Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060

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Safety Science
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Enhancing adaptive performance in emergency response: Empowerment

practices and the moderating role of tempo balance
David Huntsman a, *, Alex Greer b, Haley Murphy a, Steven Haynes c
a
Fire and Emergency Management Program, Division of Engineering Technology Oklahoma State University, United States
b
College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity, State University of New York at Albany, United States
c
Naveen Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, United States

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Fire departments, like other organizations that follow rigid hierarchical structures, face difficulties in being
Adaptive performance flexible or adaptive enough to address the needs generated by large and complex disaster environments.
Empowerment Research is lacking, however, on the ability of empowerment practices to enhance adaptive performance in
Tempo balance
emergency response organizations, which today face increasingly complex threats and growing responsibilities.
The present study explores the relationships between the empowerment practices of career development op­
portunities, work autonomy, employee voice with two leadership levels, and department adaptive performance.
Moreover, tempo balance and the empowerment practices are tested for interactive effects, a measure we
developed to capture firefighter stress and fatigue from excessive mandatory overtime policies. Data were
collected from 756 United States firefighters located on the west coast. The results show that the empowerment
practices enhance adaptive performance by helping firefighters respond to unpredictable aspects of their work
environment. In addition, tempo balance moderates career development opportunities, work autonomy, and
adaptive performance, specifically. The findings show that firefighters are better able to overcome stress and
fatigue during complex incidents by relying on their training and ability to improvise, meaning these empow­
erment practices help compensate for poor tempo balance in fire departments from ineffective scheduling.

1. Introduction For hierarchical response organizations to demonstrate adaptability

Organizations that follow a hierarchal structure struggle in their
capacity to handle complex conditions, where constant change is needed
(Burns and Stalker, 1961). Such structures rely heavily on centraliza­
tion, pre-specified guidance, and adherence to rules and procedures,
which limits employees’ abilities to improvise and adapt to unpredict­
able, changing situations (Bigley and Roberts, 2001). Accordingly, in
complex disaster environments, research suggests that emergency
response organizations such as the fire service face difficulties in being
flexible or adaptive enough to address the needs generated by these
events (Janssen et al., 2010). During the emergency response to hurri­
cane Katrina, for example, firefighters and emergency services often had
to bypass and even disregard bureaucratic policies and protocols in
order to save lives (Russell et al., 2015). These rules, procedures, and
policies in hierarchical organizations tend to be far less effective in
complex disaster incidents as compared to routine response operations
(Janssen et al., 2010).
in highly complex emergency incidents, scholars suggest that leaders
must empower their employees to make important decisions rapidly and
with limited to no consultation (Wall et al., 2002; Bigley and Roberts,
2001). Empowerment practices provide employees with specific
knowledge, skillsets, and training to effectively respond to their work
environment, and the latitude to make important decisions needed for
successful improvisation during complex events (Rousseau and Aubé,
2019). Research shows that empowerment strategies lead to a number of
positive individual and organizational outcomes. For example, individ­
ual benefits of empowerment include increased employee commitment,
improved performance, adaptive capacity, and higher likelihood of
effective goal implementation (Kuye and Sulaimon, 2011), along with
higher morale and job satisfaction (Saifullah et al., 2015). Positive
organizational outcomes also include increased organizational flexi­
bility, performance, and resilience (Harcourt and Ateke, 2018). Only
three studies have linked empowerment practices to adaptive perfor­
mance, or an individual(s)’ ability to modify their behavior to meet the

