The Australian first responder community - police, ambulance, firefighters, emergency services and border protection - face many challenges in serving the public interest. This collection of perspectives is the first attempt to draw on the experiences of qualified practitioners and the expertise of leading academics to examine the moral dimensions of vocational wellbeing. The aim is two-fold. First, to help executives and leaders become more attentive to the moral dimensions of first responder employment, mitigating possible risk and managing potential disruption to personal narratives and institutional reputations. Second, to assist human resources officers and workplace supervisors deal more creatively with the causes and consequences of the moral dilemmas and ethical tensions confronting continuing and departing members. The contributors believe that promoting and preserving vocational well-being is important not only to the institutions that keep the public safe but to the individuals who see public safety as their calling. Reflecting on these themes will increase institutional loyalty, decrease workplace turbulence and enhance both return to work and formal separation processes.


Professor Tom Frame AM is the Director of the Public Leadership Research Group at UNSW, Canberra.


Table of Contents
Foreword - Andrew Colvin
Preface - Tom Frame
Introduction - Tom Frame
1 Fire and Rescue NSW - Rob McNeil
2 Values and a people focus: Ambulance Victoria - Rebecca Hodges
3 Ethical heroism and emergency services leadership - Mark Crosweller
4 Silence and stigma: a law enforcement experience - Stephen Hayward
5 Organisational culture and leadership: their influence on police wellbeing - Grant Edwards
6 Police leadership and moral wellbeing - Graham Ashton
7 Understanding the lived experience - Andy Rhodes
8 First responders and real resilience - Jeff Thompson
9 Mitigating risk factors and building protective factors as prevention strategies - Katy Kamkar and Konstantinos Papazoglou
10 Protecting those safeguarding our community - John Bale
Postscript - Tom Frame