sense, small city, small square mileage,
heavy population, um, a mixture of you know, both business district, and rundown places
you know, I guess I would like to see a more department specific, just because of that
reason.
If knowledge-based economies have placed a premium on training, education, and selfdevelopment, then investing in the success of individual employees through a robust professional
development plan is essential for every contemporary firefighting organization (Thiel &
Jennings, 2012).
Education and learning have immeasurable positive impacts on modern firefighting
practices. Professional development helps avoid a stagnation vacuum that exists after or even
during initial training efforts, making it hard to ignore the fact that education and learning in the
American fire service need to be frequently re-examined for effectiveness and validity (Morreale
et al., 2007). Organizations not providing professional development will see outliers in the form

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of self-taught, intrinsically motivated individuals who continue to professionally develop on their
own. Officer 4 speaks to how he combined outside experience and education with on-the-job
observations:
This one was a combination of, you know, I learned by demonstration, by seeing what to
do, and what not to do, and with my natural ability, being enough to judge my
environment and seek out who I believe were quality officers to learn from.
The label of blue-collar to describe the work of firefighting has become a misnomer: in
fact, there are now many aspects of professional firefighting that encompass white-collar
skillsets. To be a well-rounded company officer, professional development should better
delineate when it is time to focus on performing blue-collar tactical skillsets, and when to pivot,
leveraging white-collar skillsets. The ability to educate their subordinates via knowledge
transfer, to track and record operational information, and to be the face of the organization while
not engaged directly in emergency response services can no longer be thought of as just bluecollar work, regardless of how modern-day firefighters and fire officers prefer to remain labeled
as blue collar. Simply put, there is a time and place for each, and neglecting one or the other is
not effective.
If the perception of risk is greater for workers in blue-collar occupations as a result of
work responsibilities like the use of heavy machinery, or that their work inherently has more
hazardous objectives than that of their white-collar counterparts who use more benign equipment
like word processors or computes (Harrell, 1990), why then is the fire service (typically
described as blue collar) first-level supervisor not described as a tactical manager with
administrative duties that include record keeping, managing projects, preparing budget requests,
initiating and completing station maintenance requisitions, and conducting preliminary

89
investigations (Ward, 2015)? Perhaps “grey collar” better describes the first-level supervisors’
function and is applicable to a more versatile individual that combines public safety tactical
competency skillsets with more effective soft skills than what the current terminology implies.
Respondents all spoke to how a mandatory officer development program would be
received with open arms by two groups: newly promoted officers, and firefighters who were
about to be promoted to company officer. Chief 2 stated:
I think it would be a huge success, honestly. Guys are sponges. I mean, I’ve learned this,
you have individuals who you think don’t want to learn, or they don’t care about the job,
then you come to realize that if you take the time to train with these guys, most of them
want to absorb information they have never had dished out to them; they’ve been
institutionalized for many years of not receiving training.
Officer 6 commented: “We have younger people who don’t want too much dinosaur thinking or
mentality in the fire department, we have this new generational type of officers coming up, so, I
think they will be more open to it.”
If a company officer fails to act in ways for which their organization, or the law, can
construct acceptable accounts, and if that leads to varying degrees of censure of the officer
depending on the gravity of the offense and the norms of the organization (Tetlock, 1992), the
organization will see how favoritism will take hold and grow quickly within that culture. Officer
6 stated:
The service that I want to provide to the city or like my expectations of my men;
however, what would discourage me—how should I put this, the level of favoritism that
you see in the fire department currently, right now and in the past as well, somehow
officers have to be, you know, very conscientious and would be kind of sometimes

90
careful how they maneuver around certain guys because those guys have ties to the
chiefs.
This is wrong on many levels, predominantly the sociocultural aspect of this reality impacting
decision making, leaving a lot to be desired in terms of moral and ethical issues, and work
outputs.
The commonality of respondents remarking that senior members who have been in their
roles for long periods of time, or those eligible to retire, that would be disinterested and resistant
to such a program, was telling. Public managers frequently complain about their inability to
motivate their subordinates: “How can you motivate anyone in the public sector? Everyone is
protected by civil-service rules: we can’t fire anyone, we can’t reward anyone, how can they
expect us to get anything done?” (Behn, 1995, p. 318). Chief 2 thinks complacency and cultural
issues are part of why members would be resistant:
Complacency because we haven’t had one [an officer training program], again, a lot of
people are just caught, it’s a cultural thing, over the years we haven’t had one, to get
promoted you kind of, hopefully you got a captain who is willing to show you the
paperwork, and NFIRS, and the journal, but everybody’s not lucky to even have that, but
yeah, it’s a cultural thing and because some people just are complacent in their position.
Several other respondents supported the same idea: “It’s just laziness, it’s what it comes
down to, guys who get complacent, they’re happy doing minimal work.” (Officer 5)
Behazad (2020) posits that personnel dealing with ineffective management, shifts that
work long hours, and attrition in both manpower and equipment will consequently promote
cynicism. The communal nature of the firehouse work setting all but ensures this (Behazad,
2020) and firefighters about to be promoted track the same way:

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Unfortunately, some guys it’s just, it’s something extra that they must do, it’s another
chore, another task. It’s another thing that they don’t want to do, and they’re not going to
accept it, and changing that would be difficult—you must get the right people involved.
(Private 1)
While many respondents think that specific groups within the organization are hungry for
leadership and performance training, it is likely the change itself that is the most unsettling to the
group that would be disinterested or outright opposed. Private 2 stated “I’m sure that there would
be a lot of pushback, but I think that the results would really change the tune from a lot of
people.”
Personnel support is necessary for implementing organizational change and while limited
studies on change management have examined the association between employee cynicism and
organizational change, personnel will take a negative or cynical view of the change if they
believe the proposed change—in this case the officer development program, will be detrimental
to their interests (Behazad, 2020). To understand knowledge transfer in organizations, leaders
must move beyond how the individual applies knowledge from one context to another, to an
understanding of how larger collectives like fire companies, or battalions of multiple fire
companies, accomplish this (Argote et al., 2000). Argote et al. (2000) further explains that
knowledge transfer at levels of analysis higher than the individual (firefighter) generally involves
important social processes such as sharing, interpreting, and combining information, storing it so
that it persists in the face of individual turnover. This is exactly how the fire department operates
and is indicative of how important social processes come into play when knowledge is being
interpreted for sharing and transfer in what would be a decentralized fire company.

