Facilities management: a “Jack of all trades”? Available to Purchase

Despite its rapid development in the last decade, facilities management (FM) stills suffers from an identity crisis as the definition and scope of FM remains a contentious issue. To this end, three fundamental issues are re‐examined in this paper: what FM constitutes; what a facility manager is; and how the FM profession can be enhanced. These issues remain critical as they represent the building blocks of the FM discipline. Without a common platform, the development of FM is likely to be fragmented. An evaluation of the definitions of FM provided in the past suggests that the focus of FM is clearly on the workplace. The key issues confronting FM are the location, type, quantity, quality, content and allocation of the workspace. A professional facilities manager is one who is formally trained and whose main responsibility is the strategic management of the workplace. Three factors are suggested to be important for the development of FM as a professional discipline. They include a clear role and scope of FM in the industry and firm, contribution to the bottom‐line of the firm, and development of specialist knowledge and toolbox for addressing the problems of strategic workplace management. Some potential areas for theoretical developments have been suggested in this paper.