* Corresponding author at: 570 Engineering North, Stillwater, OK, United States.
E-mail address: David.huntsman@okstate.edu (D. Huntsman).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105060
Received 7 April 2020; Received in revised form 15 September 2020; Accepted 19 October 2020
Available online 5 November 2020
0925-7535/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
D. Huntsman et al.
demands of a changing environment (Tabiu et al., 2018; Yang et al.,
2017; Charbonnier-Voirin and El Akremi, 2011), and no research on the
topic exists in the fire service. In the present study, adaptive perfor­
mance is measured at the department-level in the context of complex
emergency incidents. The assumption is that individualized empower­
ment practices recognized by the organization lead to department-level
performance outcomes due to their designed influence on employees’
collective commitment, motivation, behavior, and skills (Tharenou
et al., 2007), a process that leads to increased organizational effective­
ness in complex conditions (Neal and Webb, 2006).
The present study explores the effects of empowerment practices on
the adaptive performance of U.S. fire departments during complex
emergency incidents, including career development opportunities, work
autonomy, employee voice with immediate supervisors, and employee
voice with senior leadership. We also test the role of tempo balance in
relation to the empowerment practices and department adaptive per­
formance, which refers to excess fatigue or stressors from mandatory
overtime policies and lack of sufficient time off. Tempo balance is highly
relevant to the fire service where mandatory overtime policies
commonly lead to long, consecutive shifts (e.g., 72–96 consecutive
hours) multiple times a month, which have shown to inhibit firefighters’
safety and performance (Choi et al., 2014). While limited, some research
suggests that levels of employee overload and work exhaustion can
heighten or attenuate the effects that empowerment practices have on
performance levels (Ceschi et al., 2017), but these concepts have never
been explored or tested for interactive effects with empowerment
practices and adaptive performance. Therefore, we test tempo balance
as a moderator of the relationships between empowerment practices and
adaptive performance, such as when strong, tempo balance has the ca­
pacity to strengthen the relationships between career development op­
portunities, work autonomy, employee voice and department adaptive
performance. Alternatively, when imbalanced, poor tempo balance can
weaken these relationships.
2. Literature review
2.1. Adaptive performance
Adaptive performance is based on the idea that organizations are
operating in increasingly unpredictable, dynamic environments and that
this requires a more adaptable and versatile workforce that is tolerant of
uncertainty (Pulakos et al., 2000). Pulakos et al. (2000) identified eight
dimensions of adaptive performance, including: handling uncertain or
unpredictable work situations; solving problems creatively; handling
work stress; learning new tasks, technologies and procedures; demon­
strating interpersonal adaptability; demonstrating cultural adaptability;
and demonstrating physically oriented adaptability. However, certain
combinations of these dimensions are relevant for different organiza­
tional circumstances and job types (Charbonnier-Voirin and Roussel,
2012). For example, Pulakos et al. (2000) showed that for job types
similar to those in the fire service (e.g., police trooper, soldier, infantry),
dealing with uncertain and unpredictable work situations and handling
emergency or crisis situations were among the most relevant facets of
adaptive performance, based on their ability to best demonstrate
adaptability during critical incidents. The authors describe that speed in
which a department can react to or mitigate a hazard, crisis situation, or
emergency in an appropriate way reflects their ability to adapt to a
changing event (Pulakos et al., 2000).
Applying these insights, adaptive performance is defined here as
employees’ perceptions of the degree to which their department displays
an ability to quickly and appropriately adapt to complex emergency
response incidents, characterized by high levels of uncertainty. Complex
response incidents are those that take more time to control, can affect
neighboring communities, are characterized by uncertainty/ambiguity,
and are situations in which unexpected events are possible (Joung et al.,
2006). Examples in the fire service include large-scale fires (e.g., in a
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Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060
factory), mass casualty incidents, wildfires, and large-scale disasters that
require response from multiple departments. Theoretically, our defini­
tion is consistent with individual adaptive performance, in that
department adaptive performance is demonstrated when employees in
the department quickly and properly adjust their behaviors to the de­
mands of new events and complex work environments (Pulakos et al.,
2000). To help achieve adaptive performance in this way, scholars such
as Bigley and Roberts (2001) and Wall et al. (2002) argue that de­
partments must empower their employees, as this helps them better
respond to unpredictable aspects of its operating environment caused by
complexity.
2.2. Theoretical background: employee empowerment
Empowered employees are motivated, have initiative, and are flex­
ible, involved, and committed to their organization and organizational
goals (Yang et al., 2017). Through structurally empowering behaviors
(Kanter, 1985), management can empower their employees by
providing opportunities, information, support, and resources, allowing
employees to maximize their abilities and achieve work goals in an
effective and meaningful way. Similarly, management can also
contribute to the psychological empowerment of individuals by
providing them with meaning (work tasks are valuable and worthwhile),
competence (self-efficacy), self-determination (choice), and impact (the
ability to influence outcomes) (Spreitzer, 1996). Taken together,
employee empowerment is a management style related to the activities
of assigning employees appropriate responsibilities and helping them
develop abilities (Harcourt and Ateke, 2018). Rather than management
abdicating their leadership responsibilities, empowerment instead im­
plies that leaders provide employees more decision-making capacity by
providing, for example, wider authority in monitoring, taking re­
sponsibility, and using their knowledge and skills to make decisions on
their own (Al-Ghabra, 2017).1
Fearful and risk averse leaders, however, often hinder empowerment
in the fire service (Wise and Freitag, 2002). As with many response or­
ganizations (e.g., military, police), leaders in the fire service are often
criticized for being overly risk averse, bureaucratic, and resistant to
change (non-empowering characteristics), diminishing their perfor­
mance in complex events (Wankhade and Patnaik, 2020). For example,
overburdening checklists and fear of repercussion for errors, impro­
vising, or breaking SOPs can limit firefighters’ ability to think fast and
make appropriate decisions in such environments (Jahn, 2019). More­
over, organizations that overstress the adherence to procedures and
policies can increase failure to adapt in the presence of surprise (Dekker,
2003). Structural and psychological empowerment theory, however,
suggests that risk averse leaders can implement specific practices and
procedures to enhance their employees’ competence (career develop­
ment), provide employees self-determination and more flexibility to
carry out role responsibilities (work autonomy), and perceptions of
meaning and impact (employee voice with immediate supervisors and
senior leaders). Each empowerment practice contributes to dimensions
of psychological empowerment shared by department employees,
which, in turn, should improve department adaptive performance.
1
Another popular mechanism describes that empowerment practices such as
those described above lead to higher performance through the ability, moti­
vation, and opportunity (AMO) framework (Jiang et al., 2012). Because
empowered employees have more opportunity to utilize their skills and moti­
vation, individual and/or organizational performance levels are expected to
increase. Since empowering leadership practices are designed to remove hier­
archical constraints (Tuuli and Rowlinson, 2007), the increase in opportunity
can explain why employees perform at higher levels, and thus help display
higher department adaptive performance.
D. Huntsman et al.
2.3. Career development
According to Tansky and Cohen (2001, p.287), career development
opportunities refers to the degree to which organizations provide their
employees “opportunities for internal movement, continual growth,
increased skills and abilities, and personal and professional develop­
ment.” Developmental opportunities improve adaptive performance by
enhancing the self-efficacy and self-determination of employees, as they
help build the confidence, skills, abilities, and the freedom necessary to
do tasks more efficiently (Van Wart, 2014). As a result, employees are
better able to make effective autonomous, adaptive decisions that
management can trust.
For example, encouraging adaptation without employees having
sufficient skill or preparation can result in unsafe practices and failed
adaptions (Dekker, 2003). Consequently, research suggests that leaders
empower employees through development and training as a way to
ensure and enhance their ability to evaluate the risks associated with
adaptations properly (Dekker, 2003). When employees understand how
and when to balance risks and are provided adequate authority to make
decisions during a crisis, they become more flexible and adaptable
(Dekker, 2003), leading to organizational effectiveness in complex
conditions (Neal and Webb, 2006). Furthermore, studies show positive
relationships between career development opportunities and affective
motivating variables that facilitate performance, including perceived
organizational support (Zhong et al., 2016) and job satisfaction (de
Oliveira et al., 2019).
Hypothesis 1.. Perceptions of career development will be positively
related to department adaptive performance.
2.4. Work autonomy
Work autonomy refers to the amount of latitude that managers
provide employees when performing their work tasks or making
important decisions (Tabiu et al., 2018). Providing work autonomy
enhances employees’ self-determination, which increases adaptive per­
formance because it gives agency to improvise when the situation
warrants. For example, during disasters, leaders may not always be able
to provide responders adequate direction because they are removed
from the incidents on the ground (Bigley and Roberts, 2001). In such
situations, in order to best adapt to changing conditions, it is important
to allow responders latitude in important operational decision-making
since they are more informed about the contingencies of the situations
that they face. Work autonomy is empirically related to self-
determination (Kraimer et al., 1999), and has been found to predict
adaptive performance (Tabiu et al., 2018) and organizational effec­
tiveness in complex and dangerous work environments (Dodd and
Ganster, 1996), along with other performance determinants such as
creative self-efficacy, work engagement for innovative behavior (Orth
and Volmer, 2017), and job satisfaction (Labrague et al., 2019).
Hypothesis 2.. Perceptions of work autonomy will be positively
related to department adaptive performance.
2.5. Employee voice
Employees often have ideas regarding how to improve organiza­
tional functioning, although the extent to which leaders are open and
receptive to such information determines whether employees will speak
up (Detert and Burris, 2007). In the present study, employee voice refers
to the degree to which employees feel they can provide discretionary