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Company officers are required to adaptively lead their personnel effectively through
friction encountered at emergencies, often having to choose between competing obligations
where a bias for action is at the heart of ethical behavior (Mundy, 1995). While operating as a
decentralized unit with the organization’s greater aims in mind, knowledge transfer (or lack
thereof) becomes paramount for a public safety organization to understand if they wish to be
successful. Senior leaders are liable to influence company training by establishing goals and
standards, and communicating the intent of organizational training, but should refrain from
dictating how training is accomplished (Schmitt, 1997).
Officer 3 explains a nuance of knowledge transfer when the organizational culture is
skewed:
If you see it in front of you, then you’re like, it becomes a question of are you too
arrogant to want to learn something different or learn a better way? So, that’s more of an
individual thing—you can tell them how to do something that’s better and they just won’t
out of spite because they think their way is the only way.
This is a critical aspect of a complex problem that exists for the American fire service: when
“paramilitary” firefighting organizations misunderstand leadership’s intentions. Fire department
administrations throughout the country must realize that unsupported knowledge transfer leads to
a normalization of deviance up and down the chain of command. Cascading in the wrong
direction, a misunderstanding of the organizational mission (or what would fall under
Bronfenbrenner’s [1979] chronosystem), thus enables multiple organizational sub-cultures that
may drastically alter from shift to shift (the macrosystem), battalion to battalion (the exosystem),
company to company (the mesosystem), and from individual to individual (the microsystem).

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Organizations that promote members who have not participated in a professional
development program into leadership roles, placing the human dimension at the center of it will
fail to properly educate personnel how to act in routine situations, leaving them to fail miserably
when confronted by novel situations. In this context, organizations should expect highly variable
performance among subordinate leaders while coordinating with other subordinate leaders.
Officer 4 asked:
Are they a hands-on learner? Are they a physical learner? Are they a fear intimidation
learner? Are they a repetitive learner? Each one of them was different, so, I had to look
within myself to find the best way to not only teach them, but the best way to reach them
to bring the best out of themselves to give them the confidence to do the job.
There is some good news, however. Many firefighters take their careers and the work
they do seriously enough to let their intrinsic motivation and curiosity guide them through
professional development on their own. Private 4 stated:
So, if you’re wholeheartedly seeking out knowledge and expertise in your professional
world, you’re going to become a natural, and seeking it out in your personal life as well.
You’re going to want to read off the job, you’re going to want to go to classes and
lectures outside of the job. Just because this is who you’re becoming on the job.
While not ideal, and often at their own expense, using their personal accrued time off to learn
and be away from their families, this sort of leader stands out among their peers, going above
and beyond, and thankfully, this translates to the fireground.

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Research Question 3 Results
Research Question 3 asked the following: Do fire officers believe/perceive that education
and learning centered around understanding motivation, empathy, vulnerability, and interpersonal
behaviors enhances human performance?
Theme 1
Respondents who continued professional development on their own were not only
familiar with these concepts, but leveraged them, believing familiarity with these concepts
helped them connect with others and enhanced their leadership ability.
Theme 2
Intrinsically motivated respondents showed better connection with peers and subordinates
as a result of continuing their own education. This implied that fire officers who opted to
participate only in training provided by the organization, became part of a cyclical problem that
created a vacuum effect on leadership development within the entire organization.
Theme 3
Respondents aware of these concepts agreed that strong leadership ensures that an
organization thrives, noting these concepts are supported by prior research from other fields and
would stand up in the American fire service as well.
Discussion for RQ3
Lazowski and Hulleman (2016) report that student motivation has declined considerably,
spanning grade levels from elementary to high school. While they quote a Gallup poll from 2014
that found eight of 10 respondents to be “learning with a positive emotional tone and persevering
in the face of challenges” (Lazowski & Hulleman, 2016, pp. 604-605), it was not having an
impact on their motivation. This is where an understanding of andragogy and pedagogy play a

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role in understanding how to develop course curricula for adult learners. While Lazowski and
Hulleman (2016) posit that student motivation has declined, research indicates that for adults,
learning is a natural, normal, organic part of living, and they do indeed wish to pursue learning
(Knowles, 1977).
Knowles (1977) emphasizes the importance of relevance in adult learning, believing that
adults are more motivated to learn when they see the immediate applicability of the knowledge
or skills in question in relation to their own lives or goals. As professional firefighters are adult
learners, those who develop and deliver course curricula should strive to make the learning
experience as relevant to firefighters’ needs, interests, and real-world situations as possible, to
help them see the value in what they are learning and increasing their engagement and
motivation.
Further, and important in terms of human performance, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1991),
the psychologist who established the concept of flow, describes flow as a state of optimal
engagement and enjoyment that is experienced when individuals are fully immersed in a
challenging activity (like learning or firefighting) that aligns with their skills. Csikszentmihalyi
(1991) explains that when a person (firefighter) overcomes a challenge, it inevitably leaves them
feeling more capable and more skilled, as their thoughts, intentions, feelings and all their senses
are focused on the same goal.
When organizational culture is dismissive or indifferent to professional development,
Knowles (1977) states that adult educators—or those that would likely be educating firefighters,
have a deep obligation to provide orientation or front-end experiences before they start engaging
in any substantive teaching on how to learn. Respondents in company officer roles who have
continued their professional development since graduating from Firefighter 1 all agreed their

