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This paper aims to explore the relationship between satisfaction with buildings, facilities and services and perceived productivity support and to test whether the findings from a similar study of Batenburg and Van der Voordt (2008) are confirmed in a repeat study after 10 years with more recent data.

Data were traced from a database with data on user satisfaction and perceived productivity support. These data were collected through the work environment diagnostic tool WODI light. The data include responses from 25,947 respondents and 191 organisations that have been analysed by stepwise multiple-regression analyses.

In total 38% of the variation of office employees’ satisfaction with support of productivity can be explained by employee satisfaction with facilities, the organisation, current work processes and personal- and job-related characteristics. The most important predictor of self-assessed support of productivity is employee satisfaction with facilities. In particular, psychological aspects, i.e. opportunities to concentrate and to communicate, privacy, level of openness, and functionality, comfort and diversity of the workplaces are very important. The findings confirm that employee satisfaction with facilities correlates significantly with perceived productivity support. Other factors that are not included in the data set, such as intrinsic motivation, labour circumstances and human resource management may have an impact as well.

This research provides a clear insight in the relation between employee satisfaction with facilities and the perceived support of productivity, based on survey data collected over almost 10 years in 191 organisations.

The “baby-boom” generation is poised for retirement. Yet the American states exhibit sharp inequalities in the public support they provide for nursing facility long-term care for the elderly, a form of health care that few Americans can afford to purchase privately. Further, remarkable disparities exist, both within and among states, in the quality of nursing facility care. We describe cross-state variation in Medicaid support for and the quality of nursing facility care, offer regression models that provisionally explain the sources of these inequalities, comment on the social implications of these disparities and recommend a solution.

The purpose of this paper is to address a fundamental question that all facility directors and senior managers face. How should facility management support arrangements be positioned and repositioned to meet the needs and expectations of an organisation, its staff and customers, as priorities shift and business circumstances change?

Case studies were undertaken to investigate the precise nature and reasons for change to FM support arrangements, across a variety of organisational types and sectors. Data were collected through document searches, semi‐structured interviews, direct observations and supplementary questionnaires and follow‐up discussions. Field trials of this prototype framework were conducted to obtain expert opinions, comments, criticisms and suggestions for improvement, employing a methodology similar to that used in clinical trials for new medical procedures.

The main findings from the investigations cover the nature and purpose of change in FM and the key factors that were involved. A number of major opportunities for innovative developments in the facility management field were uncovered, together with five key areas for further research, through which to advance the role and remit of facility management generally.

The research here has produced a generic decision framework for positioning and repositioning FM support arrangements. This framework will enable facility managers to adopt a more secure approach for collecting essential information, identifying key issues and options, and should encourage a more rigorous and critical examination of alternative FM arrangements prior to implementation.

The major purpose of the EuroInfo Conference is to discuss information resource management. Members of the European Commission and Polish business and industry managers have expressed the need for improved information management in Poland. Improved information resource management is essential to aid quick and efficient reform and recovery of the Polish economy. Future economic growth and sustainable economic development for Poland is dependent on the efficient use and management of vast amounts of information.

This paper investigates whether building a nuclear power plant in a community would inherently bring local conflict phenomena such as “not in my back yard (NIMBY)”, focusing especially on the interactive effect between different types of local publics and their exposure to either a supportive or opposing message about a hypothetical local governmental plan to build a nuclear power plant on community participation intentions.

Applying the two theoretical frameworks (situational theory of publics and social exchange theory) to NIMBY, this study used a quantitative approach by using 471 participants in a 4 (publics: active, aware, aroused or inactive) × 2 (advocacy message type: supportive or opposing message) experimental design.

The results showed that regardless of message types, active publics were more likely to participate in community activities than any other public, but this group strongly opposed the harmful facility, while inactive publics continued to be inactive. However, aware and aroused publics were significantly influenced by messages.

The rationale and findings of this research are original, as they have not been published previously, and are not being simultaneously submitted elsewhere. This research should contribute to the broad body of knowledge and practices in community-based conflict issues in terms of risk management. It is believed that the discussion and implications of the findings should raise interesting areas for further research.