information to leaders that is intended to improve organizational func­
tioning despite the possibility of upsetting the status quo (see Detert and
Burris, 2007). Similar to participative/shared decision-making, allowing
employees’ voices to be heard enhances adaptive performance because
it empowers employees and enhances their self-determination, meaning,
and impact (Yang et al., 2017). In complex work environments where
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Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060
conditions rapidly change, organizations need to adopt adaptive be­
haviors quickly across various levels (Kantur and Iseri-Say, 2012). When
subordinates are empowered to provide input on important decision-
making processes, they develop more authority and ability, leading to
more creative solutions (Kantur and Iseri-Say, 2012). Empowering em­
ployees in this way has been shown to have a positive impact on
adaptive organizational outcomes by also increasing employee
involvement in stressful and changing work environments (Mallak,
1999).
The present study captures employee voice at two-levels: 1)
employee voice with immediate supervisors, and 2) employee voice with
departmental/senior leadership. Research in emergency response or­
ganizations such as fire and police has, even more so than research in
traditional organizations (e.g., Fortune 500 companies), generally
focused on lower leadership levels (e.g., Russell et al., 2015; Day et al.,
2017; Engel, 2001).2 Senior leadership does not interact with the day-to-
day operations, but they establish the expectations, organizational
strategies, standard operating procedures, career development oppor­
tunities, and operational tempo. It is expected that employee voice
would be strongest at the immediate supervisor level, since firefighters
interact with this manager most often. Research shows that employees’
relationships with their immediate supervisors tend to be their strongest
organizational connections (Wayne et al., 1997), and that far more in­
teractions occur between employees and their immediate supervisors
than with senior leadership (Waldman and Yammarino, 1999). While
considering these possibilities, we provide the following general
hypotheses:
Hypothesis 3.. Perceptions of employee voice with immediate su­
pervisors will be positively related to department adaptive performance.
Hypothesis 4.. Perceptions of employee voice with senior leaders will
be positively related to department adaptive performance.
2.6. The moderating role of tempo balance
Despite levels of employees’ competence, freedom, and motivation
to perform work tasks, situational characteristics beyond their control
can either heighten or attenuate their ability to make effective
performance-related decisions (Blumberg and Pringle, 1982). Particu­
larly unique to the fire service, tempo balance is one such situational
characteristic that may produce interactive effects with the empower­
ment practices and their relationships with department adaptive per­
formance. Tempo balance refers to the perceived balance of mandatory
overtime policies and sufficient time off, in terms of the extent to which
this perceived balance (imbalance) causes levels of stress, exhaustion,
fatigue, and burnout among firefighters.
Many firefighters in the U.S. work long (24-hr) shifts, and may work
additional (24-hr) shifts either voluntarily or through mandatory
2
This is an important distinction because two-levels of interactions occur
within the fire service. The first level is the day-to-day interactions a firefighter
has with their immediate supervisor. This interaction is referred to as the
firehouse mentality. The immediate supervisor, often a captain or lieutenant,
directs the daily assignments, firehouse operations, and direct career develop­
ment training. The second level is the organizational influence on voicing. This
level of management is often battalion chiefs, district chiefs, assistant fire
chiefs, and fire chiefs.
D. Huntsman et al.
overtime policies, averaging multiple consecutive 24-hr shifts per month
(Choi et al., 2014). While opportunities for overtime are important for
those seeking more work and pay, the effects from excessive or poorly
scheduled mandatory overtime policies and long consecutive shifts may
contribute to negative attitudes and behaviors among firefighters, which
can negatively affect their health and performance (Choi et al., 2014).3
Research shows that firefighters’ working more than 70 h/week are
more likely to be over-worked and less productive, showing higher
injury rates, lower quality service, and ultimately producing higher costs
per incident (Lusa et al., 2002).
When tempo balance is low, employees are mentally and physically
drained, and emotional exhaustion and fatigue diminish their ability to
translate empowerment into increased performance (e.g., Fernet et al.,
2012). When tempo balance is high, in contrast, the effect of empow­
erment practices on adaptive performance should become even stronger.
This logic is supported by research on other similar constructs such as
work overload and work exhaustion, which have been found to produce
negative effects on performance determinants such as work situation
awareness (Sneddon et al., 2013), psychological strain, and safety be­
haviors (Wong and Chan, 2020), and overall job performance (Karatepe,
2013). Work exhaustion has also been found to moderate the relation­
ships between types of performance enhancing personal characteristics,
such as proactive personality, and performance levels (Baba et al.,
2009). Taken together, the relationships between career development
opportunities, work autonomy, and employee voice, and adaptive per­
formance should be stronger when employees perceive tempo balance to
be high, whereas the relationships should be weaker when they perceive
tempo balance to be low. Fig. 1 displays the full hypothesized model.
Hypothesis 5.. Tempo balance moderates the relationship between
perceptions of career development and department adaptive perfor­
mance such that the relationship is stronger when tempo balance is high
and weaker when it is low.
Hypothesis 6.. Tempo balance moderates the relationship between
perceptions of work autonomy and department adaptive performance
such that the relationship is stronger when tempo balance is high and
weaker when it is low.
Hypothesis 7.. Tempo balance moderates the relationship between
perceptions of employee voice with immediate supervisors and depart­
ment adaptive performance such that the relationship is stronger when
tempo balance is high and weaker when it is low.
Hypothesis 8.. Tempo balance moderates the relationship between
perceptions of employee voice with senior leaders and department
adaptive performance such that the relationship is stronger when tempo
balance is high and weaker when it is low.
3. Methodology
3.1. Participants
The sample consisted of all operational firefighters from three
separate fire departments located in the Western U.S. All analytic pro­
cedures were run for the combined sample, as each sample produced the
same beta weights when analyzed separately. There are approximately
3
Organizations strive to balance the effects of operational tempo with
employee wellness (Chang et al., 2010). In the fire service, however, there is
often a need for fire service personnel to work mandatory overtime to respond
to on-going operational commitments. For instance, shift turnover may occur at
7 a.m. but if a medical call occurs at 6:45 a.m. then the current shift will
respond to the call, thus pushing their scheduled departure. As a result, fire­
fighters often receive additional mandatory overtimes to help handle increases
in demands, which may be required of firefighters at any time: after long shifts,
during scheduled time off for personal and family events, etc.
4
Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060
500 employees in the first department, 1100 employees in the second
department, and 100 employees in the third department. Our sample
included only firefighters and similar operational ranks (Engineers,
Captains, Battalion Chiefs etc. but no administrative staff) due to the
operational response nature of the outcome variable. We received 756
completed responses, resulting in a 44% response rate overall.
The cross-sectional survey was administered online in March 2018
for the first department, December 2018 for the second department; and
July 2019 for the third department. An email containing the survey link
was sent to each department’s Fire Chief, who then sent an e-mail on our
behalf to all department members (Dillman et al., 2014). The ques­
tionnaire collected self-reported data and was kept open for three weeks.
The Fire Chiefs sent department employees two reminders at one week
apart. All subjects were informed that the survey was voluntary and that
all responses would remain anonymous.
3.2. Measures
Indices from the Fire Industry Organizational Culture Survey
(FIOCS) were used, an instrument developed by some of the authors to
measure a number of elements related to leadership, decision-making,
and organizational culture in the fire service (Huntsman and Greer,
2019). Most of the FIOCS was developed from previously validated
indices used in organizational research (e.g., de Waard et al., 2013; van
der Post et al., 1997). Some indices, however, were amended or devel­
oped originally (here, tempo balance) by the authors and focus group
participants to ensure measures were valid in the fire service. The
development of the FIOCS and its indices are described in more detail in
a technical report (Huntsman and Greer, 2019).
A list of all scales and items is provided in Table 1. Career develop­
ment opportunities (α = 0.81) was measured using five items from the
Organizational Climate Questionnaire’s career development scale
developed by Furnham and Goodstein (1997). Work autonomy (α =
0.91) was measured using four items from van der Post et al. (1997), and
one original item that was developed with help from an expert. Using
another scale from van der Post et al. (1997), three items were used to
capture employee voice with supervisors (α = 0.83) and two items were
used to capture employee voice with the department (α = 0.91) or upper
management. Tempo balance (α = 0.83), the moderating variable, was
measured using four original items developed with help from numerous
firefighters from our sample. While developing our survey, we held a
number of focus groups at the fire departments included in our sample
where firefighters overwhelmingly revealed the necessity of capturing
the balance of mandatory overtime policies in our instrument, as they
suggested imbalanced mandatory overtimes were a strong hindrance on
their emotional and physical well-being, and perceptions of individual
performance. Since no existing measures capture this element of over­
time policies, we developed tempo balance as a new construct with
original measures specifically designed for the fire service. Finally,
adaptive performance (α = 0.88) was captured using four items from de
Waard et al.’s (2013) responsiveness scale. The referents for each item
were slightly altered so that the scale would be more valid for the fire
service. Specifically, the scale captures perceptions of adaptability
during complex response conditions. Each index was computed using
the summative score (mean) from each item in the index (Gliem and
Gliem, 2003). All variables are measured on a 7-point Likert scale
ranging from completely disagree (1) to completely agree (7).
4. Analysis and results
Since our tempo balance variable is originally developed and some of
the other scales have been modified, in addition to Cronbach’s reliability
test, we ran factor analysis procedures on all measures to establish
validity and reliability among the constructs. Common factor analysis
with the maximum likelihood option was used. Common factor analysis
was used over PCA because we assume that both the unique variance
D. Huntsman et al. Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060

