Performance

Citation

(2012), "Performance", Facilities, Vol. 30 No. 11/12. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2012.06930kaa.001

Performance

Article Type: Editorial From: Facilities, Volume 30, Issue 11/12

Performance is one of the basic elements for a successful facility management program. The current issue of Facilities deals with various aspects of performance, including:

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  end-user perceptions on the design and performance of a lighting renovation;

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  employees’ cognitive performance as a function of the office environment they experience;

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  owners’ compliance (or noncompliance) with guidelines set by the RICS Code of Practice;

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  collaboration performance in the provision of facility services; service innovations in the FM service sector; and

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  stakeholders’ influence on the social performance of infrastructure projects.

A paper by Hebert and Chaney aims to study the possible effects that end-user participants may have to influence the design of a lighting renovation of a university library in the United States. This was also linked to the perceptions held by end-users on applying sustainability features in their environment. It was enlightening to learn that the majority of people (over 90 percent of respondents) understand the importance of being sustainable and appreciate what it takes to bring a building to such a level. One more aspect emphasized in this study is the significance and potential benefits for designers to consult with various stakeholders for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of their needs, which may lead to a better design, which may, in turn, lead to happier customers.

The research conducted by Purdey and Leifer aims to determine whether a correlation exists between the office environment in which one works and employees’ performance in completing various tasks. Using a computer-based assessment tool, workers were evaluated on their reaction time, decision making, learning memory, working memory speed, and working memory accuracy, in low vs high distraction workspaces, given different levels of distractibility. The researchers identified some very interesting relationships that, if confirmed in larger size studies, may have a significant effect on the way we think of close- vs open-space office plans, and on the assignment of specific tasks to different employees based on their ability to perform under distractible or non-distractible conditions.

The research conducted by Eccles and Holt aims to measure the level of compliance of owners and their managing agents with the best practice guidelines set by RICS Code of Practice Service Charges in Commercial Property, 2006. By reviewing data collected from budgets, certificates, and other documentary sources for over 570 office buildings in England and Wales, the researchers found a very low number of buildings that actually comply with these standard guidelines. Even though the rate of compliance is improving, compared to what used to be common practice before the guidelines came into effect, these findings are troublesome, as they emphasize an overall notion of either poor practices or lack of interest among building owners. As Eccles and Holt conclude, “non-compliance is the norm and ‘best’ practice … is very far from being ‘normal’ practice.”

Development of business relationship models between facility service providers and building owners has been a topic of study for years. Heimbürger and Dietrich pose the question: what elements are related to and could be used to measure collaboration performance in the provision of facility services? By applying a case study-type research, the researchers interviewed 62 participants from seven major industries in Finland. The results reveal 13 major elements, ranging from the ability to be flexible and adaptable to changes in the business environment all the way to the ability to develop trust in each other. The paper by Heimbürger and Dietrich provides both owners and facility service providers a list of elements according to which their business relationships can be evaluated.

In order for organizations to maintain their growth and competitiveness, they must be innovative. Sillanpää and Junnonen studied the topic of service innovations in the FM service sector in Finland. Data was collected through workshops and interviews with service providers, customers, and members of the Finnish real estate sector. Based on these, a set of requirements was developed for service innovation classifications for each of the following four major FM business levels: industry, organization, customer relationship, and production. This led to the understanding that two of the basic elements for service innovation in FM services are orientation of the services toward customer needs, and functionality of the services in terms of resource engagement.

Triple Bottom Line typically represents the environmental, social, and financial performance of a building or a project. A paper by Doloi focuses on one of these three aspects – social performance – and studies the possibility of evaluating it by looking at stakeholders’ roles in enhancing the social performance of infrastructure projects. The paper applied the Social Network Analysis method for analyzing how stakeholders are related to one another. The network analysis was then used to derive social values for the various project participants, a concept which may lead to the development of a social performance index for each stakeholder in a project.