Although heritage sites are numerous, facility management (FM) is maybe the most important process in heritage site management systems. The similarities and differences of the sites should be considered before implementing common FM information systems that support more heritage sites with various area types. The presented classifications are collected and made primarily to support this process. Specialties of heritage sites were also observed from FM point of view. The paper attempts to identify a few groups that can be used well for FM system installations.

The paper observes the sites from several points of view. The sites are classified by heritage types, by facility planning point of view, by fragmentation and the rate of built‐in area, by human influence, by application. It offers three methods for area classification, later the computerized supporting systems are observed.

On most heritage sites FM is probably the most important management process. These cultural and natural sites are handled usually by governmental authorities and/or such organizations that can serve more sites permanently.

Since, the heritage sites are various, there might be several exceptional cases that are not collected in this paper.

The paper offers guidelines and ideas to enhance the FM system implementation on different types of heritage sites. Using these groupings, several problems can be identified early in the planning phase of such information systems.

This paper attempts to present the diversity of the objects on the heritage sites, trying to categorize them for FM purposes from more viewpoints. Most of these sites are currently not applied with efficient FM support.

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 purpose of this article is to report findings on the perceptions of quality of educational facilities in Kenyan public universities, and the implications for teaching/learning, and the learning environment.

The study adopted an exploratory descriptive design. A total of 332 and 107 undergraduate students and academic staff respectively from five public universities were randomly selected to participate in the study. The questionnaire was used for data collection.

The quality of the library, online resources and lecture facilities provided by Kenyan public universities did not meet quality measures of adequacy. They were unable to support the desired educational programmes effectively and facilitate the development of learning environments that support students and teachers in achieving their goals. The facilities were the antithesis of healthy and secure facilities that can provide a stimulating/inspirational setting for the users, critical measures of quality facilities.

The study investigated the quality of learning resources from the perspectives of students and academic staff. Other stakeholders could have given additional perspectives not reported here.

Perceptions of quality of facilities indicated in this study show the need for university managers to focus on the improvement of the same if the quality of learning and learning environment were to be improved.

Kenya's public universities can only develop the right calibre of manpower to meet the country's future needs by providing physical and other facilities that promote rigorous scholarship.

Improvement in quality of educational facilities is important for all interested in enhancing student learning and learning environment anywhere.

The discretionary expense budget required to maintain public infrastructure has declined in recent years, even as public expectations and accountability for performance have increased. The purpose of this paper is to leverage previously reported research to create a decision support tool (DST) for prioritizing institutional facility maintenance.

A structured literature review was developed to identify critical aspects of facility maintenance shown to have a positive relationship with academic performance in K-12 schools within the USA. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) serves as a framework for a multi-criteria DST based on the findings of the literature review. Finally, a targeted focus group of industry professionals was used to validate the usability of the resulting DST.

The framework for the DST developed for this study effectively represents the scale and scope of an institutional facility. Results of the study suggest that when evaluating multi-criteria work orders, the proposed visual AHP methodology can be used to generate usable DSTs to assist with the prioritization of work.

This study provides a methodology for building a multi-criterion DST leveraging precedent research, using a visual AHP to assist facility management (FM) decision-makers in the prioritization of routine work orders.

The developed process indicates a practical approach to incorporating disparate research findings into a concise and useable manner to guide FM decision-makers, who have traditionally not been able to explicitly leverage this information to make evidence-based spending decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate strategy adopted in facility management (FM) and to introduce a framework of studying FM strategy.

The research reported in this paper adopted case study approach. In total, five case studies of FM practices of leading banks in Thailand were chosen. The key data and information were collected by using semi‐structured interview method supplemented by relevant documents. This study examined the FM practices profile, scope and operational programs by using a literature‐based analytical framework of FM strategy content.

Four types of FM strategy were identified based on key value intent that FM attempts to deliver to its organisation: business value focused, workplace focused, facility performance focused and facility cost focused. Each strategy represents a particular domain focus of FM practice, determined to support the organisation's core operations. The paper discusses two levels of strategy concerning FM.

The key findings of this research offer both practitioners and academic insights of FM strategies implemented in practices. However, the findings were derived from a rather small number of case studies and a certain industry.

The paper presents empirical evidence of FM strategy, which has been rare. To academics, it introduces a means and framework for FM strategy research.