Fig. 1. Hypothesized Model.

Table 1 Table 2
Questionnaire Items. EFA Maximum Likelihood Analysis.
Career Development Opportunities Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 Uniqueness
1 Career development is taken seriously in this department.
2 My work is regularly reviewed with my development in mind.
Autonomy9 0.98 0.14
3 I can develop my career within this department.
Autonomy10 0.91 0.19
4 I have an opportunity to see my appraisal report and discuss it with my
Autonomy8 0.89 0.16
supervisor.
Autonomy6 0.65 0.41
5 In general, there is an adequate system for career development in the
Autonomy7 0.57 0.57
department.
Adapt21 0.95 0.13
Work Autonomy Adapt20 0.92 0.17
6 My leaders would support me if I needed to deviate from the plan to accomplish Adapt22 0.73 0.34
the mission. Adapt23 0.59 0.58
7 We are not allowed to get on with our jobs because we have to double check all Voicedpt15 0.99 0.08
decisions with our leaders (R). Voicedpt14 0.85 0.23
8 In this department we are empowered to make appropriate decisions. Career4 0.87 0.26
9 We are encouraged to use our own initiative in doing our jobs. Career1 0.73 0.37
10 We have the freedom and independence to do our jobs effectively. Career3 0.65 0.45
Employee Voice (with supervisors) Career2 0.48 0.66
11 I am not encouraged to reveal any differences of opinion which I may have with Career5 0.35 0.83
my supervisor (R). Tempo18 0.99 0.10
12 My supervisor does not like to hear the other side of the story (R). Tempo17 0.93 0.19
13 My supervisor is not interested in hearing views that do not agree with their Tempo16 0.64 0.51
views (R). Tempo19 0.41 0.70
Voicesup13 0.95 0.14
Employee Voice (with department) Voicesup12 0.93 0.16
14 Differences of opinion are welcomed in this department. Voicesup11 0.54 0.65
15 Differing views are encouraged in this department.
Tempo Balance N = 712; all factor loadings below 0.2 were deleted from the table.
16 The amount of overtime the department asks from me is about right.
17 The department’s overtime policies pose risk to our readiness (R).
18 The department’s overtime policies pose risk to our safety (R). of greater-than-1.0 was used (Pulakos et al., 2000), resulting in a six
19 I can take sufficient time off. factor model that mirrors the six constructs in the hypothesized con­
ceptual model. Excluding one item (Career5), all factor loadings were
Adaptive Performance
20 During complex incidents our department can easily divide essential above the desired threshold of 0.40 (Hinkin, 1998), and no cross-
operational activities amongst each other. loadings were present. Considering Career5 is part of a previously
21 During complex incidents our department can easily adjust to changing established scale, and is near the 0.40 threshold, we did not remove it
operational circumstances.
from the scale.
22 Whatever task our department undertakes, we can cooperate easily with one
another during emergency operations.
Moreover, subsequent confirmatory factor analysis was performed to
23 During multi-agency emergency response operations our department further assess the dimensionality of the constructs, which showed good
cooperates easily with other departments. model fit with statistics all meeting conventions for acceptable fit. As
recommended by scholars such as Baumgartner and Homburg (1996),
the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was less than
and error variance are not of interest in defining the structure of the
0.08 (RMSEA = 0.07) and the comparative fit index (CFI) was greater
variables (Hair et al., 2014). The loadings were then rotated using the
than 0.90 (CFI = 0.92) for the six factor model. Finally, as provided
Promax option since the variables are all assumed to be correlated to
above, the reliability of all the indices was assessed using Cronbach’s
some extent. Table 1 displays all the questionnaire items used in the EFA
alpha reliability test, which ranged from 0.81 to 0.91, showing that the
analysis, while Table 2 displays the EFA results. The eigenvalue criterion

