Keith Alexander, Colin Beard, Dermot Breslin, Melanie Bull, George Cairns, Christan Coenen, Morten Elle, Ian Ellison, John Flowers, Alan Green, Geir Hansen, Barry P. Haynes, Birgitte Hoffmann, John Hudson, Julie Kortens, Goran Lindahl, Rachel Macdonold, Kathy Michell, Huw Morris, Peter Munthe-Kaas, Jeremy Meyerson, Ilfryn Price, Wim Pullen, Kathy Roper, Colin Stuart, Jenny Thomas, Jacqueline Vischer, and Daniel von Felten
Keith Alexander and Ilfryn Price are both editors and contributors in the academic book Managing Organizational Ecologies: Space Management and Organizations, published as part of the series Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology in 2012. This important work features state of the art knowledge of the management of organizational ecologies and discusses this from different perspectives with high relevance for the facilities management discipline. All together 28 experienced co-authors contributed to the volume, most of them working in the UK, the rest in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, China, Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the USA. The title Managing Organizational Ecologies refers to the interdisciplinary and complex approach of the book. The subtitle Space Management and Organizations relates to the facilities management profession and alludes to the three main fields considered in the book: organizational theory, management theory, and built environment theory and their implementation in the practice of strategic space management and the advancement of knowledge for education and research.
The volume is structured in four parts and 20 chapters. The headings of these parts are: Part 1: Organizational Ecologies, Part 2: Social Constructs and Contradictions, Part: 3 Management Issues, and Part: 4 Applications in Practice. Although it might not seem obvious at first, the title of the second part is derived from the central theme of the book which is the basic principle of organizational ecologies, as defined by Franklin Becker (1981) in the context of strategic space management. As the editors write themselves, it was Becker's work which gave them the impetus to further develop this approach with the integration of wider considerations of theories and examples. In addition they discuss the built environment theory with focus on a social-, organizational and management perspective referring to the description of buildings as social objects by Thomas Markus (1993). This is probably the reason why the word space is not included in the heading of part 2. The strength of the book is the reflection on organizational ecologies from different perspectives. This contributes not only to a better understanding of Becker's work, but to facilities management in general. The book can therefore be strongly recommended for researchers and educators in the field of facilities management. In my view to further develop the presented concept it is very important to integrate different perspectives in practical approaches, research and education and also to discover innovation potential for the discipline of facilities management.
Keith Alexander and Ilfryn Price are two internationally acclaimed professors at the forefront of the facilities management discipline. Keith Alexander has been leading the Centre for Facilities Management (CFM), which he founded at the University of Strathclyde (UK) in 1990. He is also one of the initiators and an honorary member of the European Facilities Management Network (EuroFM). Ilfryn Price has more than 20 years' experience in facilities management research and education. He publishes, writes and teaches around organisational evolution, physical space and asset utilisation as Professor in Facilities Management at Sheffield Hallam University (UK). The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has recognized Keith Alexander and Ilfryn Price as two of the 20 most influential pioneers of Facilities Management in the UK.
Considering the profession of the editors and most of the authors I was wondering why facilities management is not mentioned in the title of the book. With chapter 7 “The social construction of FM communities” by Ilfryn Price this question is answered. In addition a comprehensive insight into the historical development of the facilities management discipline and the emergence of the various discourses is provided. Among other things, the origins of the terms facility management and facilities management are explained. The incongruity of the two terms is pointed out, this resulted in the use of the abbreviation FM instead.
As an excellent example of how the concept of organizational ecologies could be applied in FM I would like to recommend Chapter 19 “Dense networks and managed dialogue: the impact on the patient environment”. Rachel Macdonald explores why the management of organizational ecologies is important and how the concept can be implemented by using an example from the UK's National Health Service (NHS). A concept of how FM processes can be integrated with core business processes on a strategic and operational level is described and analyzed.
The book ends with “Reflections” by Alexander and Price (2009) and by some of their co-authors (pp. 246-249). The final statement of one of the authors sums up the book nicely:
I think the book demonstrates the need for FMs [Facilities Managers], in the creation and management of space, to consider not only profit-related bottom-line objectives, but to include the social and behavioral impact on users in the nature of the said space (pp. 248–249).
I enjoyed the complexity and depth of the various contributions. The authors provided no final solutions for the management of organizational ecologies, but a lot of know-how and interesting insights into the different subject areas, as well as more than 500 scientific references to follow up. In addition, the book is an excellent source of inspiration to rethink existing knowledge and view it from new perspectives and a useful starting point for further research to build on. Elsewhere in the book the question has been asked “What is going on?” (p. 90), this question and many others have been answered by reading the book, and now I am sitting here and one of the new questions coming up is: What comes next?
