Tactics, command, leadership

As a commander one should continually ask oneself if one is co-

ping with the decision domain and the situation and if the orga-

nisation is adapted to suit the need, demands and expectations

that are set. If a higher commander in a difficult situation adapts

the organisation to suit his or her needs for a manage able span­

of­control, there is a risk of subordinate commanders being left

with spans­of­control that are too big. Adjustment to managea-

ble spans­of­control must be applied to the whole organisation.

In order for leadership to be effective the command system must

match the situation. So, the greater the number of potential oc-

currences in the situation, the greater the degree of variation the

command system must be able to handle.

The capacity to manage the situation can never be better

than the perception of the situation. By continually gaining

information on events the ground is created for being able to

act and adapt the command capacity to match the problems to

be solved and the measures to be taken. In the types of chang-

ing situations that incidents and accidents imply, the organisa-

tion must continually adapt to suit the situation. It is important

that the adaptation is arranged from the bottom up, i.e. that

the structure is reconfigured from the ground upwards. A com-

mander should not reduce his or her span­of­control by passing

tasks downwards in the organisation. This is not the same as

delegating tasks. Delegation passes down through the orga-

nisation, but reduction in spans­of­control must be done by

restructuring upwards.

Here we can refer to the need for interaction. By this we mean

the need to, for example, exchange information and divide tasks

between two levels. Generally a reduced need for interaction bet-

ween two levels of command improves conditions for increasing

span­of­control without harming the effectiveness of the orga-

nisation. The best ways of reducing the need for interaction are

(Swedish Rescue Services Agency, 1998a):

Span-of-control. From
Räddningsverket
(1998a).