5
D. Huntsman et al. Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060

indices are reliable (Croasmun and Ostrom, 2011. The specific alpha for Table 4
our new tempo balance scale was 0.83. Regression results for Hypotheses 1–4.
Overall, the findings in Table 2 provide evidence for the validity and Independent variables Dependent variable: adaptive performance
reliability of both the previously established measures in our model,
β Total R2 Adj R2 F
along with the new measure of tempo balance.
We hypothesized that the empowerment practices would be posi­ Career Development 0.15***
Autonomy 0.36***
tively related to adaptive performance. In large part, the Pearson cor­ Voice (with supervisors) − 0.01
relation results (Table 3) do support the hypothesized relationships. Voice (with senior leaders) 0.08**
Career development (r = 0.39, p < .001), work autonomy (r = 0.55, p < 0.33 0.33 94.66***
.001), and employee voice with senior leaders (r = 0.42, p < .001) Note. N = 759; B = Unstandardized Coefficients
significantly correlate with adaptive performance. However, employee * p < .05.
voice with immediate supervisors (r = 0.20, p < .001) has a rather low ** p < .01.
correlation with adaptive performance. Tempo balance also correlates *** p < .001.
with adaptive performance (r = 0.35, p < .001), while medium corre­
lations are found between tempo balance and the empowerment prac­
tices of autonomy (r = 0.38, p < .001) and employee voice with senior Table 5
leaders (r = 0.34, p < .001). Regression results for Hypotheses 5–8.
Independent variables Dependent variable: adaptive performance
4.1. Hypothesis testing β Total R2 Adj R2 F

