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A green lease incorporates sustainability practices to reduce a building’s negative impact on the environment. Facilities managers play an important role in ensuring these best practices are implemented during the operational stage of a building; however, green leasing is an under-researched area in the emerging field of sustainable facilities management (SFM). This paper aims to investigate the common barriers encountered in ensuring environmental performance when a green lease agreement is in operation between a landlord and tenant.

This research was conducted in three stages using the principal-agent problem as the theoretical foundation for data collection. Stages 1 and 2 used semi-structured interviews to collect data with policy/corporate-level professionals, landlord and facilities management representatives who have considerable experience in green leases. Stage 3 used document reviews based on summative content analysis to further evaluate the extent of the contextual use of green leasing concepts as used within the facilities management community.

The study confirmed a strong incentive gap and information asymmetry between the landlord and facilities manager, forming a typical double principal-agent problem when the split incentives between the landlord and tenants are also taken into consideration, which results in agents acting on their own self-interest rather than the interests of the principal. Goal alignment is found to be key for the successful operation and management of a building throughout its life; when present, these goal conflicts can lead to disharmony between the parties to the contract.

The study proposes a few practical measures to close the gaps in incentive and information asymmetry that create the principal-agent problem, while providing recommendations to the facilities management professional community. These recommendations could be included in future revisions of the SFM guidelines or code of practices used by the industry. Although this study exposed a rather neglected area of the facilities manager’s role in green leases, the findings are limited by the relatively small sample size used for the interviews.

This study contributes to the SFM body of knowledge from a green lease perspective, and the theoretical framework in the double principal-agent problem introduced in the study could be used in future research endeavours.

Facilities Management (FM) is a dynamic profession, which supports core business functions by creating cost-effective and risk-free built environment aligned with the strategic business directives throughout the building life cycle. This study aims to investigate and position the Facilities Manager’s role during building life cycle based on the stages of RIBA Plan of Work 2013.

A literature survey and in-depth interviews with experts were used to investigate the role of a Facilities Manager at the different stages of RIBA Plan of Work 2013. The gathered data were analysed using content analysis technique to explore the role of a Facilities Manager.

Research findings assert that advising the Client on cost-effective building expansion options as a vital role of a Facilities Manager at Strategic Definition stage. Further, briefing the Client’s requirement is a foremost undertaking of a Facilities Manager at Preparation and Brief stage. During the Concept Design and Developed Design stages, Facilities Manager plays a key role in value engineering exercises to ensure value for client?s money and also prepares operations and maintenance strategies to be used at the In Use stage. Moreover, Facilities Manager must have a technical training on buildings, services and systems at Handover stage to manage them at the In Use stages.

The role of a Facilities Manager identified in this study can be used as a guide by the Clients and project teams in obtaining their services during the building life cycle to enhance building performance.

The literature propounds that facilities management (FM) differs from other building support services (BSS) because it features a significant strategic content. However, research indicates that this deep seated strategic and value-adding practice is mostly unavailable except in the most matured markets. The purpose of this paper is to compare the strategic content of the functions performed by FM practitioners with that of other BSS providers in Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria. This is to determine if the content of the FM functions is comparatively more strategic and invariably more value-adding than that of other BSS providers as indicated in literature and also to identify required areas of improvement, both for practice and training.

A survey was carried out through self-administered questionnaire directed to a sample of 123 BSS providers that work with office buildings in Lagos, Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, means, χ² test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.

Rather than the strategic tasks, the FM group as with the non-FM group were more regularly involved with the less specialized facilities operations/maintenance and facilities support service tasks such as, security, fire, emergency management, cleaning and waste management. Specialized FM support service tasks such as mail services, reprographics, catering and travel services, were least often performed by both groups. The study found that facilities managers were slightly more involved than the non-facilities managers in performing the strategic group of tasks. This was indicated by the higher cumulative mean values and ranking of the level of involvement. The facilities managers also ranked higher in their involvement in the individual strategic tasks. The study also shows that FM practitioners use the more strategic ways to determine the needs of users. These findings imply that FM presents a slightly more strategic edge, which is, however, insufficient.

Although the FM practitioners may feature a slightly more strategic content of functions than their non-FM counterparts, the edge is insufficient to add significant value to clients’ business as postulated in literature. Lagos FM practitioners must become more involved in strategic functions in order to enhance FM’s value-adding edge and hence distinguish it better from other BSS practices.

The study positions the Nigerian FM practice in the light of expectations in literature and re-affirms the supposition that the practice is relatively strategically immature. It also identifies the contingent needs of local and multinational organizations that may require or intend to provide FM and other BSS in the Nigerian context, invariably allowing for international comparisons.

The benefits of sustainability and green building practices in facility management are well established. Reduction in energy consumption, productivity increases, waste reduction, and many other beneficial effects of sustainability can be quantified and presented to an organisation's leadership in order to defend sustainable practices and their positive effect on the bottom line. Many of the positive economic effects do not show up immediately, however. One must take a long‐term view of most sustainable practices and carefully evaluate green alternatives to traditional construction, operating and maintenance methodologies. Once the life‐cycle cost (LCC) and total cost of ownership (TCO) are taken into account, an organisation can develop a much clearer picture of the benefits of sustainable practices. The facility manager is in a unique position to view the entire process and is often the leader of the only group that has influence over the entire life cycle of a facility. Therefore, the facility manager often becomes the proponent of sustainable and green practices. Armed with the proper financial and strategic planning tools, the facility manager can create long‐lasting value to the organisation by developing, implementing and maintaining sustainable facility practices.

To explore the change management experience of managers in the residential aged care industry and to develop practical proposals concerning change management in that industry.

