In a line organisation each employee has only one manager. The pur-
pose of this is to obtain the clearest possible order channels, i.e. a
channel via which a certain type of information is conveyed. This
form of organization, however, requires that the diff erent mana-
gers are willing to cooperate (Bruzelius et al. 2000).
In a line-staff organisation the overall specialist role of staff is
emphasised, partly as a provider of information on which, in our
situation, the Chief Officer can base decisions and partly as a pro-
vider of expertise generally within the department. It is easy, in
this role, to find oneself in an unproductive position between su-
perior interests, the departments to be supported and one’s own
expert knowledge.
The creation of an organisation, also provides the practical con-
ditions for placing decision domains in a context. Put more simply,
the organisation is the tool we use to allocate authority between the
various individuals involved in turnout operations. And it is also in
this context that we can talk of shared decisionmaking.
Command capacity
Command capacity concerns the system’s capacity to handle itself
in relation to its working environment. It is important to remem-
ber that the system is managed by people, who also manage the
various decision domains, and that there is a limit to how many
problem or issues an individual can cope with at any one time.
This places demands on how emergencyresponse operations are
organised. Within organisation theory, the concept of the breadth
of an organisation in relation to its depth is related to, and usu-
ally referred to as span-of-control (Johansson, 2000). It is, however,
not so easy to establish on a permanent basis a configuration for
an organisation. It must be possible to adjust the spanofcontrol
to suit the situation. In principle one can say that the higher the
demand placed on interplay or need for control between superior
and subordinate levels, the greater the need to reduce the spanof
control (i.e. reduce the number subordinates per superior). That
is to say that the more independently subordinates can work,
with out the need for continual supervision and interplay with the
commander, the greater the opportunity for increasing the span
ofcontrol. In favourable conditions one refers to a maximum
spanofcontrol of between 7 and 9.