The Influence of Team Member Resources and Structure on Initial Emergency Response Performance of Fire Fighters in Malaysia

This study examines the determinants of initial emergency response performance among emergency response teams. Specifically, the present study examines the direct relationship between team member resources and team structure variables and initial emergency response performance among 126 firefighting teams employed by the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (FRDM). This study also explored the role of cohesiveness as a moderator on the relationship between team structure variables and initial emergency response performance. Self-reported measures of team member resources, team structure, and cohesiveness were obtained from team members, while the initial emergency response performance was derived from the official record on emergency occurrence logged by each fire station. A number of different analyses were performed to analyze the data collected. Firstly, factor analysis revealed that personality variables loaded into two dimensions, labeled as emotional stability and extraversion, while leadership, roles, norms, and cohesiveness loaded into single dimensions respectively, and were labeled as leadership, roles, norms, and
cohesiveness. Multiple regression and hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test the study hypotheses. In detecting interaction effects, significant beta coefficients and post hoc probing by split sample analysis ascertained the acceptance of interaction effects were used. The results provided general support for the hypotheses of the study, although there were some differences on the direction of relationships. Specifically, extraversion, age diversity, and leadership were significantly and positively related to initial
emergency response performance, while weight, cardiovascular endurance, tenure diversity, and norms were significantly and negatively related to initial emergency response performance. Additionally, the results of hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that cohesiveness interacted with age diversity and tenure diversity in predicting the initial emergency response
performance. The relationship between team member resources and team structure variables and initial emergency response performance suggests that it would be beneficial to the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (FRDM) to manage team dynamics as a measure to improve initial emergency response performance. Contributions, limitations, and
implications are discussed.