Volunteer public safety organizations are facing many crises that have resulted in the unique application of technology in order to overcome these burdens. The research of Adam Miller (2015) illustrates how volunteer public safety organizations will face substantial challenges in the near future. This research highlights that these problems are a result of the “growing shortage of new volunteers,” “insufficient tools and resources to effectively recruit and retain volunteers,” and “[t]he cost to operate a volunteer emergency service organization has increased over time” (p. 8).
In order to combat these issues the use of social media by volunteer organizations and its members has increased. This has been both a blessing and a curse to the public administrators, the chiefs, directors, commissioners, etc., of these public safety organizations. While social media can extend the reach of the organization into the community and beyond, there is also a slippery slope as to what is appropriate or not to be posted.
This paper will explore the problems with social media use, and analyze its implications, opportunities, and challenges for the ethical leadership of public administrators. Furthermore, this paper will evaluate methods to address these implications and challenges. In closing, it is the intent of this paper to assist the leaders of the volunteer public safety organization with a path to address the problems evaluated and future, yet unknown challenges.
Social Media Benefits
Social media is a no, or low, cost medium that permits the volunteer organization to recruit younger generations that may be inaccessible otherwise. The Pew Research Center (2014) has found that as of January 1, 2014, 89% of 18 to 29-year-olds are active users of social media. Furthermore, Jessica Walrack (2015) found this age bracket usage of social media to be “increasing across the board.” Moreover, social media can be used to inform the community at large (the 30 and over age bracket) of events, fundraising, and further use as a tool to increase the volunteer organizations’ exposure within their community. The Pew Research Centers (2014) data has indicated that 82% of 30 to 49-year-olds, 65% of 50 to 64-year-olds, and 49% of 65 and over are using social media regularly. The research found that 74% of all age ranges combined use at least one social media (Pew Research Center, 2014). The data expresses a steady increase that does not appear will stop in the near future.
The use of social media can assist these volunteer public safety organizations overcome some of the challenges they are experiencing, or will be facing, as the research of Mr. Miller (2015) points out. Unfortunately, there is a negative side to this tool. The next section will illustrate the negative consequences of social media use.
The Perils of Social Media
Advances in technology have equipped the general citizen with a portable camera that can access the internet in one carefully packaged mobile device, the smartphone. This easy access to take pictures and post on social media has created ethical challenges for the leaders of volunteer public safety organizations.
Listed below are a few examples of how social media activity can negatively affect the volunteer public safety organization and personnel.
- “A paramedic responded to a rape and treated the victim. Three weeks later, he allegedly wrote about the incident on MySpace and gave some pretty specific details that allowed news media to identify the victim. That wasn’t the end of it. The media went to the victim’s home and knocked on her door. She wasn’t pleased and sued both the paramedic and the department” (Bischoff, 2011).
- “Another paramedic was dispatched to the scene of a murder. At the scene, the paramedic allegedly took a photo that he posted to Facebook about six weeks later. Again, the media got wind of this and interviewed the victim’s parents, who were quite distraught. The paramedic was fired, lost his EMT license and eventually pleaded guilty to official misconduct charges, though he avoided jail time” (Bischoff, 2011).
- “At the scene of a car accident that took the life of a young mother of two children, a paramedic allegedly used his cell-phone camera to capture about 30 seconds of video of the victim. The footage contained some close-up, graphic images of the head trauma suffered by the victim, who had lost control of her car and crashed into some trees. The family sued” (Bischoff, 2011).
To combat similar scenarios from occurring, many organizations are developing Standard Operating Procedures or Guidelines to instruct personnel for compliance. The Hempfield Township (Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania) Bureau of Fire (2014) has developed a policy, titled Cell Phone, Camera, and Electronic Communications, for the purpose to “manage social media while ensuring the safety and privacy of responders, patients, and the public we serve.” Some noted provisions are:
- “All incident scene photos/videos shall be for clinical, documentation, or training purposes only…;
- All photos/videos containing individually identifiable patient information are covered by HIPAA privacy laws and must be protected…;
- No images taken by a member in the course and scope of their duties may be used, printed, copied, scanned, e-mailed, posted, shared, reproduced, or distributed in any manner…; and
- The use of personal helmet video cameras is prohibited” (Hempfield Township Bureau of Fire, 2014).
