Editorial

Citation

Finch, E. (2001), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 19 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2001.06919aaa.001

Editorial

Facilities management is not just about property. This message comes across strongly in the papers in this issue. Customer service, environmental impacts, environmental behaviour and ethics are just some of the diverse issues covered. Moreover, there is a spread of sectoral attention covering air travel, hotels, remote working and health care.

The first paper by Grimshaw provides a provocative look at the issue of ethics in the facilities management profession. As the profession matures ethical conduct is inevitably going to become more important. A profession previously made up from a loose association of individuals is now trying to establish itself as a cohesive grouping, not just in terms of know-how, but in terms of codes of behaviour. What happens when there is a conflict between business and professional codes? Should the ethical codes of the client override those of the facilities profession? These are just some of the questions raised in this paper. This paper will become a key point of reference for the profession in the future.

How do you define an FM strategy for a facility that accommodates two entirely different types of client? This is the problem posed in the paper by Pitt and Brown who articulate the strategic direction of FM provision for Dublin International Airport. One argument put forward is that the inevitable segmentation of carrier types (customers) on a first class and second class basis should not be seen as a problem but an inevitable consequence of a two-tiered airline system.

Teleworking continues to be a subject of interest in Facilities. The paper by Ward and Shabha takes a refreshingly different emphasis on the subject, looking at the social and psychological aspects of this innovative work pattern. Isolation of staff and loss of team feedback are two of the recurring problems of teleworking. The strong message from the study is that the technology has to be developed to suit the individual rather than the other way around!

Partnering in the UK health sector is the subject of the paper by Okoroh et al. It examines the experience of one particular hospital struggling to address problems of escalating costs. Its conclusions suggest that the partnering arrangement in this case has provided added value and improved customer service. By the introduction of innovation multiskilling working practices the service provider has developed a flexible and motivated workforce. Since 1995 absenteeism of staff has fallen from 11% to 4%.

The paper by Smith and Love also considers the decision to build and how clients are responding more rapidly to changing organisational and market imperatives. In their paper, the authors review the trends in procurement methods. They suggest that consultants and contractors must re-examine the services they provide so as to add value to the client's business.

The final paper by Ransley and Ingram looks at what we understand by "good" hotel design. One of the problems emerging for hotels is the ever-shorter life-cycles. The "design hotel" is inevitably a victim of aesthetic obsolescence, requiring more frequent refurbishment and redesigns. Added to this is the problem of sustaining visibility and popularity in the face of these changes. The paper identifies some pragmatic solutions to design efficiency and improvement in user satisfaction.

Edward Finch