Los Angeles Fire Department Case Study

Case Analysis: LAFD

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is still plagued with a culture of hazing, even though hazing was officially prohibited in the 1940’s; as the department became more diverse the pattern of hazing became stronger towards minorities and women. LAFD officials tried to change such culture by increasing diversity and trying specially to recruit more women, but their approach to recruiting and retaining more diverse recruits was also troubling and later led to ethically wrong decisions that created even more problems and even increased hazing.
Analysis
The LAFD has been historically made of white male firefighters. As the department integrated in 1955, Blacks and later on, Latinos and Asians became discriminated
Chief Bamattre, whose tenure starting in 1996 was focus in recruiting women and minorities instituted a no-fail policy for these groups. He personally overrode over 50% of recommendations from instructors to fail underperforming recruits because they were women or minorities. This is troubling because it caused adverse actions to such recruits became hazed and subjected to grueling workouts in order to prove to their peers that they could handle the job because they were seen as not worthy or incapable of the challenges that firefighters may face. As City Controller Laura Chick while investigating allegations of such abuses at LAFD stated: “Weak leadership and a broken disciplinary system encouraged harassment and hazing,” this lack of leadership by LAFD officials was an ethical dilemma in itself. These actions answered positively to three of the questions that show a company has an ethical dilemma according David W. Gill in his book It’s About Excellence: Building Ethically Healthy Organizations. The questions are: Does it violate a law or regulation? Would there be a controversy, scandal or uproar if it was made public? And could someone be seriously, irresponsibly harmed?(Gill, 76.) The first and second questions are interrelated since preferential treatment to a specific group of recruits would violate
In this case the leadership needed was that described by Gil. “Leadership is not just about individuals in top positions of power, it is about creating systems, policies, processes and the components of n ethically healthy company” (Gill, 168.) hence the leaders at LAFD had to create systems and policies that would stop this culture of bravado that was underlying hazing and grueling physical tests that would put recruits in danger. Furthermore they needed to add accountability to these policies. Just stating that hazing is prohibited was not enough. Every member of the LAFD staff needs to be made aware of the negative consequences of this behavior and just lowering the bar for needed minorities and females was not the answer. Instead they may focus on their recruiting and implement more programs like the one Capitan Mathis had in Harbor College, where female and minority recruits were prepared in a more thorough way under better conditions of equality. Another way to help solve the recruitment issue is to rethink the training and the working conditions in more efficient ways such that it doesn’t revolve around strength but around technique. A culture of bravado and physical strength can then be replaced by a culture of ingenuity and respect in which a more diverse workforce would make LAFD not just a better place to work, but a champion of ethics and good