Measuring the productivity of facilities management

Effect of job situational factors on work outcomes of facilities managers

Purpose

This study aims to investigate how the situational factors that facilities managers (FMs) in Singapore face in their jobs affect their work outcomes. Job situation factors such as types of tasks, interpersonal relationships in teams, supervisors’ actions and advancements opportunities are classified into job characteristics, social environment characteristics, leadership and organisational practices categories.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a systematic literature review, a questionnaire was designed to collect data on work outcomes and job situational factors from FMs working in public housing estates in Singapore. Using the Statistical Package for the Social Science software, inferential statistical analyses were carried out.

Findings

FMs reported that they used economical means and resources to carry out their work significantly frequently and achieved significantly high productivity. Complaints are received significantly frequently and maintenance defects are regularly encountered. Many of the job situational factors are present and found to be significantly correlated with work outcomes and some of these may be used to predict FMs’ work outcomes. Based on the correlation results, the frequency of complaints from residents may be reduced through the following ways: make FMs’ work tasks less challenging; reduce the variety of work tasks that FMs need to execute; reduce FMs’ work volume and speed of work.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to FMs managing public housing estates in Singapore. The work outcomes are self-reported, and thus susceptible to bias. However, as the respondents reported significantly frequent complaints and defects, this might indicate that the bias is not serious.

Practical implications

FMs’ jobs should be broken down into small parts/tasks and assigned to different FMs to specialise. This makes FMs’ tasks less challenging, and allows them to specialise to increase their productivity, improve their quality of work and overcome the problem of high work volume or demanding work speed. By adopting job specialisation, the frequency of receiving complaints from residents may be reduced.

Originality/value

This study discovered strategies to reduce the number of complaints from residents of public housing about facilities management. The contribution to knowledge is that complaints by residents on facilities management can be reduced by adopting job specialisation but not job enlargement. Decomposing work into different tasks and allowing FMs to focus on a few tasks would lead to a reduction in complaints. It also enables FMs to master the skill and complete the tasks without much oversight or supervision.

Productivity as a value parameter for FM and CREM

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how facilities management (FM) and corporate real estate management (CREM) can add value to organisations by contributing to improved productivity of knowledge workers, and to explore interrelationships between productivity, employee satisfaction and other value parameters.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a literature research of possible contributions of FM and CREM to improved labour productivity in relation to five activity areas of FM/CREM (portfolio management, project management, space and workplace management, property management and service management) and a first exploration of interrelationships between productivity and other value parameters.

Findings

The findings indicate that FM and CREM most directly can contribute to productivity by space and workplace management that supports different types of work and organisational activities. Portfolio and project management can mostly contribute by providing appropriate locations, adjacency relations between different parts of the organisation and supporting process flow and logistics. Property management can contribute to productivity by ensuring business continuity and comfortable indoor climate. Service management can contribute by relieving staff from trivial tasks by efficient services and by providing exiting experiences. Productivity shows to be mainly positively related to satisfaction; insights into interrelationships with other value parameters are still limited.

Practical implications

The results can be used to obtain a deeper understanding of how FM and CREM can add value to organisations by contributing to improved labour productivity. Practitioners can find inspiration on how to contribute to labour productivity and additional benefits within specific activity areas of FM and CREM. The exploration of interrelationships between productivity and other values can be used as input to a future research agenda.

Originality/value

The paper adds new insights to the growing body of knowledge about how FM/CREM can contribute to increased labour productivity and how other value parameters may be interrelated with productivity.

Facility managers’ responses to user post-occupancy feedback: a conceptual framework

Purpose

This study aims to explore the various approaches used in the general customer service industry to develop a conceptual framework for evaluating the responses of facility managers to user post-occupancy feedback.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses conceptual analysis based on a comprehensive review of relevant literature.

Findings

The results of the study established 24 propositions which are categorised under organisational response dimensions specific to facilities management (FM): timeliness, facilitation, redress, apology, credibility of explanation, attentiveness, effort and their relationships with overall satisfaction and post-feedback behaviour, such as word of mouth and acceptance to continue using the facilities.

Research limitations/implications

The established propositions are derived from existing theories using a deductive approach. The framework can be further enhanced to suit various applications in FM services.

Practical implications

This conceptual framework is a generic model, appropriate to many FM scenarios. The framework can be used to develop standard policies and procedures to foster and encourage collaborative relationships between users and facility managers. It reinforces transparency and trust between facility managers and users during the operation and management of the facilities, and improves FM effectiveness, facility performance and user post-occupancy experience.

Originality/value

In the FM area, no systematic approach has been previously established to evaluate and improve the response process to the users’ feedback. The proposed framework is a pioneer contribution in this area.

A review of facilities management performance measurement

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of facilities management (FM) performance measurement (PM) research within the past two decades to understand existing gaps in FM PM literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper employs a systematic approach to review papers in FM PM published from 1997 to 2017. The articles published in selected peer-reviewed international journals in the last 20 years were collected by conducting literature search in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The content of the papers were scrutinized to understand the gap in literature.

Findings

The review depicts a slow pace of FM PM research characterized by diverse and fragmented performance measures, whereas the existing PM frameworks are at the nascent stage.

Research limitations/implications

The judgments of the paper are based on the 54 papers selected for the critical review and analysis that should be treated as key issues in FM PM research agenda. The review also excludes energy management.

Originality/value

The paper identifies the gaps in the current PM literature in FM and set propositions for future research which is of utility and relevance to FM researchers more especially on the existing conceptual frameworks. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to conduct a review on FM PM in the extant literature.

Shaping tomorrow’s facilities management

Purpose

Against the background of earlier publications on the future of facilities management (FM) and acknowledging digitalization and sustainability as two major shaping forces, the purpose of this paper is to place contributions to the special issue in the perspective of current opportunities for FM research.

Design/methodology/approach

After a review of publications since the 1980s, dealing with the future of FM, there is an analysis of how the forces of digitalization and sustainability have emerged over five decades. The articles of this special issue are introduced against this background. Opportunities for future FM research are identified, and the relation between research, education and practice is discussed.

Findings

Megatrends outlined in the 1980s still shape how FM develops. Digitalization supports sustainability not only through workplace change and building design but also through performance measurement, certification schemes and an awareness of the wider urban context.

Research limitations/implications

Opportunities for FM research are created by digitalization and concerns with sustainability, combining environmental and social aspects. Relations between organizations studied in an FM context are important. Within organizations, employee issues and risk management are emphasized.

Practical implications

Policies and schemes for sustainable buildings should be linked to sustainable FM more clearly. The relation between research, education and practice needs to be consolidated as a basis for research and development, as illustrated by a number of studies belonging to this special issue. To reach the goals of sustainable development, we need to develop the knowledge and theoretical frameworks that can be applied to and used by practice. The recent ISO FM definition appears as narrow and should be extended to recognize facilities’ life-cycle issues as well as broader urban and social concerns.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the importance of basing FM research on an understanding of the fundamental forces that shape change.