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continued education played a role in how they adapted to their new position, enabled by
confidence stemming from their intrinsic motivation. Private 2 shared:
They might think it sucks to sit in officer development, or have to sit through mandatory
training, but I think it sucks worse to be on a scene and look like you don’t want to know
what you’re doing, not feeling confident in your decision making.
Private 2’s remarks are candid and echoed by most respondents. Officer 3 commented on
the idea of a mandatory course:
I think any kind of formal training that they offer is going to put you in a better position,
either administrative or tactical, especially with the young guys, it’s so important to these
young kids that come out of the academy to continue that training, continue that growth,
because any lapse in that is going to make them complacent.
When asked if they saw value in a formal procedure for developing firefighters into fire
officers Officer 2 replied:
Yes, I absolutely do, and this is my take on it, since I’ve been here for over 15 years now,
there’s never been an official thing to develop an officer from private to captain, to
battalion chief, there hasn’t been a set role, it’s just handed down word of mouth—let me
show you what worked best for me, but if there’s a standard, you can hold everyone to
that standard, this is the bare minimum you need to do.
Most firefighting organizations develop some level of strategic planning. However,
effective knowledge transfer is generally viewed as central to organizational success, yet
strategic management literature neither specifies nor tests any processes or underlying
framework through which knowledge transfer occurs in organizations (Argote et al., 2000), and
the CFD is no different. According to retired Deputy Chief James Smith (2017) of the

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Philadelphia Fire Department, experience is gained from previous responses. Officer 3 supports
this notion when stating:
This is where working at the rescue and working at a busy truck company for 5 years
comes in handy, because I tell my guys all the time that I wish I can teach you
experience, because there’s something to be said for experience as a way of really
guiding you, giving you a good foundation for what you’re doing.
Smith (2017) writes that in addition to knowledge gained by experience, the study of
textbooks, firefighting trade journals or magazines, and case studies are all good methods of
significantly enhancing knowledge. Successful fire departments have a strong core of company
officers that promote and remain strong at all ranks (Smith, 2017). This is the type of qualitative
support that drives the notion that education on social, cultural, and human factors topics coupled
with observational knowledge transfer is an ideal way to develop leaders. Officer 2 alludes to the
issue in Camden, as did other respondents: “Observation, I got to say I was never taught
directly, again, on my specific job, there’s no officer development, there’s nothing, there’s no
leadership, there’s nothing so all you can do in our job is observe.”
Private 4 discusses emotional intelligence with candor:
I had a captain one time who just laid into me, man, like horribly, and I was
contemplating how do I handle this, because I felt some kind of way instantly, I felt a
way—I’ve never been talked to like that by my father, and so, I contemplated, how do I
handle this as a man who has to come home to his wife and children? How can I allow
myself to be talked to this way from another man, so I thought on it and you know, the
best way is to sit down and talk to him face to face.
Officer 2 had psychology courses in college, and believes it has helped him lead:

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It teaches you how to deal with a person, you recognize their feelings and things like that,
once you got to know a person under your command, this person, you know, he does this
because he wants to be flashy, or this person does that because it’s all about family, once
you understand that, you know how a person will operate.
Summary
Firefighting is widely acknowledged to be the single most stressful non-military
profession in society because firefighters often contend with risk associated with structural
collapse, structure fires, electrocutions, hazardous materials, asphyxiation, burns, physical injury,
and medical emergencies (Metcalfe et al., 2019). Metcalfe et al. further states that there are
factors that compound this stress, including routinely working upwards of 10 24-hour shifts per
month, where sleeping on shift is frequently interrupted by emergencies. These compounding
factors also have a neglected sociocultural aspect, and if this is widely acknowledged, then
investing more resources into those who fulfill these public safety roles should be an easy
decision.
Leadership in the fire service is a social, human endeavor, yet the human behavior of
firefighters has been decontextualized. As a result, the social behaviors of fire service personnel
are generally understood among firefighters, but there is still a lack of legitimate understanding
of the various social and cultural situational contingencies that can impact the individual or
group, and therefore, the organization (Sweeney et al., 2011). The lack of organizational support
was coded for over 500 times among all respondents. Private 1’s statement, “I don’t think it was
learned, I don’t think it was taught,” was a common theme. Based on the understanding gained
from the respondents, it seems logical to think that waiting for organizationally provided training

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has been ineffective—an issue most importantly understood by members who have been
promoted into leadership roles.
If a key social construct of a firefighting organization is how the environment affects the
learning of the new firefighter or officer, which is typically done by observing the behavior of
coworkers and the supervisor (Korte, 2010), how does the situation change when no formal
education bridges gaps in observing, or direct instruction from the company officer alone. Given
that current company officers themselves were not provided formal training or education, the
traditional way of passing on knowledge has inadvertently led to wide variability of knowledge
transfer. Regardless of the state’s job description listing the instruction of company personnel as
a requirement for company officers, those officers are not mandated to hold an instructor 1 or 2
license. It is understandable then, that a 2-decade span of missing formal training leaves much to
be desired by an organization that relies on company officers to train themselves as well as their
subordinates.
This need for leadership education has only increased in importance, as the modest brickand-stone row houses of Camden that seemed to pop up overnight to house the swelling
immigrant workforce of days past routinely began to burn, the CFD has been challenged in
unprecedented ways (Baisden, 2006). It has become apparent that training for firefighters and
officers would have improved the effectiveness of the fire department, and reduced firefighter
injuries (Unites States, 1973). Therefore, professional development needs to be supported by the
organization from the beginning of one’s career until the end. A culture of learning is the key to
developing leadership for firefighting and fire prevention (United States, 1973). If better
education is a key factor, then it is in the best interest of the marginalized community the fire

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department serves. The next chapter will provide meaning by discussing potential solutions to
the previous themes that have been developed.

