ciently professional in conducting their profession that ‘bad days’
do not negatively affect work, especially work in conjunction with
response operations since third parties are directly dependent on
how work is performed at the incident site.
Rescue service personnel and perhaps not the least, those in
leadership positions, must therefore be attentive to how private
relationships affect professional roles. A relatively high degree of
professionalism is required by the individuals in a municipal struc-
ture for providing rescue services. At least temporarily, one should
be able to disregard any problems and difficulties in the group’s
internal collaborative forms for the benefit for those in need of as-
sistance. At the same time, one must ensure that work during a
response operation does not make collaboration more difficult.
Group norms
According to Heap (1987), all groups establish their own group
norms, consciously or unconsciously. Group norms deal with at-
titudes, values and behaviour that is recognised and accepted by
the group. The interaction between the group’s members sup-
ports and rewards conformity with the group’s norms. Deviations
from group norms are criticised and controlled in different ways.
According to Granér (1991), group norms are based on, among
other things, the informal rules that are established in the group,
i.e. a set of spoken and unspoken rules of behaviour, thoughts and
feelings that are developed or nurtured within a group and that
control the group’s way of functioning. The norm system descri-
bes behaviour and attitudes that are needed in the group in order
to satisfy the purpose of the group. There is usually some form of
sanction system if one does not comply with the group’s purpose,
and there are various strengths of the sanctions depending on
how strong the group’s purpose is. The stronger the purpose, the
more important it is that the members comply with the group’s
norms. The norms can be more or less expressed and the norm
system exists on both a conscious and unconscious plane.
Behaviour in given situations can, according to Sjöland (1979)
be considered as normative regulated via group norms when it co-
mes to the development of rules, standard requirements and rou-
tines. In informal groups, the norms are usually unwritten, not
explicitly formulated. Sjöland points out that the group’s norms
are forced upon its members to higher or lower degrees. After a
time, the group norms are incorporated so that they become a