Career 0.15***
To test the main (direct) effects of empowerment practices on Development
adaptive performance (hypothesis 1–4), we conducted multiple regres­ Autonomy 0.29***
sion analysis. The initial results of this analysis without tempo balance Voice (with supervisors) 0.01
included in the model are shown in Table 4. As shown in Table 4, the Voice (with senior 0.07*
leaders)
four predictors explained 33% of the variance in the dependent variable,
Tempo Balance 0.11***
adaptive performance (Adj. R2 = 0.33, F(4,754) = 94.66, p < .001). The Career Development * Tempo − 0.06***
main impacts of career development opportunities (β = 0.15, p < .001), Balance
autonomy (β = 0.36, p < .001), and employee voice with senior leaders Autonomy * Tempo − 0.05**
(β = 0.08, p < .01) on adaptive performance were positive and statis­ Balance
Voice (with supervisors) * Tempo 0.02
tically significant, supporting H1, H2, and H4 which predicted that the
Balance
empowerment practices would positively influence department adap­ Voice (with senior leaders) * 0.02
tive performance. Employee voice with immediate supervisors, howev­ Tempo Balance
er, was not significantly related to the dependent variable (H3 not 0.39 0.38 51.96***
supported). Note. N = 757; B = Unstandardized Coefficients; All variables mean centered.
Table 5 further tests the main effects hypothesized by H1-H4 with * p < .05.
tempo balance included as a covariate, along with the interaction terms ** p < .01.
for the predictors. As compared to the first model (Table 4) which ran *** p < .001.
the predictors alone and explained 33% of the variance in the dependent
variable, the model shown in Table 5 explains 38% of the variance (Adj. = -0.05, p < .01) both interacted negatively and significantly with
R2 = 0.38, F(9,747) = 51.96, p < .001). Thus, including tempo balance tempo balance to influence adaptive performance. However, tempo
and the interactive terms in the model appears to improve its explana­ balance did not significantly interact with employee voice with super­
tory power by 5%. The main effects of career development opportunities visors nor employee voice with senior leaders. Thus, while H7 and H8
(β = 0.15, p < .001), autonomy (β = .29p < .001), and employee voice were not supported, H5 and H6 did receive support.
with senior leaders (β = 0.07, p < .05) on adaptive performance were To demonstrate the interaction, we computed a series of estimates of
similar to the previous model, again showing positive and statistically tempo balance at low (mean – 1 SD) and high (mean + 1 SD) values of
significant relationships with adaptive performance. This further sup­ the moderator, and we conducted the interaction plots. Table 6 shows
ports H1, H2, and H4. Tempo balance (β = 0.11, p < .001) also showed a the results for the conditional effects. The relationship between career
positive and significant result with the outcome variable, implying that development opportunities and adaptive performance is stronger when
properly balanced overtime policies and adequate time off significantly tempo balance is low (β = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.38) versus high (β =
enhances adaptive performance. Employee voice with immediate su­ 0.04, 95% CI − 0.04, 0.12, ns). Also shown in Table 6, the relationship
pervisors, however, again failed to produce a significant result. between work autonomy and adaptive performance is stronger when
Next, we tested for interactive effects. Results are shown in the tempo balance is low (β = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.49) versus high (β =
bottom of Table 5. The variables were mean-centered to reduce effects of 0.20, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.28).
multicollinearity (Ahearne et al., 2005). As shown in Table 5, career Figs. 2 and 3 present simple slopes plots of the moderating effects of
development opportunities (β = -0.06, p < .001) and work autonomy (β tempo balance on career development opportunities, work autonomy,
and adaptive performance relationships. Illustrating the results in
Table 3 Table 6, Fig. 2 shows that at high levels of the moderator (high tempo
Correlation matrix. balance), career development opportunities has no effect on adaptive
Variables Adapt Career Autonomy VoiceIS VoiceSL Tempo performance. That is, high levels of tempo balance and high levels of
career development opportunities do not generate even higher levels of
Adapt –
Career 0.39 –
adaptive performance. At low levels of the moderator (strong tempo
Autonomy 0.55 0.46 – imbalance), however, career development opportunities is extremely
VoiceIS 0.20 0.36 0.31 – important for displaying heightened adaptive performance. Fig. 3 shows
VoiceSL 0.42 0.45 0.60 0.26 – instead that work autonomy has effects on adaptive performance at both
Tempo 0.35 0.14 0.38 0.09 0.34
high and low levels of tempo balance, although the effect is stronger
–

Note: N = 757; all correlations are significant at the p < .001 level.