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Chapter Five: Recommendations
This research has led to several recommendations derived from synthesizing the literature
review, the qualitative interview data, the anecdotal lived experiences of the respondents
embedded in the roles considered, and the primary researchers’ career experience. Gaining from
or leveraging these insights will be left to the organization under study and the American fire
service at large to review and consider accordingly.
Recommendation 1: Develop a Leadership Development Course Curriculum Focused on
the Sociocultural Aspects of Human Performance As Well as Tactical and Administrative
Skillsets
A recommendation for this issue is to develop a specific leadership development program
curriculum for the CFD that includes best practices for a governing body, together with
department-specific education and learning relative to operations in and around Camden’s
terrain. Seeking information from outside the fire service introduces firefighters to research
paradigms and frameworks that explore understanding personal experiences (Rodgers, 2002).
This is truly an overlooked way to improve, referred to as “low constraint” (p. 6) by Leonardi
and Contractor (2018) who frame organizational personnel who are not tightly bound into a
small network of people as being the individuals in an organization that can generate ideas that
leadership would consider novel and useful.
RQ2, Theme 1, shows that respondents who often coded for continuing their education
(on their own), typically also coded for being self-taught and having intrinsic motivation as well.
This would indicate that these respondents considered education and learning the ideal way to
build confidence, understand their subordinates, and prepare themselves to navigate
uncertainty—all important traits for leading personnel into dangerous situations. Personnel who

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took matters into their own hands understood what Klein (1999) describes as a leverage point: a
starting point focused on building solutions. This is a helpful insightful for problem-solving that
plays an important role across various domains in which experience can identify leverage points
and construct new courses of action.
Fire service textbooks and trade magazines have offer many “tricks and tips” to help
shorten or combine tactical decision making for firefighters, yet very few fire service textbooks
explain the decision-making processes. Skilled problem-solving in firefighting is impressive
because the solutions seem obvious after the fact, yet most firefighters would miss the answer or
not know it was possible because they have not had the opportunity to compile extensive
experience or engaged in deliberate practices to enrich their existing experiences by reviewing
the experiences of others, thereby gaining new insights to learn lessons from mistakes (Klein,
1999).
RQ2, Theme 2, shows how the literature review and respondent interviews have
established that knowledge transfer is not a considered aspect of the promotional process,
regardless of the Fire Captain Job Description (SNJCSC, 2000) stating that a company officer’s
job is to provide periodic training programs. Therefore, establishing a process by which
personnel identified for promotion can be enrolled in a 2-week program to build capacity is
recommended. This simple but effective strategy is well-known to some organizations in the
American fire service, yet rarely utilized with regularity or formality in the CFD, where the
opportunity to make individual decisions is routine.
According to Klein (1993), a viable option to enhance decision-making is when
personnel experiencing patterns that highlight relevant cues provide the decision-maker with an
expected outcome, identifying plausible goals though suggestion. This idea could be built upon

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in a developmental program, where experienced chief and company officers can discuss patterns
they have experienced, like fires in cocklofts for example. Explaining what they have identified
as plausible mitigation goals, resources needed for extinguishment, and how to deploy them is
just one example. Ultimately, it is the idea that civil service promotional paradigms can lead
promoting personnel to think they are leading just by virtue of having an increase in rank. This
needs to be re-evaluated, as it leads promoting officers to think they’re ready, instead of them
understanding how little they actually know.
RQ2, Theme 3, suggests that research respondents preferred to connect with peers and
subordinates on a personal level, instead of just professionally, creating the sense that this led to
group or company flow and a better understanding of mission orientation, and therefore should
be part of a curriculum that educates leaders to be more human. While the American fire service
rank structure helps implement organizational rules, policies, and procedures that enable
administrative and tactical management of personnel at the scene of fires and emergencies
(Ward, 2015), a social identity approach to leadership would instead argue that rank structures
should understand how employees’ collective identity mediates the influence of leadership on
employees’ behaviors and attitudes toward their day-to-day jobs (Ling et al., 2018). For example,
when a company officer has a personal relationship with their subordinates, they have a greater
chance at operating at a high level in a complex environment utilizing traits like trust, and mutual
respect to perform, rather than the fear of formal discipline.
Subordinate commanders should be educated to foster a personal teacher-student
relationship with their subordinates, considering their professional development a principal
responsibility (Schmitt, 1997). Finding out exactly how this happens when there is no legitimate
instruction regarding respect for various types of differences among personnel, and questioning