An example where the government had to curtail social media use is illustrated in legislation passed in the State of New Jersey in 2012. First responders are “banned from taking and sharing photos or videos of accident victims without their consent” (Friedman, 2012). This is in response to a 2009 incident where pictures taken by a volunteer were posted to Facebook before the family was notified of their family member’s death. In the article written by Matt Friedman (2012), a joint statement by the law’s sponsors stated that “the intent is to prevent the type of shockingly irresponsible behavior and unforgivable lack of sensitivity that occurred in connection with the tragic incident … from happening again.”
Given these examples of how the use of social media can negatively affect a volunteer public safety organization, this paper will provide an evaluation of how ethics training and an evolved view of leadership may lessen the occurrence of similar episodes in the future. These efforts should make the job of the public administrator easier by creating more efficient decision-making personnel, thus guarding the reputation of the organization and its personnel.
Ethics and Leadership
Ethics are paramount to the success of any public sector organization. “The public official who ignores ethics is almost certain to create or contribute to problems” (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011, p. 44). Furthermore, “[l]eadership and ethics … are inseparable” (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011, p. 260). Marcy, Gentry, and McKinnon (2008) showed that the wave of scandals in the early 2000s have created a loss of confidence in leadership by the American public. This is mainly due to ethics not being presented to the leadership and its personnel in formal training.
Moreover, leadership styles of the past decades and century are not applicable today due to advances in technology and the emergence of the knowledge worker (Goldsmith, Greenberg, Robertson, & Hu-Chen, 2003; Hopen, 2010; Kellis & Ran, 2013). Ray Wiliam (2013) noted that our current economic and political failures illustrate the failure of non-collaborative leadership. These new shifts and changes in leadership practices will be the most difficult for leaders to accept (Hopen, 2010, p. 8-9). “As collaboration becomes more critical in our shaky economic, social, and environmental world, having leaders who have a collaborative style of leading, becomes imperative” (Williams, 2013). “Most high-potential future leaders [will] see the value of these new competencies (Goldsmith et al., 2003, p. 4).
Ethics
Even though ethics and morals are intertwined, there are differences between the two. A common viewpoint is that morals are learned and developed from the individual’s environment and impacted by the culture and the society they live in. “Moral and ethical values are culturally based in many contexts” (Green, 2011). An action or decision may be acceptable to one culture, yet frowned upon by another. Public safety norms, when compared to the general civilian norms, can be strangely different. Most notable is the use of dark humor.
These “ethical dilemmas consist of conflicts between right and right, while moral dilemmas consist of conflicts between right and wrong” (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011, p. 146). Ethics training benefits the public administrator and their personnel to choose the best option, basically which option is more right. This is vitally important because as Eagan (2007), noted, “[t]he vast majority of good people, can do very bad things if placed in the right situation involving authority, power, and unequal social roles” (p. 92). An ethical individual in the public sector values the needs of others before their own personal needs or wants (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011).
Without ethics, an organization has no public value or integrity. “Integrity is a basic ethical value based on individual responsibility to act on appropriate values and beliefs” (Feldheim & Wang, 2003, p. 66). The work of Bowman & Knox (2008) argues that the development of strong ethics is a prerequisite for making good policy. Data from their research and noteworthy incidents of bad ethical decision-making in the news has “increased ethical concern and sophistication on the part of public administrators” (p. 628).
The research of Streib and Rivera (2009) shows that when faced with ethical dilemmas, managers with more experience score higher on integrity items proving a correlation between ethical knowledge and experience. With the lack of ethical training for personnel, much of this experience is from personal failures and the lessons learned, also known as on-the-job training. Therefore, ethics training for all members of the organization will only strengthen the organization. There are two key approaches that should be employed together. First, the development of a code of ethics and secondly, continuous training on ethics and ethical dilemmas.
