What creates successful FM within the public sector? Literature review and a case study from a strategic point of view

Abstract

The Facilities Management industry is the largest business services market in Europe and it is growing fast. At the same time, the industry has matured and added substantial responsibilities beyond the basic maintenance and operational functions that formed the basis of the field and is now described as an emerging multi discipline market. Despite its large share of the market, public FM has got less attention from researchers than the commercial one which leads to even less focus on research on public FM on an organisational level with strategic focus.
This research aims for highlighting what creates successful facilities management within public FM organisations from a strategic point of view. It was done by reviewing academic literature and conducting a case study at public FM organisations in Denmark, Norway and Finland.
At present there is a a lot of debate, cooperation and development within public FM organisations in Europe with a strong desire to address the challenges facing the property units. Changes are rapid and the emphasis over the last three to five years seem to have a major impact on current focus. At the same time, more emphasis could be placed on research in the field. Researchers are often concerned that practicants do not follow what the academia is doing, and that research article are not read. These are probably justified concerns, but scholars also need to put more emphasis on proactively working with the practice and looking closely at what's going on there.
Even though the organisations’ circumstances are not the same (framework and autonomy), and their reality being affected by external drivers such as smaller budgets, continuously changing needs at the customer side due to changing employee demand and -behaviour, technology shift, demand for environmental- and social responsibility and demographic changes, they all have the ambition to succeed in the complex reality of facilities management where there seems to be a strategic consensus on what is important. Combining the interests of the user and the owner leads to the overall definition of successful implementation of FM in public sector organisations as lowering TCO (total cost of occupancy), enhancing customers core business’ efficiency and customer satisfaction. The methods used by the public sector organisations to create successful FM, or in some cases, the method they want to use and believe that are the best methods to create successful FM, originates from the fact that the FM discipline is complex, it demands multiple knowledge and that the assumption is made that a clear overview is important. Considering how successful implementation is defined, the key methods used are holistic approach, economy of scope and scale, organisational change with focus on understanding the needs of each customer segment, proactive user advisory on new ways of working and activity-based workplaces and information gathering and benchmarking for decision making, continuous learning and improvements.
The results from the case study, supported by the literature review suggest that successful facilities management within the public sector is based on;
• owner strategy and clear mandate where the property unit has the independency to act professionally in regards with strategic decision and planning
• collaboration with stakeholders, both for knowledge gathering, networking and “spreading the gospel” of new methods (user advisory)
• information gathering and benchmarking for decision making, continuous learning and improvements
• knowledge of client needs
• general and specialised knowledge and know-how within FM
• economy of scope and scale
• administrative and managerial centralisation
• holistic approach
The research also reveals that critical success factors are not used as a term within any of the property units studied. Per definition, they are recognised and found important, but not used systematically as defined in this research. This is accompanied by un-expected findings on the diverse understanding and interpretation on the term facilities management, and other related concepts. The ISO 41011:2017 definition understood and used in this research is not acknowledged or used as such within the organisations in the case study where facilities management is more like soft services within each institution. FM is a complex operation, or as often described as a multidisciplinary field and an emerging discipline which also creates challenges for researchers who also seem to have different opinions on how FM should be defined.

• author: Skulason, Björn Hlidkvist
• supervisor: Stefan Olander
• organization: Construction Management
• course: VBEM01 20182
• year: 2019
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• report number: TVBP 5590/19
• ISSN: 1651-0380
• language: English
• id: 8989708
• date added to LUP: 2019-10-07 13:50:45
• date last changed: 2019-10-07 13:50:45