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one’s assumptions, beliefs, and biases while also attempting to build partnerships with diverse
individuals and communities is imperative (Greene-Moton & Minkler, 2019), yet these specific
curricula do not exist for the fire service.
A CFD officer development program leveraging curricula including sociocultural
learning could (among other things) enhance after-action reviews—a simple but effective
strategy that is well-known in the American fire service, yet it is utilized in Camden with little if
any regularity. Officer 1 speaks to this formality when discussing the importance of seeking
information and knowledge:
It’s [information and knowledge] huge, you can’t get enough. … I’m sure we can get
around to it, and you just need to find it. I think everybody gets stale and it’s like, how do
you get better and what do we do next? So, if you can’t figure it out on your island and
you reach out to a peer or mentor, or dig into a book, and go, okay, cool, let’s move and
try this approach, and see where we go from here.
As previously mentioned by Ruiz (2019), after-action reviews are highly creative social
settings in which candid discussion can be challenging for personnel lacking the humility
necessary for learning. Ashforth and Schinoff (2016) gives an example of sociocultural impact in
this environment, writing that individuals (firefighters) in organizations have multiple identities,
ranging from social identities based on collectives (e.g., team, occupation, organization) and
categories (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age) to personal identities based on idiosyncratic
attributes that typify them as individuals (e.g., personality profile, memories, sense of humor). In
this example, leadership techniques such as enactive mastery, verbal persuasion, and vicarious
experience can increase a follower’s self-efficacy in organizational situations (Ling et al., 2018).

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An example of a book focused on sociocultural human performance that should be
included in the reading list for a developmental course curriculum is Mindset: The New
Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck (2016). It could prove helpful in fire service
organizations with dismissive or outright negative cultures about education. Being open to
learning new things or admitting to not knowing everything can be very humbling for firefighters
who are problem-solvers by trade, and it requires a whole new mindset. Dweck (2016) states that
in entering the world of growth-mindset leaders, everything changes for the better as an
organization brightens, expands, and becomes filled with energy and possibility. Moreover (and
this could apply with the after-action review), everyone is part of the learning process. The
members of a growth-mindset group are more likely to state their honest opinions and openly
express their dissent when communicating about administrative decisions (Dweck, 2016).
In an organization such as the CFD, there is ample opportunity for fire officers and
individual operators to make decisions. It is therefore organizationally negligent to not provide a
formal means, such as an after-action review, to do what Klein (1998) states is a viable option to
enhance learning and decision making. When discussing self-reflection Officer 1 stated,
I could have been better, we could have moved faster, we could do things differently …
or there’s times where I feel like you’re going so fast that you need to slow it down a
little bit. And then decide on critical decisions, where you’re not just jumping right into it.
So yeah, so self-evaluations are big after everything.
In an organization with no formal after-action policy, this is a powerful and overlooked take on
tactical operations that are routinely impeded by a lack of sociocultural understanding.
Scholars of self-categorization theory initially maintained that social and personal
identities were mutually exclusive in that when a social identity is salient, the personal identities

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are not; individuals were said to become depersonalized and thus interchangeable exemplars of
the social identity. However, subsequent research suggests that both identities may be
simultaneously salient (Turner, 1999); this has implications for a civil service promotional
paradigm that leads personnel to think they are improving when they have an increase in rank yet
are being promoted into roles where they need to understand how little they know. More
specifically to Cline’s (2020) point relative to social domains, the promotional paradigm
obscures the notion that knowing what wrong looks like is not as important as knowing what
right looks like (Cline, 2020).
Effective communication is crucial for firefighting operations, and while fire departments
invest in radio systems, dispatch centers, portable radios, computer-aided dispatch (CAD)
systems, and other communications infrastructure, they do not invest in the very human
communicators themselves. As an example, a past Camden fire chief alluded to how the fire
service evolves over time and that the tools and equipment members use, like their personal
protective ensemble or their portable radios, wear out faster than other pieces of equipment
(Curtis, 2023), yet there was no mention made about upgrading the communication skills of the
firefighters themselves, the humans leveraging the portable radios under stress.
Fire departments should be allocating funds for training materials like textbooks,
manuals, online training subscriptions, instructional videos, and software licenses. These
resources support ongoing professional development, self-study, and continuous learning for
firefighters who may need to also attend training programs, seminars, conferences, or workshops
at locations away from their home base and that further incurs expenses related to travel,
accommodation, meals, and transportation, all of which should be included in the professional
development budget (Thiel & Jennings, 2012).

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Recommendation 2: Work With State and Federal Government Legislators to Develop and
Fund a Grant Specific to Education and Learning for the American Fire Service
There are a variety of grants funded by local, state, and federal governments that support
the American fire service, yet none are specifically designed to provide educational
opportunities. When a municipal firefighting organization leverages preferential hiring practices,
the benefits are diminished if the organization fails to further support the needs of its personnel.
Municipal governments that struggle to provide their human capital (firefighters) with the tools
and equipment they need for success, as well as the education and learning they need in order to
be successful while operating in very complex environments, need grants that allow them to
solve these problems. Curiously, a search of the FEMA (2024b) AFG website for grants for the
City of Camden New Jersey Fire Department between 2015 and 2022 showed no grants.
RQ1, Theme 1, shows that firefighters and fire officers seeking promotion believe that
doing well on a promotional exam will somehow result in performing well in a leadership role. A
poor framework design for hiring and promotional procedures, combined with funding
restrictions, leaves little room for improvement of the situation. It is time to consider alternative
funding sources, as this research demonstrates that while leadership development is not
accounted for through the civil service promotional process of New Jersey firefighters, this issue
could be solved with grant funding.
Limited budgetary resources in Camden are an interesting circumstance, as economic
resources seem readily available for some aspects of government but not others. In an article
written by Linda Lindner (2022), there is no mention of transitional funding for the fire
department in Mayor Victor Carstarphens remarks, regardless of state and local leaders’
statement on the importance of public safety:

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This announcement signifies the largest transitional aid in Camden’s history, $24 million
in supplemental transitional aid will not only support Camden’s public safety efforts, but
it will also help to reduce illegal dumping, help to bolster ongoing improvements to our
water, sewer and infrastructure systems and will leverage millions more in federal, state,
county and local resources already being invested citywide. We are fully committed to
improving the quality of life for the children, youth, and families of Camden. (Lindner,
2022, para. 6)
There is no mention of any kind regarding funding the Camden Fire Department, or for the
professional development for firefighters or officers.
RQ1, Theme 2, shows that respondents spoke out repeatedly about mutual trust, and their
desire not to be micromanaged. This research makes it clear that existing promotional
procedures, by nature, breed micromanagement resulting from the fact that preemptive education
and learning on leadership principles and social constructs are not provided by their respective
organizations. The reason mutual trust is important for subordinate leaders engaged in tactical
operations is so they do not have to ask for permission and wait for an answer—this is a key
component to decision making. Schmitt (1997) and Norman (2015) agree that firefighting
decisions are often temporally constrained, yet we collectively continue to train and educate in a
way that fosters micromanagement, while neglecting the fact that we are all human, largely
because educating firefighters is expensive.
The primary goal of the AFG is to meet the firefighting and emergency response needs of
firefighting organizations and since 2001, AFG has helped firefighters and first responders obtain
critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources
necessary for protecting the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards

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(FEMA, 2024b). While the AFG can be used to support education and learning under the guise
of training, there is no specific mention on the FEMA website of education, learning, or
professional development. A more specific grant designed solely for fire departments like the
CFD that would benefit from no cost, no-match funding designed to help build capacity for
responders in socioeconomically challenged areas is long overdue.
According to RQ1, Theme 3, leadership skills are not accounted for in the promotional
process, and providing leadership training to company officers after they have promoted is an
ineffective, reactive exercise, for what is a very steep learning curve. Officer 7 describes a
common response to the need for professional development for company officers in his
comments about how the organization just stopped formally preparing firefighters for
promotion:
You know we deviated from that, just, you know, they got to do their own thing now, they
got away from it, you know, if they had that in place, you know like they did years and
years ago, and they just followed that path, it only makes that officer a lot greater and I
think overall, any department would benefit from an officer development program, that’s
just my belief, it makes that officer a better decision maker, better communicator, better
report writer, and I think it should definitely be a requirement to have before you’re even
able to sit in that in front right seat.
A strategy here would be a grant program specific to education and learning designed in
tiers: one for senior firefighters, one for firefighters seeking promotion, one for existing officers,
one for battalions or tactical decision-making command and control, and lastly, for deputies or
administrative chiefs. For example, in Camden there has been so little developmental
opportunities for such a long time that the current administrators have not been provided much

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opportunity or insight into how to run the organization. “There’s no classes for the most part,
there’s no betterment, no education, no leadership training, there’s nothing” (Chief 1, 2023). The
current process relies on members who are promoted by meeting minimum standards and are
only provided with education in two ways: they either acquire it on their own, or by knowledge
transfer, which is subjective and flawed. The implication here is that if you are someone who
self-selects to get an education about leadership for example, you are already more open to
learning new things, and if you are not, that is telling also.
Reviewing the FEMA grants website, four overarching grant programs are relevant to the
American fire service: Preparedness grants, Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants, Resilience
grants, and the Continuing Training Grants Program, all with several grants nested under each
one. For example, there are upwards of 13 grants listed under the Preparedness grants, none of
which are specific to education and learning, or professional development. Collectively, these
grants are leveraged to provide non-disaster funding to support developing, maintaining, and
revising voluntary national-level standards and peer-review assessment processes for emergency
management, and for using these standards and processes to assess state, local, tribal, and
territorial emergency management programs and professionals (FEMA, 2024b). They also fund
critically needed resources to equip and train emergency personnel, enhance efficiency, and
support community resilience (FEMA, 2024b).
The Urban Area Security Initiative grant can be used as an example of how competitive
grants would not be the appropriate direction for a new education and learning grant. This is a
grant fund that a fire department like Camden could certainly leverage: it provides funding that
addresses the unique multi-discipline planning, operations, equipment, training, and exercise
needs of the high-density urban area. It assists in building and sustaining capabilities related to a

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fire department’s ability to build prevention, protection, mitigation, and response capacity (New
Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Prevention, 2017). But education, however, is not
considered in the grant except for “training,” and unfortunately, politics play a major role in how
a given region under the Urban Area Security Initiative receives funding (Kasdin & Lin, 2015).
Building and developing good, solid leadership is a challenge to many fire service
organizations. Today’s modern fire service leaders are expected to manage an operating budget
comparable to those of large corporations (DiPietro, 2018). A grant program specific to education
and learning is necessary and could be designed in tiers to enhance several organizational
aspects. One example of this would be one for senior firefighters, one for firefighters seeking
promotion, one for existing officers, one for battalions or tactical decision-making command and
control, and lastly, one for deputies or administrative chiefs. In Camden, the last organizational
leadership or officer development training program took place in the mid-1990s so there is a 25-
or 30-year gap—enough time for the leadership of any career fire department to have new topranking officials at the back end of their careers with no legitimate formalized development
training, other than studying for promotional examinations.
When streams of problems, politics, and policy come together at the same time, a
window of opportunity occurs that places issues onto the agenda that might result in significant
movement, or non-incremental change (Rohan, 2023). Clear ideas about what the department
plans to do with the grant and why, as well as an organized approach to capturing, documenting,
and disseminating program results, would enhance the case for a specific grant investment that
could be used specifically for an officer development program (Phillips, 2004). The current
process in which members who are promoted up the ranks are tested competitively by
examinations using minimum standards as a form of professional development can, in this case,

