Leadership and job satisfaction among aviation fire fighters in Australia

Abstract Recently important changes have been made to fire service management practices in Australia; however, these changes have typically not been based on empirical research or followed up by systematic evaluation. While job satisfaction and leadership behaviour have been extensively investigated in other fields, studies of these variables in the fire service, particularly in Australia, are almost absent. This article examines links between job satisfaction and leadership behaviour in aviation fire fighters. Fifty‐six fire fighters responded to the Job Descriptive Index and the Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire XII. As hypothesised, employee job satisfaction correlated with supervisor leadership behaviour, with the exception of consideration leadership and co‐worker satisfaction. A new explanation, concerning level of team interaction, is proposed for the findings. Implications for the fire service and areas for further research are suggested.