Svensson, I and Loöwstedt, M (2019) Navigating the logics of changing public facilities management. In: Gorse, C and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 35th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2019, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
Growing cities, new governmental sustainability directives, a large building stock in need of renovation and increased demands to act more “business-like”, forces public facilities management organizations (PFMOs) to change their way of working and develop new (sustainable) practices. However, PFMOs have contextual features that makes this change particularly challenging. The multi-level organizational environment, ranging from e.g. political executive committees to small maintenance units, encompass multiple, sometimes competing, institutional logics. Decisions are exposed to long-term demands on sustainability, while at the same time being governed by short-term financial goals and politics. Looking at how actors navigate within this context, this paper focus on what happens when sustainability directives enters PFMOs; how new logics are translated into practice and how established practices and logics are managed by the actors within this process.Findings from a 2 year case study of a Swedish PFMO’s adaptation to energy-efficiency directives, was analysed by applying the theoretical lenses of institutional logics. Data was collected through interviews, observations and documents. Within the multiple logics' context of the PFMO studied, logics were not equally prevalent throughout the organizational nexus; actors had to adjust their practices depending on where they were and with whomthey were talking, in order to align to legitimate logics. The introduction of energy-efficiency directives foremost resulted in new practices regarding “strategic facilities planning” including ideas on how to manage evacuation between buildings when one building was being renovated and practices related to the legitimization of this way of working. The energy-efficiency logic diminished during the course of time and the project was referred to as a financial or strategic project. Translating energy-efficiency directives into practice is not a straight forward process and requires collaboration between stakeholders and considerations of the interplay between the different logics within the context of PFMOs.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | energy efficiency; facilities management; institutional logics; organizational change; practice |
| Index terms: | case study, efficiency, institutional logic, energy efficiency, interview, organizational change, adaptation, politics, building stock, documents, executive, renovation, collaboration, organizational environment, facilities planning, facilities management |
| Subjects: | design process, professional development, theoretical framing, renovation and retrofit, management, performance management, political science, asset management, sociology, practitioner, data collection methods, user focus, business, sustainability and energy |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Research Practice, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Governance, Design Practice, Quality Management, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here