Highlighting the importance of codes of ethics, Geuras and Garofalo (2011) quoted the work of Bowman and Williams, who “acknowledge the ambiguities and complexities of public service, and ‘offer interpretative frameworks to clarify decision-making dilemma’” (p. 12). Bowman and Williams further offered that “codes of ethics demand more than simple compliance; they mandate the exercise of judgment and acceptance of responsibility for decisions rendered” (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011, p. 108).
Geuras and Garofalo (2011) identified that with a code of ethics, ethics training must also be implemented by the public sector because there are “expectations of trust, responsibility, and accountability” (p. 110). Without ethics training, public administrators and their personnel will be placed in flawed positions while being expected to perform critical duties without the proper tool or training when ethical dilemmas present themselves (Geuras & Garofalo, 2011).
Leadership
Leadership style “describes the behavior of the leader by task, relationship, and change orientation” (Anderson, 2010, p 132). The autocratic leadership style of the past where the leader was coercive and relied on managerial authority does not fit in the society and culture of the 21st century (Hopen, 2010, p. 5). Kellis and Ran (2013) argue that the leadership styles of the past are not adequate for the increased bureaucracy of government today. Globalization is increasing at a high rate due to technological advances. The result of globalization has led to demographic changes that are leading to a more diverse workforce (Hopen, 2010).
Public safety organizations are considered paramilitary in structure and require this structure for emergency operations, just as the military uses a similar structure in warfare. In error, public safety organizations have historically used this hierarchy for the business and non-emergency side of their operations. This is in contrast to the leadership styles that the scholars are referring to in this new age. Leaders of the twenty-first century have to realize that they are only “one element of an interactive network that is far bigger than they” (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001, p. 414). The role of the leader will “shift from organizational position power to communal social power” (Williams, 2013)
In our ever-changing world, public administrators must adapt. Due to technology that has led to communication advances, the climate of both business and government has significantly changed (Hopen, 2010; Huddleston, 2000; Lanham, 2008). Goldsmith et al. (2003) noticed that there are five factors that are emerging rapidly and future leaders must pay attention to. “Thinking globally, appreciating cultural diversity, developing technological savvy, building partnerships and alliances, and sharing leadership” are these factors that current and new public administrators must pay attention to if they wish to have an effective workforce and meet their responsibility to the community (Goldsmith et al., 2003, p. 2). Deborah Hopen (2010) concurs, identifying that advanced technology, knowledge workers, global reach, diversity, social responsibility, and new partnerships are all factors affecting leaders of the 21st century.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is not to evaluate the legal implications that social media has upon the administrators and personnel of volunteer public safety organizations, but rather to demonstrate how proactive ethics training and a refocus of leadership style can help organizations avoid these, and potentially future unimagined, problems before they occur. Chris Post, who is not only an experienced emergency responder, but also a member of mainstream media, summed up the ethical use of social media by emergency personnel when he stated, “First responders are in a position of ‘public privilege’. [sic] Being afforded that privilege to provide patient care, fight a fire or whatever … and if they find them selves [sic] using the privilege for a ‘scene-selfie’ for fun. it [sic] is completely inappropriate” Post, C. (personal communication, August 19, 2015).
Developing a code of ethics in concert with regular ethics training will be a benefit for public safety organizations. Furthermore, leaders must shift their leadership style from an autocratic style that was effective in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to one that accepts the knowledgeable worker (Hopen, 2010). By implementing these concepts and advances, the personnel will make better decisions when faced with the social media crisis or whatever the new cause of ethical dilemmas to come are. This will protect not only the person involved with the conflict but the organization also.
The research of Adam Miller (2015) forecasts a bleak outlook for the future of the volunteer public safety organization, not addressing ethics and employing a new leadership focus will assure this crisis occurs sooner than later.
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