A constructivist methodology. One‐to‐one interviews with two groups: a randomly chosen cross‐section of facility managers and a purposive sample of senior stakeholders within the industry. Thematic analysis to draw out themes in the interview transcripts, and to develop interpretations and connections to the literature.

There is not a clear understanding of how the management of change fits into the role of facility managers, and the management of change is in the background of management thinking and practice in the industry. The change management aspects of the facility manager's role have been largely taken for granted. This can lead to stress on the individual manager and reduces the effectiveness of the change process. There are many ways that facility managers can be better supported, including development of an analytical approach to change management, recognition of change management competencies and promotion of management development practices that support the management of change.

Small sample sizes make it hard to generalize. Further, research could include surveys of facility managers, change management competencies, model testing, workplace learning, long‐term evaluation of change programs.

Adds to the small body of research on the experience of managers in change management, provides the only such research in the aged care setting, and contributes a range of practical proposals about the management of change.

The purpose of this study is to create a knowledge base for decision-making in healthcare design by seeking, analyzing and discussing the preferences of facility managers of healthcare facilities regarding floor finishes and their selection criteria. The goal is to enable a simplified and holistic selection of floor finishes based on multiple criteria. The authors studied floor finish selection in three healthcare units: emergency, surgery and in-patient units.

The authors completed a literature review to identify types of floor finishes currently used in healthcare facilities and the criteria applied for their selection. Using the literature survey results, a questionnaire was designed and administered to healthcare facility managers. The descriptive statistical analysis and the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests were used for reporting and analyzing the survey data.

The top five floor finishes used in the healthcare sector were identified as vinyl flooring, vinyl composite tile (VCT), rubber, linoleum and ceramic flooring. The top five selection criteria for floor finishes were durability, infection control, ease of maintenance, maintenance cost and user safety. The non-parametric test results show that the floor finish rankings and selection criteria were similar in the three healthcare units under study.

The most significant contribution of this research is to the design decision-making process of healthcare facilities. These results offer an understanding of what floor finishes are preferred by healthcare facility managers and why. This knowledge is crucial for designers and facility managers to make informed choices and floor finish manufacturers to keep their product line relevant to the industry.

The objectives of this paper are to identify and assess the factors that affect the cost of maintenance of hospital facilities.

The authors conducted a literature review on hospital maintenance cost to identify the factors affecting the cost of maintenance and interviewed a selected group of ten experienced facilities managers of both public and private hospitals. 33 factors were identified, and synthesized in seven groups. A questionnaire survey was developed to assess the factors. Responses were obtained on the developed questionnaire survey by interviewing the facilities managers of the full population of the 40 hospitals in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, 20 of which were public hospitals and the other 20 were private hospitals. The data received were analyzed to identify the level of importance for the factors. The factors were ranked according to their importance index values.

The most important factors from the perspectives of public hospitals are “transfer of problems from the construction phase to the maintenance phase for resolution”, “lack of coordination between the construction and maintenance group”, and “lack of quality control measures during the installation of systems”. These three factors were all encompassed within the construction group. The most important factors from the perspectives of the private hospitals were encompassed in the statutory requirements and the design phase groups. These factors are “duration of the maintenance contract” and “the method of classifying maintenance contractors”, “errors conducted during the design of the project” and “lack of feedback from the maintenance group to the design team”.

This paper is of practical significance to hospital project managers and facilities managers, as it will prompt the management of hospital facilities to focus on the most important factors affecting the cost of maintenance and thereby reduce that cost.

This paper is original in the sense that the areas of knowledge and practice encompassed in the identified factors were scattered and not available in one source. The factors were derived from personal interviews with selected facilities managers of both private and public hospitals, as well as from the relevant literature.

The value of the consultant project manager is questionable when the recent track record of project delivery within the UK construction sector is examined. Clearly, a new building which does not adequately satisfy a client’s business needs (in relation to time, cost and quality objectives) is not capable of contributing optimally to a client’s core business function. The business process expertise that the facilities manager should possess, together with the core skills related to managing operational building assets, mean that it is reasonable to suggest that the facilities management role could be extended to include responsibility for project delivery. Some facilities managers are presently undertaking this role. This paper explores this issue, concentrating upon the failure of the project management discipline to perform adequately. A review of literature is presented and a number of case studies are appraised. These are used to contrast the management of project delivery when conducted by the project manager with that conducted by the facilities manager.

The virtual organization is upon us, or so we are led to believe. No longer will we have to worry about finding enough space for so many workstations, as people will be sitting in cyberspace waiting either to send or receive their next communication. It will not matter where in the universe someone is, provided that they can communicate. People will be working in physical isolation, but this does not matter as they can, yes you’ve guessed it, communicate! There is no doubting that communicating is good and absolutely necessary, but it is quality of communication which is needed, not just any old garbled message. Are standards of communication deteriorating? The media by which we are sending messages are improving, of that there is little doubt, but it is the content and usefulness of this content which must be brought to question.

This paper aims to examine common environmental practices and strategies for implementing sustainable FM among Nigerian FM practitioners.

A review of the literature on sustainability and environmental management was undertaken. Data collection was through self‐administered questionnaires directed to a sample of 150 facilities managers who are members of the International Facility Management Association (Nigeria Group), Lagos, Nigeria. Structured interviews with five top facilities management professionals were also conducted. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts, means, z‐test, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and relative importance index. The survey achieved a response rate of 30 percent.

The survey revealed that many of the practitioners put a premium on achieving energy efficiency as a very vital environmental practice within their organizations. A strategic management procedure is more important for the implementation of environmental management in the Nigerian FM industry.

There is a paucity of literature in sustainability within facilities management in Nigeria. An integration of sustainability considerations into FM practice is required to promote the development of suitable environmental initiatives and practices within Nigerian cities, as many facilities managers are employed by companies whose activities harm the environment.