Guest editorial

Citation

Junghans, A. (2014), "Guest editorial", Facilities, Vol. 32 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/F.06932aaa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type:

Guest editorial

From:

Facilities, Volume 32, Issue 1/2

This issue of Facilities provides an insight into current FM research activities in European countries. The papers present a variety of contributions to the on-going development of the FM discipline. The idea for this special issue was conceived by Edward Finch, who was the editor of Facilities for many years. Eddy and I started to work on the idea in 2011 when I took over the Chair of the European Facility Management Network (EuroFM) research group. The papers featured in this issue show the diversity of research in FM with its academic and practical implications. The presented FM research was conducted by both professors and experienced and early-stage researchers working at Universities, Universities of Applied Science, FM Institutes and Centres for FM in several countries.

First of all Jensen, Dannemand Andersen and Rasmussen identify trends and challenges in relation to the FM profession in the Nordic countries of Europe. The paper provides input into a future research agenda for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The results of the study show the many issues that need to be considered in the four countries and how a common research agenda can be proposed.

Research conducted by Windlinger, Hofer, Coenen, Honegger, von Felten, Kofler and Wehrmüller addresses FM research in Switzerland. This paper reviews recent research projects at the Institute of Facility Management at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. FM research in Switzerland has grown in the past few years and is now well established in the Swiss FM industry. The focus is on service management, workplace management and FM in health care. FM research in Switzerland has been driven collaboratively by both the Institute of FM and industry.

Continuing on the subject of the development of FM in specific countries, the paper by Steenhuizen, Flores-Colen, Reitsma and Branco Ló describes an approach for the development of FM education in Portugal. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into FM in Portugal and to discuss how a FM study programme can be implemented.

Nenonen and Sarasoja present FM research conducted in Finland with a focus on current PhD projects at Aalto University. The authors’ aim is to identify and analyse drivers for the research, dominant research themes, theories, and research methods. The results offer material for the future research agenda and also for collaborative and comparative research initiatives.

The final paper by Junghans and Olsson explores FM as an academic discipline. This paper also contributes to a better understanding of academic disciplines in general. A methodical approach on how to analyse and describe emerging disciplines is provided. In addition, an overview of the state of the art in FM is shown.

Last but not least there is a book review presented for the volume Managing Organizational Ecologies – Space, Management and Organizations edited by Keith Alexander and Ilfryn Price.

Finally I would like to sincerely thank Edward Finch, now retired, for his long-standing engagement for the principles and values of the FM discipline!

Antje Junghans
Centre for Real Estate and Facilities Management, Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art, University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

About the Guest Editor

Antje Junghans is Associate Professor in Facilities Management at the Department of Architectural Design and Management, Faculty of Architecture and Fine Art, NTNU. Prior to that, she was Professor in Facilities Management at the University of Applied Science, Frankfurt am Main (2006-2011). As Chairman of the research group and member of the board of the European Facilities Management network (EuroFM) her responsibilities included the development of a European recognized research agenda in Facilities Management (2011-2012) and the organization of the 11th EuroFM Research Symposium, held at the European Facilities Management Conference (EFMC) in Copenhagen 2012. At the Centre for Real Estate and Facilities Management at NTNU she has initiated and is currently leading research on sustainable Facilities Management. The main research focus is the improvement of energy efficiency of non-residential buildings, highlighting different approaches towards sustainability in FM from building, user, and management perspectives. Additional research activities intend to develop a general perspective on the scope of FM and efforts towards understanding the FM discipline and its development. The research projects contribute to the development of education in the Master program for Real Estate and Facilities Management.