6
D. Huntsman et al. Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060

Table 6 The results for the main effects suggest that access to sufficient career
Results for conditional effects at values of the tempo balance. development opportunities enhances firefighters’ skills and abilities,
Independent variable: Career Dependent variable: adaptive and this helps them be more competent and confident in their decision-
Development performance making during complex response conditions; a finding which supports
β LLCI ULCI works such as Dekker (2003). Also provided adequate work autonomy,
our findings show that firefighters are granted more access to power and
Low Tempo Balance (-1 0.30*** 0.21 0.38
SD)
opportunity, have more decision-making latitude, and as such have a
Medium Tempo Balance 0.17*** 0.11 0.23 greater ability to improvise when warranted by the situation. In effect,
(0) firefighters with autonomy are more determined to use their skills and
High Tempo Balance 0.04 − 0.04 0.12 abilities to make adaptive decisions when response conditions are
(+1SD)
complex, a result also shown by Charbonnier-Voirin and El Akremi
Independent variable: Work Autonomy (2011) at the individual level.
β LLCI ULCI Moreover, senior leaders who incorporate firefighters’ opinions and
input into important decision-making processes help them feel they have
Low Tempo Balance (-1 0.42*** 0.34 0.49
SD) more impact, where firefighters are more motivated to engage in
Medium Tempo Balance 0.31*** 0.24 0.37 adaptive behaviors, because they believe they can truly influence out­
(0) comes at work (e.g., Wall et al., 2002). Support for employee voice with
High Tempo Balance 0.20*** 0.11 0.28 supervisors, however, does not appear to significantly influence
(+1SD)
department adaptability. This is an unexpected result; compared to their
Note. N = 757; B = Unstandardized Coefficients; All variables mean centered; immediate supervisors, employees have far less interactions with senior
95% CI. leaders in hierarchical organizations (Waldman and Yammarino, 1999).
p < .001. However, since senior leaders establish organizational strategies and
SOPs, and become more involved in such activities during complex
when tempo balance is low. That is, high levels of tempo balance and events, it is not surprising that employees feel their input matters more
high levels of work autonomy generate the highest levels of adaptive for this referent in predicting adaptive performance.
performance, but work autonomy becomes much more important to That is, senior leaders have the primary responsibility for facilitating
achieve high levels of adaptive performance under low levels of the flexibility and adaptability when complex threats emerge to impact the
moderator. organization. This task involves the use of relevant behaviors and de­
cision strategies by senior leaders, such as involving employees in
5. Discussion and conclusion problem-solving and decision-making in order to help make major
changes in strategies or tactics needed to avoid a disaster (Yukl and
The results above primarily support our overall theory which pre­ Mahsud, 2010). Immediate supervisors, however, typically only manage
dicted that empowerment practices (career development opportunities, employees at lower levels and have far less delegating authority. Aware
work autonomy, and employee voice) would enhance department of this, employees are more likely to view opportunities to express their
adaptive performance in complex response scenarios due to their posi­ opinions with senior leaders as more empowering and thus more influ­
tive influence on firefighters’ collective sense of meaning, competence, ential on their adaptive behaviors, particularly during complex events
self-determination, and impact at work. Specifically, when rules, pol­ where top-management becomes more involved in operations.
icies, and procedures are not sufficient in handling complex events, this Moreover, in organizations utilizing the Command and Control
research shows how empowering employees can help fire departments model, such as the fire service, immediate supervisors can only operate
demonstrate more adaptive performance by enhancing responders’ under what has been prescribed by senior leaders. That is, immediate
abilities to adapt to changing circumstances.

Fig. 2. The interactive effects of tempo balance and career development opportunities on adaptive performance.