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be solved by a grant program that puts an end to personnel only being provided with education
acquired on their own, outside the organization, and at their expense.
Recommendation 3: Implement a Mandatory Professional Fire Service Continuing
Education Unit Matrix Developed for Licensed Firefighters and Fire Officers in New
Jersey
RQ3, Theme 1, identified that respondents who continued professional development on
their own were not only familiar with the concepts necessary for sociocultural learning, but
leveraged them to their benefit, believing familiarity with these concepts helped them connect
with their subordinates and enhanced their leadership ability. Based on this idea,
recommendation three introduces a mandatory CEU system for Firefighter 1 and 2 licenses.
Armstrong (2004) points out that there is little value for individuals, or the organization itself, if
training and education end with mastery of basic firefighting skills. Upon implantation of a
mandatory continuing education track, the fire service will align with the requirements in other
professional fields, such as the medical field, in New Jersey, where professional development
that includes cultural competency is required to maintain licensure among physicians as well as
others.
Based on the results from RQ3, Theme 2, the finding that intrinsically motivated
respondents showed better connection to their peers and subordinates, implied that officers who
opted to wait for developmental opportunities provided by the organization were inadvertently
made party to a cyclical problem that created a vacuum effect on the leadership development of
the entire organization. It is therefore worth emphasizing that a lack of mandatory continuing
education is hurting the American fire service in Camden, New Jersey.

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RQ3, Theme 3 showed that respondents agreed that strong leadership ensures an
organization thrives. These concepts are confirmed by Armstrong (2004) and Cooper et al.
(2023) based on research that would be supported in the American fire service as well.
Armstrong (2004) believes that overly strict prescriptive task performance narrows the effective
range of firefighters over the long term, instead of broadening the firefighter’s effectiveness
through education and development. This idea is further supported by recent work from Cooper
et al. (2023) indicating repeated exposure to training on expert tasks results in a learning effect
that is associated with familiarity with just that task, instead of showing improvement in the
skilled human performance central to that task.
Limitations and Delimitations
The biggest limiting factor in this research is that were no female respondents. The CFD
at the time of this writing had six female firefighters. Of those six, only two fit the criteria, and
only one considered interviewing. At that time, a time was suggested but it was not practical for
the researcher, and the opportunity to have more data inclusive of female representation was lost.
Sample size was also a limiting factor: more respondents may have produced helpful qualitative
data.
Another important limiting factor of this research is that there was no quantitative data
further supporting the anecdotal aspect of the qualitative research interviews. While a
respondent’s lived experience is better extrapolated in a qualitative setting, there is no substitute
for quantifiable information—this would have enhanced the work. A well-designed survey of
respondents across the entire organization would have produced a data set that would further
inform this work.

114
The delimitations of this work center around the research questions lacking specificity
regarding human factors, or deliberately seeking respondent understanding of human
performance at fires or emergencies. Questions regarding social circumstances with peers,
subordinates, and superiors did well in a qualitative discussion but could have better ascertained
the respondents’sociocultural circumstances and settings prior to their appointment to the CFD.
Recommendations for Future Research
In their work, Hayes and Reinders (2020) discuss critical learnership, an emerging
perspective that challenges existing ways of thinking, doing, and being, while promoting crucial
human attributes such as agency, autonomy, and responsibility. These critical learnership traits
align with the respondents who all spoke highly of them and of similar attributes. Because
critical learnership supports interpersonal social factors like effective communication, group
cohesion, and trust that influence the learning of individuals (firefighters) and groups (fire
companies), and aligns with Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory, it deserves
further study as a model for American fire service learning (Boudreaux, 2020; Hayes &
Reinders, 2020).
McCann and O’Connell (2022) define experiential learning as a process of making
meaning from or grasping and transforming experience, or learning that occurs not from the
doing, but in the reflection on that experience. This definition explains succinctly how
experiential learning is the knowledge transfer that a leadership development course curricula
needs, and also applies to after-action reviews by highlighting the fact that they have an
important, positive impact on learning and knowledge transfer for professional firefighters.
Tracy and Tretheway (2005) believes that the prevailing understanding of the self
(firefighter) is constructed through rank-oriented discourses of organizational processes, and that

115
organizational discourses not only construct identities, but also fundamentally articulates an
“ideal” core self. “Discourses of power articulate an idealized subject position and, in
organizational contexts, that position reflects the interests of the organization more than the
interests of the individual” (Tracy & Tretheway, 2005, p. 176). A better understanding of the self
is therefore necessary for leadership curricula in the American fire service and should be further
researched.
Pappas (2021) writes that when people report more intrinsic motivation (like the way that
many of the research respondents in this work coded), creativity simultaneously rises, as do other
desirables like productivity, collegiality, and commitment to work. Pappas (2021) also states that
the most powerful precursor to this intrinsic motivation is the feeling of making progress at
meaningful work. I can think of no other more meaningful work than being a Camden firefighter,
and I have realized that sociocultural and human factors education and learning should be
considered closely tied together and further promoted until it becomes a permanent aspect of
American fire service curricula.
Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to gain a full and deep understanding of the existing lack
of professional development for fire company officers in the City of Camden New Jersey Fire
Department, and organizations facing similar situations. After examining the past and present
socioeconomic situation and procedural hiring and promotion practices of the fire service in the
CFD, the culture of its membership, and the geographically specific school system that the New
Jersey Civil Service utilizes in hiring Camden firefighters, coupled with the qualitative research
interviews that informed Chapter Four and the primary researchers’ experience within the

116
organization, it is my belief that the aforementioned recommendations are supported by this
research and would positively impact the CFD and the marginalized community it serves.

