ABSTRACT
Organizations depend on the support, functions and services
within its scope of business in order to succeed or meet their target and
goals. One of such support services is the facilities management function
within the organization. The specific aim of this study is to look at how to
strategically position Facilities Management in organizations in Ghana and use
the results to obtain and to inform the industry on the level of strategic
positioning to aid in deciding on the future of the profession. The objectives
included identification of the organizational structures of the facilities
management unit, indicating the factors that need to be considered in aligning
facilities management to the core business, identifying the level of
positioning of facility functions with the organizations and reviewing the
scope of services offered by Facility Management function. In order to achieve
these objectives, the research adopted the quantitative method of research
which involved the use of questionnaires which were designed for respondents to
indicate their various ideas about facilities management and interviews were
also conducted. The population of the research involved participants in the
financial industry that shared common characteristics, that is, had little
knowledge of facility management and its functions. Data was collected on the
spot after issuing to the respondent. The data was analyzed using the frequency
index and the Relative Importance Index mathematical formula. The findings were
that information are not readily available for clients to improve customer
service and also most organization had poor facility presentation.
Recommendations made included improvement of facility presentation and making
vital information vital to customers readily available for them.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Organisations depend on the support, functions and services
within its scope of business in order to succeed or meet its targeted and
goals. And one of such support services is the facilities management function
within the organisation.
Various writers and institutions across the globe has defined
and described facilities management to reflect its growing importance. The
widely accepted one is that given by the European Committee for Standardisation
(CEN) which defines FM as;
“The integration of the processes within an organisation to
maintain and develop the agreed Services which support and improve the
effectiveness of its primary activities”.
The above definition incorporates what other authors and
experts in FM see the profession to
involve especially in
providing support services to an organisation.
FM has existed as long as Buildings (Becker and steele, 1990)
and as long as organisations‟ need to have facilities in those buildings work successfully for their operations.
Contemporary day Facilities Management came to fame and international recognition within the past three decades with the setting up of professional associations such as the International Facility Management Association (IFMA),
European FM (Euro FM) and British Institute of Facility Management that has
fronted the progression of the profession. These organisations have in the
recent years helped expert in the Facility Management industry to make well
updated decisions in the line with good practice and professional ethics.
Business and organisations in Europe and America have come to understand the
importance of Facility Management to their growth and therefore
support the development of the industry through their practices and processes.
Globally, it is accepted the important role Facility
Management (FM) plays in the management of services and facilities,
contributing towards either the partial failure or relative success of an
organisations business. Over the past decade, facility management is pivotal as
a widely developed and one of the most accepted basic functions every
organisation need (Herguner and Reeves, 2000).
Most FM practices share a mutual aim by sustaining business
operations and underpinning its strategies of provision of support services.
Because the characteristics and nature of organisations are diverse, there is
the high tendency to require different support arrangements in different sectors,
at different times and in different cultures and countries. That been said, the
management and provision of support arrangements to meet the needs of a
particular organisation is one of the crucial issues of facility management
practices. This creates basic problems of selecting and positioning FM
arrangement and measures to be put in place to modify and restructure or review
the support arrangements within organisations of all kinds.
Most organizations rely on intuitive and informal decisions
or replicating the practices of other organization by benchmarking information
where available to answer or address any sceptical issue that may arise and
hinder the fundamental importance of all organisations. This involves two
approaches namely the 'best practice' and 'ad hoc' approaches; the former deals
with the selection and application of an exemplar solution, most at times, sets
of facility management practices arrangements that are ideal to the specific
organization in question; and the later which is a more commonly used, is a
one-off approach which specifically addresses solutions based on the uniqueness
of an organization‟s circumstances. It should be noted that the approaches are
not mutually exclusive but modifying specific circumstances to suit best
practice solutions is very important.
South Africa and Nigeria are the torch bearers in Africa at
the moment supporting the advancement of the profession with well-established
associations since the mid-1990s. The South African Facility Management
Association (SAFMA) and the Lagos and the Abuja chapters of IFMA in Nigeria are
the known organizations in Africa within the industry that support and endorse
Facility Management within the sub region.
Constant campaign by these associations and the arrival of
foreign multinational organisations has created an intense or passionate
awareness of Facility Management in Ghana. The high increasing in investment in
high rise commercial buildings in Ghana has necessitate for the need for the real
estate companies and investors to protect their capital with a good maintenance
culture and practices (Akuffo, 2004). Estate developers such as Taysec,
Regimanual Gray, Trasacco Valley, GREDA, Devtraco Ayensu River and Lakeside
Estate just to mention a few incorporated Estates and Facilities are typical
examples.
The joint venture of State Insurance Company (SIC), Social
Security and National Insurance Trust (SSINT) and Broll, a South African
Facility Management service provider, to form Broll Ghana which is to date one
of the front contenders in Facility Management service provision in the
country. This knowledge and continuous acceptance of Facility Management by
organisations and the wider built environment industry demands that Facility
Management is given a more strategic role to play in organisations that they
find themselves. The positioning will effectively create valve for such
organisations as Facility Management covers a wide range of facility services
and management of such services can contribute to the relative success or the
partial failure of an organisation‟s Business (Chotipanich, 2004). With regards
to the above this research is being conducted to investigate the strategic
positioning of FM operation in a financial institution in Ghana.
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