7
D. Huntsman et al.
Fig. 3. The interactive effects of tempo balance and work autonomy on adaptive performance.
supervisors are expected to act as “agents” of the organization (Kan­
nan-Narasimhan and Lawrence, 2012) who communicate top manage­
ment’s change mandates and translate their statements about
organizational missions or visions into operationalized goals and ob­
jectives (Gabris and Ihrke, 2007). Consequently, whatever the Chain of
Command says or allows becomes the guiding principle for all levels
below. Even if immediate supervisors promote employee voice without
support from senior leaders, they alone cannot truly empower em­
ployees during complex events because most employees would feel that
speaking up for important decisions is unwanted or simply a waste of
time (Detert and Treviño, 2010). Senior leaders must be willing to both
listen and implement input from lower levels in organizational strategy
and tactics in order for employee voice to enhance employees’ psycho­
logical empowerment and in turn, adaptive performance. In addition,
immediate supervisors not only serve as an indirect channel by which
employees often provide input to upper ranks, they also depend on se­
nior leaders’ willingness to incorporate their own input in strategic
decision-making, which is critical for adaptive success. This is because
immediate supervisors are often the first in charge at an emergency
scene and are thus in a position to see the first signs of major problems
that will require an unconventional response (Yukl and Mahsud, 2010).
Employee voice with senior leaders may therefore perform a more sig­
nificant role in its ability to predict department adaptive performance.
During complex incidents, the ability of firefighters to engage
numerous adaptive behaviors is also in large part, determined by the
extent to which senior leaders are risk averse, where extensive check­
lists, fear of repercussion from errors, breaking SOPs, or improper im­
provisations can hinder accurate and timely decision-making by
firefighters on the ground (Jahn, 2019). This research shows that senior
leaders who allow for employee input in such situations thus allow for
these issues to be heard and potentially addressed so that their perfor­
mance behaviors are less likely to be constrained. It is also possible that
the non-significant findings for employee voice with immediate super­
visors is due to the scale items being reverse-coded. While reverse-coded
items can correct for agreement bias and act as cognitive “speed bumps”,
including such items in scales can also produce undesirable unintended
consequences, such as lower scale reliability (as compared to regular
items), poor fit in factor models, and lower factor loadings (Weijters
et al., 2013). However, since all the evidence from our preliminary tests
(e.g., Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis) indicate that the construct and
overall measurement model displays strong psychometric properties, we
8
Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060
assume the results here are not a product of the reverse item
phenomenon.
It is also important to highlight the positive and significant rela­
tionship between tempo balance and department adaptability, which
shows that a more balanced workload designed to keep employees from
becoming too tired, stressed, or fatigued helps firefighters be more
resilient when response conditions are expanding. Overall, the insights
from the results of the direct relationships show how leaders can shift
toward a more decentralized design when the situation demands:
outside of routine response and during large response incidents of high
complexity. Leaders might transition to a more decentralized design
during complex events to help their departments become more adapt­
able, but they must simultaneously modify other aspects of the organi­
zation, such as training programs and other processes and procedures, in
order to avoid uncoordinated and ineffective action (Wheatley, 2006).
Moreover, the results from the interactive effects imply that adaptive
performance will be lowest when career development opportunities,
work autonomy, and tempo balance are each at low levels. When fire­
fighters are stressed and fatigued from imbalanced workloads (tempo
balance = low), however, providing access to career development op­
portunities and work autonomy are extremely important for increasing
adaptive performance, as compared to when firefighters are not stressed
and fatigued (tempo balance = high). This is likely because firefighters
are able to overcome stress and fatigue during complex incidents by
relying on their training and ability to improvise. Thus, departments
that require excessive amounts of mandatory overtime policies from
their firefighters and limit their ability to take sufficient time off should
invest more resources in the development of firefighters’ skills and
abilities, and latitude to improvise so they can better cope with
exhaustion. Research has clearly shown that imbalanced workload
contributes to work exhaustion, psychological strain, reduced commit­
ment and satisfaction, and poor safety behaviors and job performance
(Wong and Chan, 2020; Karatepe, 2013; Moore, 2000). Essentially, work
overload communicates the organization’s lack of concern and disregard
for employee well-being (Bowling et al., 2015). As potentially mitigating
effects, the research here shows how focusing department resources on
developing firefighters’ competence and enhancing their self-
determination can reduce the influence that work overload via exces­
sive mandatory overtime policies has on organizational performance.
While outcomes are best when tempo balance (and specifically, work
autonomy) is high, it is not always possible to have workload policies
D. Huntsman et al.
perfectly balanced between safety and performance. Our findings sug­
gest that departments can nonetheless compensate for poor tempo bal­
ance by empowering their employees, which is most important for
successful operations in conditions of high complexity.
Taken together, beyond the importance of the significant direct re­
lationships between empowerment practices and adaptive performance
found here, this research showed how levels of tempo balance determine
the importance of these empowerment practices. Despite poor tempo
balance, the performance of firefighters has the potential to produce
better outcomes if the organization they work for creates an atmosphere
that is satisfactory in implementing empowerment practices.
6. Future research and limitations
There are a number of avenues for future research. Foremost,
research should explore the relationships between empowerment prac­
tices and traditional performance outcomes in the fire service (e.g.,
firefighter injury, organizational citizenship behaviors, etc.), alongside
role of tempo balance. It is possible that certain empowerment practices
might even reduce performance outcomes that are measured in routine
conditions where the hierarchy seems to better operate (Neal and
Phillips, 1995). Furthermore, testing whether personal characteristics
such as experience in the fire service, number of years in current posi­
tion, age, and/or gender act as predictors or even moderators of the
empowerment – adaptive performance relationship could provide
valuable insights into the dynamics which determine success in complex
events. Future research should also explore empowerment practices,
performance outcomes, and potential interactive effects from tempo
balance in other types of high risk, emergency response organizations
such as police or military.
The present study also has a number of limitations that need to be
addressed. First, our new tempo balance construct needs to be tested in
additional fire departments and other types of response organizations
that utilize mandatory overtime policies to establish further validity.
Second, our outcome variable was subjective in nature and confined to
the realm of adaptive performance. While we are confident that our
measure accurately captures adaptive performance, our study could be
more rigorous by including objective performance measures as well (e.
g., response time, human life and property loss etc.). Third, there are a
number of other empowerment practices that we did not consider such
as communication, specific training practices, and rewards. Future
research should also explore these other empowerment practices and
potentially identify others that are relevant to emergency response or­
ganizations. Fourth, our scale for employee voice with immediate su­
pervisors was comprised of reverse-coded items, which could potentially
explain the non-significant findings. However, since appropriate anal­
ysis supported the scale’s validity and reliability and confirmed the
psychometric properties of the measurement model, we assume the
findings can be explained by the alternate explanations detailed in the
previous section. Fifth, our measures of empowerment and adaptive
performance are at the department level, rather than the individual or
team level. While past research suggests individual adaptive behaviors
that lack support and elude detection by management can undermine
department-level performance in complex emergencies (e.g., Pettersen
and Schulman, 2019), our definition is only concerned with the adaptive
performance dimensions noted to be most important for the emergency
context and is not concerned with the level of individual perceptual
agreement. Sixth, while our survey had a high response rate (44%), we
cannot eliminate the possibility that nonresponse bias has affected our
sample. However, we do not assume the presence of non-response bias in
the data for the following reasons. First, we ensured invitations to the
survey were received by all members and that the survey ran smoothly
on all devices (phone, computer). Second, we left the survey open for
three weeks with the Fire Chief sending multiple reminder emails to all
department employees at one week apart. Third, complete confidenti­
ality and anonymity of responses was expressed repeatedly in all
9
Safety Science 134 (2021) 105060
communications. Fourth, a sample representative of the population was
obtained, including 36% of responses from firefighters or similar ranks,
21% from engineers, 36% from Captains, 5% from Battalion Chiefs, and
2% from Assistant/Deputy Chiefs. Responses were also gathered from
various levels of organizational tenure, education, and income.
Funding information
This research was supported by the International Association of Fire
Chiefs. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations
expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the funding agency.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
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