117
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Appendix A: Qualitative Protocol
My name is Gabriel Angemi, I am a career Fire Captain for the Camden New Jersey Fire
Department. I am a 24-year, second-generation veteran firefighter and a current student at the
University of Southern California (USC) where I am working towards an educational doctorate
at the Rossier School of Education. In person or Zoom interviews should last roughly an hour in
length, and I would like to record this interview to best capture qualitative data from our time
together. The questions will seek information about yourself, your particular social experiences
and insight, about professional development within your organization, and how you have
developed yourself personally, or with help from your organization. The questions are centered
around what training or education you think has helped you become a successful, what your
individual social circumstances were both growing up and in your current role, and what you
believe could be sound criteria for developing new leaders. If this is acceptable to you, and we
have a mutual understanding of what my work is attempting to codify, and you are comfortable
enough to proceed with me, I would like to begin our time together with whatever questions you
may have for me to further clarify my purpose, or what I am looking to achieve with our
discussion.
Demographic and Contextual Questions
1. How old are you?
2. What is your gender?
3. What is your racial makeup?
4. What is your current role within the organization?
5. How long have you been in this role?
6. How many people do you supervise (if any)?

139
7. Can you explain your organizations mission?
8. What is your highest level of education?
Interview Questions
1. Do you enjoy learning new things, either in a classroom setting or on your own?
2. Do you prefer to really get to know your peers and become close friends, or prefer
that everyone is a professional relationship?
3. Are you curious, do you ask yourself questions often and explore topics that interest
you?
4. How do you coach people to do their best work and develop their talents?
5. Do you think bringing people up to a standard is best done by inspiring them to rise
and hit their potential, or do you think structured discipline and fear/intimidation have
their roles?
6. How do you like to receive a superior’s feedback, and prefer to give subordinates
feedback?
7. How important is seeking out information and knowledge and does self-reflection
help you understanding thought processes?
8. How do you respond to and understand yourself regarding tempo or pace, are you a
fast-paced thinker or action oriented?
9. Do you respect people who get things done, and provide them with the room they
need to perform, or do you prefer to control subordinates work closely so you know
it’s getting done properly?
10. Do you follow superiors’ orders directly every time or do you inject or try to
communicate your ideas to commanders if the situation permits?

140
11. Are you more productive under close supervision or prefer to be analyzed and
controlled by superiors when given a task or assignment?
12. Are you aware of regulating your feelings or conscientious of recognizing when
subordinates or superiors are regulating theirs?
13. What is the best way to convince you of something when you think you have a firm
understanding of a given topic?
14. What are some things that subordinate, and superiors might misunderstand about you
that you would clarify?
15. Do you explain what might irritate you or your non-negotiables to your superiors or
subordinates?
16. In your opinion, do you see value in a formal procedure for developing firefighters
into company officers, can you explain why?
17. How do you think a professional development program designed to build capacity in
company officers in an organization that does not have one would be received? If
there was a negative organizational connotation, in your opinion, what do you think
could be the potential reason for that attitude?
18. Should an officer development program be a mandatory curriculum driven by a
standard, from agencies like the NFPA or NFA?
19. Could you offer any other insight towards the need for officer development programs
or professional development in your organization or the American fire service at
large? Can you talk about what you think curriculum of a program should include?
20. What challenges and/or barriers have your felt impacted your ability to be the best
version of yourself as a Firefighter or Company Officer?

141
Closing
In closing, I wanted to personally thank you very much for giving me some of your time
and energy. It is not lost on me that you took some time out of your schedule to participate in my
research, I do appreciate it. I hope you will not mind me reaching out for further clarity or follow
up questions.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Firefighters perform temporally constrained lifesaving work, yet professional development for much of the American fire service is primarily focused on hands-on tactical training performed in a field setting. While tradition and tactics cannot to be overlooked, there may be diminishing returns in repeatedly teaching manual labor skillsets to those firefighters being promoted into leadership positions. Public sector professionals are increasingly presented with circumstances that warrant formal understanding of new technologies, social constructs, and human performance under stress. This work frames sociocultural human performance through the lens of a career urban fire department that is unable to provide professional development to its diverse human capital, resulting from decades of complex societal issues. By examining the state-sanctioned prerequisite promotional standards and the absence of an organizational formal doctrine that further complicates these circumstances, this work highlights a major American fire service problem: an organizational inability to provide meaningful education and learning to its personnel, and how this adversely impacts the marginalized communities they serve. This qualitative research identifies how firefighting organizations that misunderstand knowledge transfer are fostering apathetic, complacent cultures that need realignment with core values and mission orientation. Combining hands-on blue collar knowledge transfer with robust white-collar professional development allows firefighters to learn from one another, and about themselves, solidifying a pivot for the American fire service to a tactical, yet educated, grey-collar profession.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Angemi, Gabriel (author)

Core Title Sociocultural human performance: education and learning for promotion in the American fire service

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2024-08

Publication Date 08/14/2024

Defense Date 05/06/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Affirmative Action,American fire service,Bandura,battalion chief,blue collar,Bronfenbrenner,captain,chief officer,City of Camden,Civil service,company officer development,culture,Education,Equal Opportunity Employer,fire chief,fire company officer,Fire Department,fire officer,firefighter,firefighting,grey collar,group flow,Human Factors,Human Performance,knowledge transfer,leadership,leadership development,learning,Lieutenant,marginalized communities,New Jersey,OAI-PMH Harvest,organizational change and leadership,organizational culture,preferential hiring,process over outcome,professional development,psychophysiological,public sector,qualitative study,sociocultural,teams,urban fire department,urban firefighting,white collar,white flight

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Lynch, Douglas E. (committee chair), Havis, Leanna R. (committee member), Hyde, Corinne E. (committee member), Roussell, James (committee member)

Creator Email ange261@hotmail.com,angemi@usc.edu

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